Formula51

UPDATE! Driver's side is in.



See page 2 of my cardomain site (link in signature) for all the details.

This turned out to be a lot more fabrication than I had hoped, but the end result is great.

After years of deciding on seats (I was the first to trial fit GTO seats years ago) I finally decided on Acura RSX Type-S seats and took the plunge. I wanted a factory seat for safety, reliability/durability, comfort, and look. I think the Acura RSX seats are a great compromise of comfort and support.

These are 2006 seats (bolsters were improved in 2005) and they have very little wear with less than 60,000 miles on them when removed. You can pick these up on ebay for less than $600 shipped.

Excuse the bad pictures, the seats, console, console cover, shift boot, dash, etc. all match darn near perfect but for some reason my camera always makes them look a variety of different colors.




The install of these seats required extensive fabrication. This included cutting the metal on the sides of the seats in half, welding in some patches after cutting raised areas out for clearance, and completely fabricatng new mounting brackets to tuck the Camaro rails up in the seat and gain enough clearance for a helmet. I used 6061 T6 3" x 3" x 0.25" aluminum angle for the brackets, which have enough strength to handle a 300lb. point load in bending (each). That was my basis for the design and should be very conservative. You can't be too careful when it comes to seats and safety.

Here are some shots of the brackets and the patch I had to weld in.






Seat rails installed.


Comparison of the factory Camaro seat, modified Acura seat, and the stock drivers side Acura seat.


After all the modifications, the Acura seat only added 12 pounds over the factory cloth seat and there is still plenty of head clearance for a helmet.

For reference, I am 6'0" 210 pounds (36 inch waist, XL tee shirt) and these seats are ohh so comfortable. Oh, and the head rest is actually usable!

Please ask me any questions you have and I will do my best to answer them. If there is enough interest I can take progress pics on the drivers side and do a write up. I wouln't be doing the drivers side until this fall/winter though.

Well, let me know what you think guys.

Can someone tell me how to make the pictures larger on here?

DCC!!

iTrader: (8)

wow those look really good actually

scj

iTrader: (89)

man, my friend has a rsx and every time i get in her car all i can think is " I love these seats" and how i want to put some rsx seats in my car.. lol. you beat me to it.

therobman

iTrader: (39)

niceee

twitchtwice

iTrader: (12)

wow those are some nice seats.

Formula51

Thanks for the compliments guys.

There aren't too many options out there for factory seats with good side and shoulder bolstering. Add on top of that the need for manual seats to keep the weight and height down and your options get even fewer. I had it narrowed down to these seats, Viper, and older BMW seats. For the money though, the perforated leather Acura RSX Type-S seats can't be beat from what I found.

02gtp4now

iTrader: (7)

those look great in there

black_sheep454

iTrader: (9)

The payoff was worth all that work, those look great in there.

mroby

Recaro makes those seats. I never verified it but I was told if you pull the leather back it has Recaro stamped on the frame.
Looks really good. but I always loved my Type-S, till it got expensive to keep on the road.

desertLS1

iTrader: (8)

Those actually loook pretty good in there. But man they look HUGE nxt to a stock Camaro seat lol.

meine96ws6

iTrader: (4)

they look great..

redracer1

iTrader: (2)

awsome job..I've got an Acura RSX myself and always liked the seats

Formula51

Yeah, the stock seats are so tiny. They are some of the worst seats ever in a modern day performance car in my opinion. They have no lateral support, are not very comfortable, and have no usable headrest. The only thing they have going for them is they are light and low. I was shocked the RSX seat only added 12 pounds. That's 12 pounds I am happy to add and I hate adding weight.

Dirty Vegas

iTrader: (12)

I've been thinking about this for a while. A co-worker has an 05-06 type S, and I thought the seats were awesome.

shaun

look real good.
its funny slow cars have oem racing seats but american muscle cars have almmost no bolstering at all.

slow

iTrader: (7)

It is funny that the camaro seats suck so much that they are not in the exported camaro's. (export cars get TA seats)

Ryan

01 ss vert

iTrader: (1)

At $600 for used seats and still having to modify the brackets, I rather go with a seat like the Jegs GS-1 for $400 new for a pair.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/70240/10002/-1

DAVE00

iTrader: (10)

Looks awesome!!! Now the real question - are you going to finish the job and make the side curtain airbags functional LOL.

Great Job.

Formula51

Certainly an option, but how high will they sit, how comfortable will they be, how safe, durable, etc. Most aftermarket seats, especially budget one's, are not crash tested (atleast not to factory standards) and do not use quality materials. For me I wanted OEM quality and safety with the ability to maintain clearance for a helmet (instructors in this case). The Acura RSX seats offered all of that with perforated leather centers, stitching to match my console cover and shift boot, and good bolstering as icing on the cake.

If you have a jigsaw, cutoff wheel and or angle grinder, welder, and drill, this is a pretty easy job. I bought most of the material off ebay, which actually has good prices compared to buying locally. It just takes time, so put on your favorite radio station and enjoy the time in the garage with out the wife nagging you to do house work!

Formula51

Heck no! I cut all the wires out......weight savings!