[BMWCSRegistry] Seat compatibility question

[Bill Riblett]

That reply is pretty simplistic. 

I only know specific info for the E30 sport seats and I do not know exactly
how they compare to the E36 seats.  But both of these seats mount to the
floor and not on the seat 'towers' that E9s and other early cars use.  These
'towers' are the part of the body that the seat tracks are bolted to.  To
fit the later bolt-to-the-floor seats, you have to remove the seat towers
and reinforce the floor where the new seats are bolted.  Obviously this
requires some fabrication.  A friend of mine did this to mount E30 sport
seats in his coupe.  After all this, you also have to redo some of the front
floor carpet.

I know someone else who made some adaptors which enabled him to hang E30
sport seats from the seat tracks, fitting in between the seat towers on his
2002.  BUT, those seats sit quite high and only work for him because he is
only about 5' 6" tall.  The seat mounting design is similar between E9s and
2002s that I'm pretty confident that this would work on an E9, but besides
sitting up so far, I feel like this design is kind of flimsy tho I could be
wrong about that.

The E21 sport seats (Recaros) and the sport seats often found in early
(78-81) gray market 635s are bolt-ins.  The E21 Recaros are getting harder
to find and the 635 seats have always been rare in the US.

I'm copying this to the CS Registry as others may find it useful.
Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Blanc [mailto:blanc8 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 7:25 AM
To: Bill Riblett
Subject: Re: [BMWCSRegistry] Seat compatibility question

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your email!  One of the other CS members emailed me this:

"Nothing is a bolt in.  However, a simple mount can be fabricated for
minimal cost and effort.  Also, Recaro makes a mount that I believe is still
available."  Does this mean that I can buy the E36 seats and have the mount
fabricated?

Please advise,
Jonathan

On 7/14/07, Bill Riblett <briblett at comcast.net> wrote:
> The E36 seats won't fit the CS tracks.  The E36 seats normally mount 
> to the floor.
> Other models that have bolt-in seats include E21s, E24 56 series 
> before 1982, 1600/2002s and E12 5 series.
> Bill Riblett
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bmwcsregistry-bounces at idb.ded.forest.net
> [mailto:bmwcsregistry-bounces at idb.ded.forest.net] On Behalf Of 
> Jonathan Blanc
> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 10:06 PM
> To: bmwcsregistry at idb.ded.forest.net
> Subject: [BMWCSRegistry] Seat compatibility question
>
> Hi All,
>
> I have a '73 CS and I want to put E36 manual front seats in (E36= 3 
> Series from the mid 90's).  Do any of you know if E36 manual seats 
> will fit the track of the E9?  If they don't, do any of you know which 
> early E models fit the E9 (E21??)
>
> Please help,
>
> Jonathan Blanc
>
> '73 CS  #2240511
> '73 CS #2250336 "Rusty"
> '97 528i (halfway to a new car if I hit 1M miles!) 
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