RS America seats in an SC
 

Hi Gang:
I bought Mscheidt's RSA seats with the intention of putting them in my "new" 79 SC Targa. I have a couple of issues that I'm hoping someone here has figured out.

1) The seat rails are longer on the RSA seats than on the old SC rails. The holes line up fine but the additional length in the back rides up on a small ridge in the seat mount (on the body). Looks like I'd either have to grind this ridge down (not real anxious to do this) or use a couple of washers as spacers to lift the seat rail above the ridge (at 6' 1", I'm not too keen on giving up any more headroom). Anybody done this and used a different approach?

2) The RSA seats are designed to be mounted with something like an M8 or M10 hex head bolt through the body seat mount and into a plate thats threaded. The SC uses an M6 into a captive nut. I can get an M6 hex bolt but it'll really have a lot of slop in the RSA seat rail hole and not have much purchase as the hex head on the M6 isn't much bigger than the hole which doesn't seem real safe. I can't see much of a way to remove the captive nut to get a larger M8 or M10 nut in there short of completely cutting out the seat mount. Anybody solved this puzzle?

If I can't figure out a way to make these seats work, they'll be back on the market which would be a bummer because they are such great seats.

Thanks

Have you tried using the SC rails on the RSA seats?

I looked into that but the RSA rails are integrated into the seat frame with welds :( unlike the SC seat rails which can be detached.

Try something like this then. Also, pick up an inch or so of head room.
I just used some angle iron for the cross pieces. I cut the original stands out.

Darrell

I have 993 seats in my SC. I'm sure that they have similar rails. (993 seats also have power). Anyway, I shimmed with a piece of 1/8" aluminium from Lowes. I used some additional washers (I think) under the bolt heads. I have had no issues I can take a photo if you need it.

DR: That would definitely work. I may have to resort to that.

VaSteve: I'm sure the 993 seats are the same. I will give the shim and washer method a try and hope it doesn't run me out of head room which is already at a minimum. One question for you on the power seats. Did your SC have wiring to the seat area? Mine doesn't and I haven't yet figured out whether to wire the power up to the RSA seats or not. If yours didn't, how did you wire the seats?

Thank you both for your ideas.

I thought that RSA seats were manual.

They are manual fore, aft and recline but are electric for height with two motors. One for front height and one for rear. Unfortunately this contributes to their weighing 30 pounds more than the manual seats that came on the SC :(

Glad to see my old seats making thier rounds through the dorki paddock.

How long until you get race seats and sell them, lol?

You should be able to remove the electrics and gain about 2" in head room. With my stock SC seats (non electric) I could not sit comfortably in the car with a helmet on. I'm just 5'10" so 6'1" might be an issue even without a helmet.