Seat Extensions for 81 with Recaro Seats

[Mistro]

I sat and drove the 81 Avanti I'm considering buying but as expected, I'll need to do some modifications to the driver's seat to fit comfortably. The car is an 81 with Recaro seats.

I was able to drive the car with the seat in a significantly reclined position but it was just too cramped if the seat was upright. All of the Recaro adjustments work (with maybe the exception of the headrest adjustment, just didn't try that one), but I'm going to need more legroom. There appears to be 6 inches between the rear of the driver's seat and the front of the rear passenger's seat.

I could use some, if not all of that space. So is there a way to move the seat or add seat extender rails, to get more legroom? I am concerned about not raising the seat too much because of the limited headroom with the car's sunroof and the roll bar, at least for me. So I'd appreciate any ideas or leads on how to proceed. Thanks!

[Bill Hanlon]

You could pick up an inch or two by mounting the seat further back on the rails. May require some drilling of the rails as I do not remember if additional holes are available. There is a firm that sells replacement rails for the Avanti with the Recaro seats. A search of web will find it. They seem to custom make them and a discussion with them would be worth while .  https://wedgebrackets.com/seat-brackets-home/

Problem I would see in doing this is difficulty at getting to the rear mounting bolts of the seat as to the angle as the seat goes back further. As far as clearing the roll bar that could be another issue.  

Good luck. 

Bill

[Avanti83]

The answer is always yes! but it would take a fair bit of work. The front of the brackets bolt to the rise in the floor and the rear bolts to small square steel plates glassed into the floor from the bottom. Because the Recaros are a seat offered for several applications, there should be a separate seat mount offered for those applications as Bill says above. The problem would be that an available mount would generally put the seat into the same position it is now as you have the bracket for the Recaros.

You would need to separate the bracket from the seat and set it where you wanted the seat to be and fab new mounting points on it using, at least, the current front mounting point. The rear mounts might seem straight forward but one is hidden in the hog trough and the other might be obstructed by the frame X-member if you try to move it back. 

When I put new seats in my 74 I built a new bracket that used the front location and plate on the rear that used the seatbelt mount in the frame. 

The last issue is removing the mounting bolts without breaking them. They tend to rust in place after all these years and if they break off you need to get into the fiberglass to install new ones. Been there and done that a couple of times. 

It depends on your fabrication and engineering skills or a fair amount of money if you can find a shop or individual that will take on the project. 

You can see the new bracket I mocked up below before it was cleaned up. The original rear mounting holes are where the hole in the floor is in the upper right of the bracket and the other can be seen just above the closer rail. As you can see from the number of pieces, it took a couple of iterations to get right.

 

 

Edited June 21, 2018 by Avanti83