Recaro adapters ?

[John Buchtenkirch]

Can anyone give me the length, width and thickness of the Recaro adapters for our coupes. I’ve got power shears & brakes in my shop so maybe this could be a good labor day project for me and possibly I can finally get comfortable in the old coupe. THANKS in advance ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

[rsporsche]

John,

i have a set of them, i will measure them later tonight or tomorrow and post some pics - with a tape measure and a caliper.

best
scott

 

[Jellobmw]

I fabricated mine fore&aft, not athwartships. Simple measuements. Used 1/4" aluminum plate. Structurally there's no difference. Visually (can't spell astecally) I like this better.

Recommend measuring your particular application. Your results may differ. Pls consult a doctor before strenuous exercise. Your results may differ. If condition continues for more than 6hrs pls dial 911.

 

[rsporsche]

John,

here is a drawing i did of one of my pieces. i will attach some pix in another post

 

[rsporsche]

here are the pix

 

[John Buchtenkirch]

Thank you. That’s more of a job than I thought it was going to be but certainly doable. I somehow thought from the photos of the eBay adapters that they were just flat plates with some holes ?
I drug my Recaros out of storage yesterday and they still seem pretty decent. Don’t know about the fishnet headrests, they might have to go ---- what do you guys think ? At least they have vertical pleats so they kind of go with my pre 1974 interior. Good thing I'm not married or wife would be telling me to "Get those damned car parts out of my living room" <BIG GRIN>. ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

['69 2800cs]

John-I like those Recaros, and I agree the vertical pleats work with the early interior.

I bought those flat plates to put Scheels in my car so some drilling was required as the Scheel seat pattern is different from Recaro.

The plates themselves are 14.5" long, and the slider mounting holes are a little less than 13.5" front to back, you can get the actual measurement from the bottom of the seat.

From there I think you'll find side to side the E9 mounting holes are 19.5" apart and the Recaros are 16" apart.

Pull one seat and all the measurements will be easy to get and you'll be in business in no time.

 

[kwyjibo]

John,
Your photos show the Recaros (nice, btw) with the rails... are you planning on using them? In other words, what are you trying to adapt: original seat rails to the Recaros vs. floor mounts to Recaros with the rails shown?
I went with the first option to mount the Scheel seats. I had Mario at VSR put together an adaptor that sits on top of the original sliders. As '69 2800cs has already pointed out, the earlier mounting holes are wider, so the adaptor just bolts to the seat through a more inboard set of holes. I wanted to keep the original lever and chrome cover since they are visually obvious when the door is open. You can see this here:

If you look carefully towards the front, you can see the weld for the cross support. I don't have photos of the adaptor out of the car, sorry. They are probably just like the ones being sold on ebay [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E9-3-0c...pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr ] but with cross supporting welded on to make it a large metal square rather than just two bars.

 

[John Buchtenkirch]

The tracks I’ve got now are from God knows what backyard builder so I definitely want to go with the coupe tracks. The story I was told some 20 years ago was they came out of a special edition Trans Am and were mounted in a Chevelle for a while, then sold to me because they looked too small for that application. I had them stored for so long in the attic that the elastic under bands went dead on them.

I figured out today that I could get away with 3” wide by 14 ½” long flat stock, would 1/8” thick steel be adequate or should I go thicker ? ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

[rsporsche]

John,

from a structural loading perspective, the flat plate by itself will cause torque on the track ... about the axis of the track on the car. basically you are creating a 3" moment arm that turns the downward force (you and the seat) into lateral forces - which makes it want to rotate around the track axis. which will either cause the track or the plate to deform. hopefully that makes sense. the idea of the square frame will mitigate that process. the recaro adapter with its thickness reduces the lateral forces (torque) and transitions it into down force.

