As I mentioned in the last post, Nik had some Sparco Pro2000 race seats still in the bag that he offered to me for a great deal. The Saabaru has no seats currently; the originals were victims of the flood.
The deal was made. I had race seats.
The normal way to mount these in the car is to buy the Sparco seat adapter, which is like a flat plate with legs that bolt to the car, then mount a slider to the plate, then mount the seat to the slider.
There are a couple things I don’t like about that.
It raises the seat up a lot, which is not great for helmet clearance to the roof.
It’s a lot of pieces and a lot of fasteners, which can cause problems. More things to loosen and fall apart.
So I found these all-in-one low profile mount and sliders.
They weren’t crazy expensive, but they weren’t crazy cheap either, so I was hoping they wouldn’t be too crappy.
Okay so they look extremely crappy. Whatever, just gonna send it.
On a much more annoying note, they don’t actually fit. The “gussets” on the sides interfere with the body sheetmetal on the transmission tunnel, right about here:
So I got out a hammer…
… and an angle grinder. I ground down the gusset until it was no longer hitting the body and then painted it.
And then I bolted up the seat and installed it.
I really like how it looks. Maybe the white piping is what seals it? Not sure.
With the seat bolted in, I decided to be brave and take the car around the block for it’s maiden voyage.
I figured some fresh gas wouldn’t hurt- and we made it!
There seems to be something wonky with the steering; early indications are the firewall bushing/bearing has popped out of place. The throttle is a bit sticky. There is some strange whining noise when the clutch first starts grabbing, but goes away as soon as fully engaged.
Since it was dark out, I had no gauges, the steering was wonky, and it hadn't been seriously driven in 10 months, I didn't go far or fast.
I realized I hadn't driven a manual car in years - feels good to be back!
I'd call the first drive a success. It definitely needs a bath.
I guess next is to install the passenger seat. And figure out some seatbelts. And some gauges, to see what’s going on with this thing.
Thanks for reading!
damen
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