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  #1  
Old April 29th 2011, 17:38
-Alex- -Alex- is offline
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Seat height?

Hello, i have a pair of new recaro seats and tracks. Also possibilty to make lasercut frames for installation.

Wondering which would be proper heigth measured from floor to seat. With this frame it would about 280mm. Should i go 20mm lower? I am 180cm tall.



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Old April 30th 2011, 06:57
beetle1303 beetle1303 is offline
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Hey Alex,

First of all nice seats!!!
Is the model drawn on SolidWorks??it seams very familiar...
a few pointers on ergonomics.

1.From the model in can see that u have introduced a few degrees of backward inclination. U should calculate the total inclination of the seating surface and the distance of the seat from the steering wheel. too far back and too steep will result in numb legs and frustration due to the pressure build up at the back of ur legs. on the other hand too shallow and u might slide under hard braking.

2.Also keep in mind the model of ur beetle. Supers have the tower for the front mount, which if not modified will restrict the seats minimum height and forward positioning (the seat tracks are sorter than on the other models).

3.If u add more gauges or bult a custom dash (1303) it might be worthwhile to check visibility and reach for switches/gauges.

chris
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Old April 30th 2011, 09:05
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Steve C Steve C is offline
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Hi

Its a matter of personal choice apart from head clearance issues, this will get worse if you plan on wearing crash helmet.

You can get all scientific, but try it the readneck way 1st, put some blocks of wood or bricks on the floor sit the seat on top (don't drive the car this way) and see who it feels, yeehaw.

Steve
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Old April 30th 2011, 12:13
beetle1303 beetle1303 is offline
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I wouldn't consider it a redneck way, but a practical approach to fit
in the end that's the way most of us will try seat positioning since we don't have the fancy side mounting type of seats.
I'm just trying to give some thought and play devil's advocate since some positions may feel very good at the beginning, and after some time and money spent found out to be not so good...
I'm currently having this problem on my 1303 with golf2 seats and steering wheel combo.will redo the upholstery anyway so i might get them a bit deeper in the middle so i can get lower since my knees just clear behind the wheel...
when time comes will swap the floor pan halves to pre1303 style and heavily redo everything

PS i meant take into account not actually calculating
Chris
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Old April 30th 2011, 13:45
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volkdent volkdent is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve C View Post
Hi

Its a matter of personal choice apart from head clearance issues, this will get worse if you plan on wearing crash helmet.

You can get all scientific, but try it the readneck way 1st, put some blocks of wood or bricks on the floor sit the seat on top (don't drive the car this way) and see who it feels, yeehaw.

Steve
x2

You have to take a lot of things into consideration- visibility, easy of entry/exit, proximity to shifter/pedals so spend some time mocking it up with the car at the stance it will end up with till you find the sweet spot.

Jason
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  #6  
Old May 2nd 2011, 02:56
-Alex- -Alex- is offline
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At the moment i don't have body on the pan, but i have tested with frame the seat to the pan.

Feeling is good, seat is about 300mm at front and at the bottom about 250mm measured from floor.

I don't know what height will be the steering wheel measured from the floor.
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Old May 2nd 2011, 02:58
-Alex- -Alex- is offline
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At the moment i don't have body on the pan, but i have tested with frame the seat to the pan.

Feeling is good, seat is about 300mm at front and at the bottom about 250mm measured from floor.

I don't know what height will be the steering wheel measured from the floor.


I did desing these frames with solidworks.
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Old May 4th 2011, 05:06
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Hi Alex,
I fitted a pair of Alfa Romeo GTV 116 seats in our 1303. A couple of pointers that occurred on my seat mounting:

1) I used the original front seat hump to fix an inverted 'C' channel across the car that the runners fixed to so essentialy the mounting height of the front of the runner was the original hump height
2) The rear support was a hoop fixing to the original seat runners an bolted through to provide maximum hold down strength for the rear of the seat. (I have seen the results of inadequate rear seat mounts on aftermarket seats in a crash where the victim would have been safe had the seat not ripped out - the injuries were trully sickening). The rear seat support for the Alfa seats is 25mm lower than the front. By using a hoop the footwell has maximum clearance for the rear passengers.
3) The seat must point towards the pedals, not straight ahead. I initially made the mistake of pointing the seats straight ahead and it was uncomfortable as the pelvis has to twist in the seat to operate the pedals. With the seats pointing towards the pedals (and the steering wheel) the torso is in a comfortable position and it is only the head that has to swivel slightly, as it is designed to do. Your seat base doesn't seem to accommodate this.
I am 1.83m (6ft) tall and with this seat arrangement and a 944 steering wheel on the standard column all is as ergonomicaly acceptable as I can make a 1303.
Hope this helps.
Clive
PS if you want some photos, PM me with your e-mail address and I will return them (please note the photos are a maximum of 3MB each)
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Old May 4th 2011, 07:08
-Alex- -Alex- is offline
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Good to know that seat should not be straight ahead.

We are going to install these mounts to original seat tracks, basically just cutting away vertical sheetmetal from original seat tracks and leaving the spotwelded base tin where we weld these mounts.

Width on the mounts is exact for this. I suppose that then should seat point directly to pedals?



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  #10  
Old May 9th 2011, 08:26
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evilC evilC is offline
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Point the seat directly at the pedals. As I said it is difficult for the pelvis to twist in the seat but the upper parts of the body can rotate to accommodate minor variations with the steering wheel and the view down the road.

Clive
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  #11  
Old June 1st 2011, 01:37
-Alex- -Alex- is offline
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Things have little changed, planning to make the seat mounts boltable:

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