A Place for Your Bucket.
We've all seen seat swaps at shows, this page may help you in your quest for a better "office chair". If you've never driven a Corvair with better seats, the performance advantage of a seat that holds you in position is considerable. I found being able to focus on driving instead of hanging on made driving a lot more fun, too.
First, bear in mind that seats are covered under almost all sanctioning bodies rules. Roughly speaking, there are three ways to go with seats:
- Refurbished stock seats
- Seats from another vehicle
- Aftermarket seats
Stock Corvair Seats.
For a stock class autocross car, generally you are limited to stock seats. However, rebuilding them can make them more comfortable, all the parts are avialable from the vendors to give you a seat that's as good as the one Chevy put in the Corvair. You can also get seat extenders if the driving position isn't to your liking, and if you do rebuild them it's possible to tweak the springs somewhat to make them better. Still, one of the most obvious advances since the '60s is where you sit, so let's move on.
Stock, but not Corvair.
To start with, be aware that there really aren't any seats you'll find that just bolt right in. They will all require some adapting, and remember that the seats belts only work well if the seat is mounted solidly. You should use at minimum the same size hardware as stock, and all of it should be Grade 5 or 8.
From Larry Claypool:
There are 4 different Corvair seat bolt patterns: 62/64, 65/66, and 67/69, all increasingly narrower. 60/61 uses a different set up entirely with clamps rather than a direct bolt in at the front. SO... what worked in one corvair will not necessarily "bolt in" to another. Moral - bring your tape measure and specs [for your particular car] when seat shopping.
larry claypool
Possible swaps.
Here are some swaps that have worked for other folks to help you with your junkyard hunting.
- Dan Morrison: Pontiac GrandAm seats front/rear fit well in an early coupe. One of our club members has done this. According to him the back seats fit nicely. Hope this helps.
- Kent Sullivan: 1987 Nissan Stanza buckets (cloth, kind of a velour). They are "Recaro-like" -- nice side bolsters. They almost bolted right in -- just removed the Nissan seat tracks and bolted the Corvair tracks on instead (had to elongate a couple of the holes, etc.).
- Steve Stimson: I drove a LM 4-door that had seats from a '95 Ford Escort installed. These were both the buckets and the back seat. Talked to the owner (naturally - he let me drive it!), but can't remember his name. He's a vo-tech teacher from the Pittsburgh area.
He picked up the interior pretty cheap ($100 or so), and the front seats mounted VERY easily. The seats bolted in, tracks and all. The Escort seats with tracks bolt in almost identical to the Corvair (at least '65/'66). I know the '67 up are different (much narrower). The neat part about the installation was the front tracks on the Escort are at a 90 degree angle. Straightening this then lines up the holes with the studs on the Corvair floor. The rear of the tracks, the inside track bolted right in and the outer track needed a piece cut off then a large washer over the original bolt would 'clamp' the rear of the track to the floor. The rear seat from the 4-door Escort also fit into the rear of the sport sedan. Took a little more work (fabricating brackets, twisting the side bolsters a bit), but the seat fit, looked like it was made for the car, AND it was a split fold-down...
According to the man who installed both sets, any mid 90s (94-96 would definitely apply) Escort seats work.
- Bob Coffin: I just finished a conversion using 90's Honda Civic seats for a Client which looks very "upmarket". Adapting the vair runners took some cutting and welding but looks great when installed.Had to have carpets made because more of floor is exposed.Customer is 6' 4" and 275 lb and they work for him with the drivers seat mounted a little further back on the runners than the pass seat. Also fabricated a new rear seat bottom [this is a 65 convert] from a coupe bottom seat that worked out very well. Can supply a few of these seat bottoms, already reworked,for about $225, if anyone is interested. No 'core" required.
- Garrie Fox: Several of us in Pikes Peak Corvair Club have gone to Mazda 626 front buckets. Easy install and 90's and newer are about 70 dollars here. They
make driving, even long trips a pleasure. Even the back seat for the Mazda 626 fits very easily for a total replacement!
Aftermarket Seats.
Coming soon!
