Car Seat Runners

[Jonty Wild]

I am about to order runners for my RH car seats. Currently my seats are fixed and bolt through the floor, before I remove the current studs coming out of the seats is it safe to assume that they screw into captive nuts and I am not going to end up with nuts floating round the inside of the seats?

[IanS]

My reaction is that Richard Stewart used whatever parts he could get cheaply. So there was no standard seat. He would buy end of lines and adapt the kit to suit, adapting again when the current end of line ran out and another different one was found.

Second previous owners could have changed the seat.

So You say that there are studs in the seat. So if the external nuts are loose then trying to move the studs will tell you if they go into captive nuts or loose nuts or even if they are welded in studs.

[Jonty Wild]

Sorry it is not a Superspec so it would not have come with seats (I expect). The nuts I am talking about are in the seat. The studs will unscrew from the seat, and common sense would say they go to captive nuts, I just have visions of unscrewing them only to find the nuts wander off into the seat somewhere never to be seen again!

[Foz]

From personal experience, on every kit car seat I've worked on, I would expect them to be loose and you'll be chasing bits round under the seats

Assume that's going to be the case and be ready for it - useful tools to have handy are a torch, mirror and magnet on a stick.

Good luck

[Sparepart]

I echo IanS .... I typed the below before I read his reply....duh!.

In the above you refer to "bolts" and "studs" I'm not clear what you have, but under the car if you see a bolt head for a bolt that goes up through the floor and into the seat, and you are worried about the nut at the end of the bolt not being fixed to the frame, then this will be obvious as soon as you undo the bolt. If it's not fixed then it may turn and prevent the bolt from unloosening. If its held in some form of channel then as soon as a noticable amount of thread appears as you undo the bolt you can try pushing up on the bolt to see if the nut comes out of a channel in the frame. However if you have a "stud" coming out of the bottom of the seat you will see a thread coming through the floor under the car and a nut to undo. This will not be a problem because if you can get the nut off you will still have the stud sticking out of the bottom of the seat when you lift it out.

Edited April 4 by Sparepart
correction

[Jonty Wild]

No problem, one seat was out (passenger - just in case!) so I could measure the centres. It should be captive, because obviously that makes sense . . . . but then do these cars . . . . . ? I will remove one and find out, prepare for some swearing if it is not captive!

I have the same worry about the seat belt mountings, so I must have a better look as it would be so much easier to remove the whole lot to fit the slides.

[Jonty Wild]

Now fitted, and I no longer need a cushion behind me to drive