Cheap Adjustable Seat Rails

Seems to be a bit of a myth, but we've built 3 cars with these rails now. Nothing fancy, but extremely sturdy. Not all of us can run out to the welder to have things made, nor do all of us have tons of high end fabrication tools. These seat rails mount sturdy and all you need is a cut off disc, or hacksaw, sockets and/or allen keys.   So where do we begin? Well, you'll need to grab your self some Super Strut rod, it's a construction material used to make walls and other things. very load bearing and all the hardware is high grade. Shallow strut rod is what we use, they offer thicker depths but unless you want your seat sitting higher I wouldn't use it. Roughly $20 for a 12 foot length of it. you'll also need some hardware: Pictured above is some imperial Allen head screws, threaded Spring clips of two different internal diameters, we'll explain these in a moment. This was the original concept sketch, and it's pretty close to what we achieved. Basically, the two lower Strut rods were to bolt to the floor of the car, while the upper two to the seat. Since they use a clamping mechanism to pinch themselves to each other you can move the rails left or right and forward or back. Pretty simple really. The final product didn't end up using one of the floor mounted pieces of strut, these were installed in 3 Corollas, but it's something that can be used in any vehicle really. You may end up using all 4 pieces of strut in your vehicle. Two different sized spring clips were used: the one on the left matches the thread and diameter of the Allen screw, while the spring clip on the right, is slightly larger on purpose. You can see here the two inside each piece of strut, ready to be clamped together. The spring clip on the right is used as a washer. The allen screw passes through the washer clip into the correctly sized clip, when tightened they clamp together. You can see the aggressive teeth in the clips. This is a finished clamp, holding the two pieces of strut together. The gold bolt on the left is mounting the strut to the bottom of the seat. The bolt passes through one of the openings of the strut into the seat. Here you can see where the teeth of the clip bites into the strut before assembly. Once clamped down with some muscle you can grab the seat and shake the entire car, and that's only mounted on 3 points!!! This is the underside of the seat. Since the clips can slide and move in the track when loosened, you can adjust the seat front to back and side to side with some wrenching. Once set, it sits very low and is solid mounted. In the Corollas we just place a single piece of strut across the rear floor mounting points. The front is too high to place a front strut, but it's easily solved by some quick "L" brackets. There are other bracket options as well, many which are already pre-designed and built to work with the Strut system. These pictures are from my race car from a few months ago. I used a second small scrap of strut to link my seat directly to the floor, but running a front strut is very much a viable option as well.   Voila, a seat mount under $30 that will out last the car, mounts very lower and very solid, is fully adjustable and needs no welding. :)  

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3 comments

  • Fucking A class. Will do If I find newer seats I like!

    • Donn29
  • g max safety

    • Warren (Not Uk)
  • Make your seating experience better with low down seat rals. Bride Vios 3 Low Max Bucket Seat gives you extra comfort featuring Low Max System seating position. Fully reinforced frame with extensive side and shoulder

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