power seat availability ???

[docjns]

I have a friend who owns an '83 looking to retrofit to power seats for his wife's comfort/driving ease. We're hoping to find an aftermarket kit or info on compatible track/motor set-up from another make/model. He'd like to keep his original seats so ideally something that requires little or no modification to the seats and car would be great. The car is 'LHD', housed and driven here in NY but he also maintains a residence in Spain so any help and/or info from abroad is welcomed too.

thanks,

'doc'

[Guest Anonymous]

No solutions, just a couple of thoughts & suggestions:

I don't think a power seat slider setup is available on the market to fit an 83 Avanti, but I could certainly be wrong; generic sliders may be available from hot rod parts vendors if they exist, but they would have to be fitted to the car and the seat by fabricating adapters, which usually add some height to the seat and will necessarily be expensive. I paid $120 to have a set of 4 machined adapters made to my specs the last time I adapted some seats to a car... they were essentially 1/4x3x15 inch steel strips with a countersunk hole and a threaded hole in each.

Recaro seats were an option in 1983, I think... do you know if he has them? If so, there may already be some sort of adapter in the car for the Recaro slider tracks, and then it may only be a matter of finding a recaro seat with the power setup he desires. Many cars came with Recaro full-size seats and many of those had power sliders. Measure the mounting hole spacing to the seat and to the floor adapter, then try looking at Recaro seats from a Mercedes sedan or a Cadillac Allante, for example, to see if you can find a trashed seat with an undercarriage that would simply bolt in/on to the old seat & adapter (or would bolt on by simply drilling a few new holes).

The mechanisms are probably available new from Recaro, too, but the price might be prohibitive. If he needs more than a power slider (ie, needs up/down, tilt, etc) then he probably needs to replace the seat(s).

I'm speaking off the top of my head here, because I am not certain whether the power slider mechanism can be removed from a Recaro seat as a unit... it may be an integral part of the lower framing of the seat bottom... I do have a Recaro power seat in my garage, so I'll try to check on that when I get home.

Another approach is to buy a (non-Recaro) power slider setup from a used car and adapt it to the existing seat and floor attachment holes.

Here is an eBay search link that will show you some:

http://tinyurl.com/aukd7

[WayneC]

Addendum: here's a link to an aftermarket power seat pedestal:

http://www.wiseguys-seats.com/products6.htm