Seat rail idea

[Atik]

Some of you may know that I have fitted Audi seats in my car, and use aluminium for the framework. I knows its a soft metal and to fix that I have this following idea. I dont have access to welding or a welder right now, but I want to fix this as soon as I can.

The idea is as below

seatfixings.JPG

The seat rail on the seat is the green bars. The red circles are the bolts that go into the floor pan of the car. The black bars are 3mm flat steel bars that I aim to use to brace the seats, and the blue circles are the bolts holding the seat rail to the steel bars.

You will see that the inside seat rail is bolted directly to the floor. The steel then bolts to the rail alongside those bolts. The Audi rails are about 100mm wide at least so plenty of space to that. The bar then extends out to the other side mounting points and due to the uneven floor, I aim to use about 10mm of spacer to raise the bar so the seat sits flats. The rail then bolts to the bar as indicated.

Can anyone look at that and advise why it wont work or something? I cant see that it wont, and its definitely better than what I have now.

[Mark 4]

Don't tell me, I know it's filthy.

This is what I did Atik, it looks simple but it was very time consuming.

I honestly don't think you will be able to do it by bolting things together. There are 3 different heights for the mounting bolts. The front two are studs which are angled forward by about 15 degrees and they are not very long.

Mine is 4mm thick steel, I think 3mm is too thin.

[Barney]

Atik,
I know we have slightly different forces to contend with but I agree with Mark on the thickness of the rails. 4mm minimum I'd suggest. Admitted seat bases are thinner but they benefit from being folded steel giving greater strength.

In your drawing the existing bolts (red circles) are not shown parallel front to back, Is this correct?

Lastly, Nick Mann & Nutter John have offered to supply the floorpan sections for the club, to enable anyone to knock up an adapting subframe without having to repeatedly lift the (heavy) Audi seats in and out of the car.

[scott.mohekey]

I have to agree with the others about the thickness of the steel. I have a heap of steel stock at home, and even 5x100mm bar bends hugely when you hold it at one end (3m long).

[Atik]

Ok, I will upgrade the steel to 5mm.
And yes, Steve, the bolts are not parallel on the floorpan. The rears are narrower as in the pic above. And as Mark has mentioned they also sit at three different heights so some spacers will be required to level out. The fronts are also angled at 15 degrees or so, like Mark says.

[Barney]

Ok, I will upgrade the steel to 5mm.

Best idea

And yes, Steve, the bolts are not parallel on the floorpan.

Worth checking with you. I'll have to check mine out. Thanks!