Lomax seats
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:09 pm
The 30-30 run convinced us just how uncomfortable our old bucket seats were - narrow and barely upholstered. The meeting gave us the opportunity to see how others had coped with the tight cockpit of the Lomax and Colin Seddon's solution seemed ideal. Discussing this with him he was most helpful and pointed us to the source of his seats, rear ones from a Renault Scenic. We found later that his write-up, done nearly 20 years ago, is on the Technical hints and tips section of the website.
We were fortunate enough to find a complete set of seats in black leather on Ebay, although we had to buy the set and drive 80 miles to collect them. They proved to be from a 2012 car and in pretty good condition. There have been some changes since Colin installed his 1998 version, most notably that there are now four studs per side rail, welded in position. After removing the mounting attachments from the drivers' side seat I made a pattern from cardboard, transferred the holes to the floor of my Lomax and drilled the eight holes. Offering the seat up showed the studs to be too short to reach through the wooden floor.
My next move was to cut off two of the studs on each rail, then drill and tap M8 holes, allowing bolts to be inserted from below. An additional complication was the steel tray welded to the bottom of the chassis' central space, overcome by using lengths of studding that extended right through. This seems an acceptable solution for now but in the future I will open up the holes to allow a long socket spanner extension through and place bolts against the wooden floor. Having bolted up successfully I turned my attention to the passenger side, which went far more quickly. The seats fitted nicely, are more upright, superbly comfortable and tilt forward to access the rear compartment. The squabs are maybe 25 mm higher than the bucket seats they replaced but this seems not to be a problem. Driving the car we found that the lateral support of these seats was indistinguishable from that of the old bucket seats.
We were fortunate enough to find a complete set of seats in black leather on Ebay, although we had to buy the set and drive 80 miles to collect them. They proved to be from a 2012 car and in pretty good condition. There have been some changes since Colin installed his 1998 version, most notably that there are now four studs per side rail, welded in position. After removing the mounting attachments from the drivers' side seat I made a pattern from cardboard, transferred the holes to the floor of my Lomax and drilled the eight holes. Offering the seat up showed the studs to be too short to reach through the wooden floor.
My next move was to cut off two of the studs on each rail, then drill and tap M8 holes, allowing bolts to be inserted from below. An additional complication was the steel tray welded to the bottom of the chassis' central space, overcome by using lengths of studding that extended right through. This seems an acceptable solution for now but in the future I will open up the holes to allow a long socket spanner extension through and place bolts against the wooden floor. Having bolted up successfully I turned my attention to the passenger side, which went far more quickly. The seats fitted nicely, are more upright, superbly comfortable and tilt forward to access the rear compartment. The squabs are maybe 25 mm higher than the bucket seats they replaced but this seems not to be a problem. Driving the car we found that the lateral support of these seats was indistinguishable from that of the old bucket seats.