Aftermarket seat install using factory sliders
 

I don't think this has been posted before so here we go...

Being a tinkerer and a tightwad, I wanted to see if I could make the factory sliders work with mounting an aftermarket seat. Turns out that it's quite easy.

First remove the seats. Nothing shocking here except to say that a 3/8" standard socket makes quick work of the e-whatever bolts Porsche used to prevent tinkering ;)

After that, pull the side lever to drop the rails completely away from the seat (this gives you working room). Remove the slider spring and then find the 4 points on each rail where they are attached to the brackets on the seat. Two in the front are studs with 13mm nuts (first pic), two in the rear are torx 40 bolts that go into a plate with threaded holes inside the rail (second pic). Undo these 4 attachment point on each side of the seat

What you should have at this point are the spring, two sliders, the crossbar for controlling the sliders, 4 nuts, and the 4 bolts with 2 threaded retainer plates. Now's a good time to undo the seat belt receptacle and it's wiring harness (if you want it). It's the green connector in the wiring harness. Just pop the end tab of the harness connector off (3rd pic) and that will release the green connector (4th pic).

Now for the new rails. Side mount rails are a pretty standard affair. To mount them to the factory sliders take a bit modification. First you need to notch a cutout on the horizontal plate for the slider lock mechanism. A grinder makes short work of this (5th pic). Then you need to find 4 holes that come close to lining up with the mounting points on the factory sliders. In my case, I could line up 2 perfectly and then I just needed to extend one slot forward in the front (6th pic) and drill a 4th hole in the back (7th pic). (pics are better than words here, look below). To extend that front notch I used an air pencil (brilliant little tools!) with carbide cutter tips. To drill the additional hole in the back i used a 5/16 bit. Line that **************** up right the first time! You'll also need to drill a hole in the inner rail to mount the seat belt receptacle.

To finish this off, I used grade 12.9 washers to reinforce everything. (8th pic). I also upgraded the seat hardware to 12.9 grade as well. You also need a new bolt/nut/washer for the seat belt receptacle. I've gotta head to the hardware store tomorrow for that but I'll get an m10 x 20mm. Will post pics tomorrow when that is done and seat are in.



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Finished up today. I think it went pretty well. I would up using 3/8" x 1" with flat washers on both sides with a lock washer and lock washer to secure the seat belt receptacle. When doing this try to keep the mounting point as low to the bottom of the bracket as possible so it clears the bottom of the seat.

A note about the factory seats. It's perfectly acceptable in a lot of racing organizations to use stocks seats and seat belts for restraint systems. I was surprised though that Porsche DID NOT use 12.9 grade hardware for these seats. The 4 bolts that attach the bracket to the seat are grade 10, and the seat belt receptacle bolt is grade 8. (all metric grades, I'm forgetting the .x part of the numbers there). I'm certainly not saying that my setup is better than the stock system (this is not a racing setup, just a cruising one) but I would think twice before using the stock setup for serious racing.

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