How has everyone mounted their seats, just flat on the pan? In the cmc manual it says to use cup spacers but it doesn't say what size. I'm trying to get an idea of how high up the seats should be
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Washers are fine and are stacked to the height that is best suited for you, usually I have a few more washers at the forward bolts to get the seat to lean back a bit, It's a bit of what feels best for you A couple pf pieces of wood blocking will give you a starting point. I use larger washers under the pans and be sure to seal around the seat bolts.
Joel, to get my head below the top of the windshield, I put 3" of spacers up front rather than a stack of washers (my first approach). That meant I also needed to replace the seat bolts with longer, high-grade bolts.
I'd reinforce the holes thru the pan. VW seats were mounted to welded in rails that will have been removed. Seats were never bolted to the pan. Stress cracks will develop in the pan if not reinforced. The light gauge sheet metal is too thin. Fender washers are not large enough. Needs to be welded in place.
I had lengths of 1/4" by 2" by 16" or so flat steel stock and placed that under the floor to bolt through and left to right to spread out the area holding the seats. Other than that, did the same as posted above.
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This is indeed a thing, and the reasons are just as Jim Gilbert explains.
Coincidentally, I've just had the repairs done to my car, after 50K miles of neglecting the problem. The damage was extensive, and a lot of it was hidden under the black paint. Small cracks were radiating from all the holes, with much larger ones in several places. The fix involved welding wide strips (like Gordon describes) across the pans at both the front and rear pairs of holes. To do that, you've got to grind away all the carpet adhesive first to get down to bare, clean metal, so there were many hours of work involved.
It takes a few years for the first cracks to show up. Again, this is not a result of corrosion, but metal fatigue. The floors were never designed to withstand the point source loading that results if you just bolt the seats directly to them.
If you're installing fender washers, put them on the inside, too, and try to use the wider, 3-inch ones. My car was originally delivered with 2-inch washers on the outside only, and they did nothing to prevent the problem.
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Ditto this. I used flat steel plates underneath the pan also. The thought of the pan alone holding the force from a seatbelt in an accident was enough to convince me. You gotta spread the load!
My solution in the Spyder:
My seat belts are fastened to the tube frame on the outside and the double-thickness part of the tunnel on the inside.
@Michael McKelvey posted:My seat belts are fastened to the tube frame on the outside and the double-thickness part of the tunnel on the inside.
Yep, that's the way if you have room for it.