 

[rsporsche]

John,

check this out - some ways they can be mounted

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component...hlight,/sid,90a6da03c4dd63149ace99d12b9a5f68/

and this one
http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component...hlight,/sid,da54308273612f67c413c06a53d09462/

and
http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component...hlight,/sid,7d79fffb9cafcef949c8dd7c27c85f5b/

 

[DougE]

Recaro Adapters

Thank you. That’s more of a job than I thought it was going to be but certainly doable. I somehow thought from the photos of the eBay adapters that they were just flat plates with some holes ?
I drug my Recaros out of storage yesterday and they still seem pretty decent. Don’t know about the fishnet headrests, they might have to go ---- what do you guys think ? At least they have vertical pleats so they kind of go with my pre 1974 interior. Good thing I'm not married or wife would be telling me to "Get those damned car parts out of my living room" <BIG GRIN>. ~ John Buchtenkirch

View attachment 5827

View attachment 5828

I've installed a similar set of Recaros in my coupe. I had a friend form a set of adapters from stainless steel they provide about 3/8” lift. I started with the net headrest but I felt they were too tall so I got a set of e21 headrest had them upholstered, the height is perfect. There is a listing on ebay for Recaro to coupe adapters; they're simply pieces of flat plate steel that have drilled for e9 and the Recaro pattern. They would be pretty easy to reproduce for a fraction of the cost.
Doug C

 

[John Buchtenkirch]

John,

from a structural loading perspective, the flat plate by itself will cause torque on the track ... about the axis of the track on the car. basically you are creating a 3" moment arm that turns the downward force (you and the seat) into lateral forces - which makes it want to rotate around the track axis. which will either cause the track or the plate to deform. hopefully that makes sense. the idea of the square frame will mitigate that process. the recaro adapter with its thickness reduces the lateral forces (torque) and transitions it into down force.

I understand the twisting forces involved and the need for cross-members to counter them, that is one reason why I never bought the eBay brackets in the first place. If the eBay brackets were painted or cadmium plated I’d have to abrasive blast all of that off to weld on them which only would have made me madder about having to re-engineer them & re-weld them.
Thank you for posting all the links, I enjoy seeing what other fabricators come up with but many times what I do is dictated by what materials I have on hand in my shop. ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

[DougE]

Pictures of what I did

I've installed a similar set of Recaros in my coupe. I had a friend form a set of adapters from stainless steel they provide about 3/8” lift. I started with the net headrest but I felt they were too tall so I got a set of e21 headrest had them upholstered, the height is perfect. There is a listing on ebay for Recaro to coupe adapters; they're simply pieces of flat plate steel that have drilled for e9 and the Recaro pattern. They would be pretty easy to reproduce for a fraction of the cost.
Doug C[/QUOTE

I really don't think bracing is needed, the seat will deform first.

Doug

 

[John Buchtenkirch]

I've installed a similar set of Recaros in my coupe. I had a friend form a set of adapters from stainless steel they provide about 3/8” lift. I started with the net headrest but I felt they were too tall so I got a set of e21 headrest had them upholstered, the height is perfect. There is a listing on ebay for Recaro to coupe adapters; they're simply pieces of flat plate steel that have drilled for e9 and the Recaro pattern. They would be pretty easy to reproduce for a fraction of the cost.
Doug C[/QUOTE

I really don't think bracing is needed, the seat will deform first.

Doug

Oh yeah, I likeum stainless with a reverse bend. You & friend have raised the bar on Recaro adapters. Thanks for posting. ~ John Buchtenkirch

 

[rsporsche]

[/QUOTE

I really don't think bracing is needed, the seat will deform first.

Doug[/QUOTE]

i tend to agree as the vertical bend transfers the load straight down to the track from the edge of the seat. this works much better than a flat plate.

 

[johanaxelson]

How my recaro adapters look:

https://picasaweb.google.com/105945...&authkey=Gv1sRgCI-Bg7nol6K_bg&feat=directlink

 

[verde2002]

I used some flat iron plates about 3" wide and 1/8" thick to adapt the Recaro seats from a 633csi to my 2800cs coupe. No bending or welding. Not complicated at all and took less than an hour. These is someone on Ebay that actually makes and sells the plates, very similar to what I built for a few dollars.