Fitting Aftermarket Seats

[Chuff]

Howdy all,

I recently purchased some aftermarket seats for my Mk1 Escort and am wondering what options I have available in order to fit them taking into consideration that the car must remain road registered.

I have fitted the standard Escort rails to the new seat base and they fit front mount to rear mount perfectly, but the width of the mounts is 18mm wider than the standard Escort seat.

My first thought was to slot the holes in the floor mounts and simply drop the new seats straight into place. I have taken measurements and there is sufficient meat in the mounts to do this, but I am concerned as to whether taking such actions would render the car illegal for road use.

I have considered dropping the door side rail into the standard mounts and using short tabs of steel to extend the tunnel side mounts closer to the tunnel and mount the seats on these tabs but the width of the new seat is insufficient in order to clear the tunnel side mounts, and as such I am unable to bolt the seats to the tabs.

I have also cut and bolted angle iron from the front to the rear mounts and tried bolting the seats to the angle iron. Although this worked, it wasn't pretty, and again, I'm concerned that it will render the car illegal for road use.

I'd be interested in some input from users here as to what they have done in order to install their aftermarket seats.

Thanks.

Paul.

[jsa]

Paul,

Here in the Soviet Republic of Qld, a seat change requires an engineers mod plate to be road legal, so the engineer doing the mod plate needs to be consulted.

If you need similar approval in your area, showing the engineer your preferred methods will get it done and approved to his satisfaction.