Cheap easy Front seat upgrade

akito

Keep Laughing.You're Next
Jul 31, 2006
1,568
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Springfield/Va
Thank you for your time. I'm sure we'll all appreciate every ounce of energy and time you're investing in this matter.
 

toyotanos

What will we break today?
Staff member
Super Moderator
Nov 29, 2008
2,841
2
38
Coon Rapids, MN
Here you all go.

Cliffs- Seats fit OK, but are uneven. It could probably be fixed if you really cared about it, but for the most part they are pretty much race seats as far as I'm concerned (comfort isn't an issue). Arguable whether its worth the weight savings or not, but I guess if that last 1/10th really matters! They do sit further forward than OEM, so tall people might have issues as well.


1987 Turbo cloth seats (swapped into my 91)
Drivers power seat- 67lbs
Passenger manual seat- 45 lbs
Total- 112lbs of seats

1996 Acura Integra GSR Cloth seats
Both manual- 34lbs each
Total- 68lbs of seats

Difference- 44lbs less weight


Install/Modification:

The seats are pretty straight forward as far as installing goes, but all 4 mounts points need to be modified to work properly. The front mounts are angled too sharply (close to a 90* angle) so they need to be straightened out to match the floor angle. A couple hammers do the job nicely. The outer rear mount is similar in its angle being wrong, but needs a little more attention. It's slightly short of the Supra's mounting hole, so you have to either extend the rail by hammering it out a bit, or you can drill out the mount holes a good bit to get the movement you need.

Last but certainly not least is the inner rear mount. This one needs a hacksaw. The Acura mount is flat and is highly reinforced. To get it to match the Supra mount point, you'll need to cut through the reinforcement to get it to bend enough. You'll also have to drill the hole out to get the bolts to line up. Once you're done fitting the seat to your liking, weld this so the seat doesn't bend the mount and drop the seat down.


Pictures!
General look of the seats:


Drivers seat full forward:


Full backwards:


Front mounts


Rear mounts


Inner rear mount cut


Side shot, showing seat level-ness and height


Pattern/texture on Passenger seat


Passenger seat overall look



Final thoughts-
While you can save some weight by swapping in these seats, it'll take considerable work to make them feel as good as the factory seats. As I had them installed, your knees are too high which makes clutch actuation a little tricky. Give it effort and it might be doable. Until I can get my hands on some factory Recaro seats, this will probably be good enough after I get it right.
 

A-to-the-J

Panda™ and Pre-89 Gracer™
Feb 19, 2006
1,080
1
38
38
Anaheim/West Covina, CA
In for pics of RSX seats in the Supra if anyone is up to it. There aren't any for sale in my area, but I've heard 05+ seats are more comfortable.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk 4
 

akito

Keep Laughing.You're Next
Jul 31, 2006
1,568
0
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Springfield/Va
Thanks for making them work. Although those don't look good as a lot of people have thought, those aren't RSX seats. But AFAIK dc5 and dc2 shares the same mounting points so in order to get the RSX seats to fit, this is what you have to do. For what it's worth, Carlos have already done it here. Hopefully he can chime in and tell us what he did. Here are some photos.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.731537196858578.1073741862.574435892568710&type=3
 

TurboStreetCar

Formerly Nosechunks
Feb 25, 2006
2,777
9
38
Long Island, Ny
Nice write up on the seat install. I thought there was more weight to be saved by swapping seats. I thought the stock seat was closer to 80-90lbs. For 44lbs i dont think im in any hurry to do something like this.
 

toyotanos

What will we break today?
Staff member
Super Moderator
Nov 29, 2008
2,841
2
38
Coon Rapids, MN
I'm kinda in the same boat, was surprised when I weighed the OEM seats.

But, since I have these seats already and the OEM's are a bit uncomfy for me (there's a bar in the seatback that rubs on my back the wrong way) I'll work with them to get the right fitment. I've never cared about looks, more of function so its a 50/50 split at the moment. If I can get the seat to sit a lil lower in front it'll be worth it. Until I find a set of Recaros it'll be K.


WTB: OEM TTR Recaro seats, fronts only. Decent shape preferred, but I'm not picky. (ha ha, but srsly)