E30 BMW Seats

[Kwag]

Hi,

I love the seats from the 80's E30 BMW's and I'm thinking about putting them in my 69 Camaro. I'm being told they need to mount completely flat, but was thinking of calling wedge to see if they have something for my application. My concern is that it would be too tall and either not fit right or hit the ceiling.

I don't have a pair to measure at the moment. Has anyone used them?

Thanks!

[cornfedbill]

I have an old set of the Recaro Sport seats from my old E30. they do mount flat, but have a lot of adjustment for the front and rear height. I thought about putting them into my Nova, but felt they sat a bit higher than I wanted.

[Kwag]

I'm going to give this a go and see what Wedge has to offer on brackets.

Thanks!

[slimjim]

I can't help with your BMW seats but I went with 5th gen Camaro seats which more or less have the same problem. We notched out the sides to make way for their widths, and instead of using that generic seat pan, removed it and reinforced the floor in the 4 seat-mounting locations.

This takes into account their extra width and height, but is a fair bit of fabrication.

Unfortunately in this picture you can't see the 2 inside holes.

[Kwag]

That's very cool, and super clean.

Thank you for the idea!

[Nativefx]

Slimjim, I saw your pictures in another thread including one that shows the back raised mounting perches and i wanted to clarify that you also moved the front mounting holes back from the original location? In this picture it looks like the front mounting hole is back of the added cross support? Was the added cross support necessary and how did you beef up the actual areas around your new mounting points? I'm in the process of deciding how to modify the mounting of my Recaro seats with the Wedge Engineering brackets as I need to move back 4-5 inches probably and I think it will still sit to high on the seat pan, so we're trying to figure out how to lower the seat. My body guy thinks he can lower an 1" by just cutting off the mounting tabs and extending flat, but if that is not enough then we would have to figure out whether to remove the seat pans and how to brace for mounting directly on the floor somehow. Appreciate any ideas/thoughts.

I can't help with your BMW seats but I went with 5th gen Camaro seats which more or less have the same problem. We notched out the sides to make way for their widths, and instead of using that generic seat pan, removed it and reinforced the floor in the 4 seat-mounting locations.

This takes into account their extra width and height, but is a fair bit of fabrication.

Unfortunately in this picture you can't see the 2 inside holes.

[FLYNAVY53]

Although not technically BMW E30 seats, you may be interested in these:

I using a pair of Cobra "Stuttgart" seats in my 1964 Corvette. They look very similar to the E30 Seats. I ordered them in white vinyl, sourced the tartan fabric from a shop in Scotland, and had a local upholstery shop reupholster the centers.

Much like your Camaro, the floor pans in the Corvette are not flat. I took some careful measurements and had a local fabrication shop make these brackets for me. These mount the seats directly to the floor, as low and far back as possible. The bolts all come in from under the car for easy access. At 6'6/210, I dont need sliders, but if you were to want to run them, Corbeau makes a set of universal, low profile sliders that have the correct bolt pattern for these seats and add less than an inch to the overall height.

With the seats bolted directly to the floor via the brackets, I gained a full inch of leg room and roughly the same amount of head room.







Hope that helps....let me know if you have any questions.

-Greg

[slimjim]

Slimjim, I saw your pictures in another thread including one that shows the back raised mounting perches and i wanted to clarify that you also moved the front mounting holes back from the original location? In this picture it looks like the front mounting hole is back of the added cross support? Was the added cross support necessary and how did you beef up the actual areas around your new mounting points? I'm in the process of deciding how to modify the mounting of my Recaro seats with the Wedge Engineering brackets as I need to move back 4-5 inches probably and I think it will still sit to high on the seat pan, so we're trying to figure out how to lower the seat. My body guy thinks he can lower an 1" by just cutting off the mounting tabs and extending flat, but if that is not enough then we would have to figure out whether to remove the seat pans and how to brace for mounting directly on the floor somehow. Appreciate any ideas/thoughts.

Ok I found another photo showing how the insides were strengthened, you really don't want to skimp out here as it will take a lot of force in the event of a head-on crash or similar. We did move the mounting locations back, we just chose to not compare the new setup to the original mounting locations and just do what was necessary to have the seats fit and look right. Since I'm fitting a 5th gen interior entirely, there's a lot more involved in making the parts fit, the seats needed to go wider and further back since the entire interior is a few inches further back than original.