11 replies to this topic

[Badger1975]

Hi, any advice on fitting Rover Coupe seats to a mini? Im changing my buckets to 200 Coupe seats as theyre more suitable/child seat friendly. Any advice, recommendations or contacts for the seat subframe mods thatll be required?

Ive read through the respective thread for which seats fit a mini but Im after a little more detail regarding the subframe side of things.

Thanks in advance,
Luke

[Steve220]

How handy are you with metal work and welding?

Edited by Steve220, 19 January 2018 - 09:37 AM.

[Badger1975]

Hi,
Never attempted welding in my life. Something I like the idea of trying at some point but as it stands. No gear and certainly no idea.

[Steve220]

Reason I ask is i've seen these fitted to a few minis in the past and all have said that a bit of fabrication is required.

[Northernpower]

Hi,
Never attempted welding in my life. Something I like the idea of trying at some point but as it stands. No gear and certainly no idea.

If you're not experienced and you're going to try welding for the first time, I would suggest something as safety critical as a seat subframe is not the best place to start.

[Badger1975]

Totally agree. The reason I got the seats is to allow an easier fitment of a child seat for my 5year old. So I was never going to cut corners.
It might just be case of entrusting a decent local garage to fabricate something for me.

[Badger1975]

Reason I ask is i've seen these fitted to a few minis in the past and all have said that a bit of fabrication is required.

[Badger1975]

Id read similar. I guess I was hoping for a quick and safe solution as Im itching to get these in.

[pinkmini99]

Hi, any advice on fitting Rover Coupe seats to a mini? Im changing my buckets to 200 Coupe seats as theyre more suitable/child seat friendly. Any advice, recommendations or contacts for the seat subframe mods thatll be required?

Ive read through the respective thread for which seats fit a mini but Im after a little more detail regarding the subframe side of things.

Thanks in advance,
Luke

Basically you need to weld in rear surports. You can do this many different ways Ive seen

A 2nd crossmember welding in place.
A bar/box section welded across
Box towers welded to the floor

Personally I would go for the 2nd crossmember or box section welded across the car with spredder plates welded where the box section meets the floor.

All is quite a simple job for a good welder/fabricator

Also you will need to weld/fabricate a fixings to the front crossmember plus modify the seat runners too if memory serves me right.

Hope this helps

[mini-mad-mark]

Hi There,

My solution might not be good for you as my Coupe seats don't tilt directly  (they are on universal subframes attached to the floor) however the way the seats are attached to the subframes suggests that they could be bolted to a proper mini tailored subframe. Of course the backrest tilts forward so if you kids are reasonably small/athletic they would probably still be able to get in the back although my subframes are also bolted behind the crossmember to give more legroom up front so there wouldn't be much in the rear with the way mine are done

 

Basically most of the gubbins underneath the seat is cut away but leaving a vertical part of the frame to which is bolted a right angle iron to give a flat surface to bolt the subframe to (tailored or otherwise)

 

The gubbins is cut at a bit of an angle to give the seat base some rake - probably would be nicer with a bit more but there is only a limited amount of metal frame left.

In theory I could play with the subframes to get more rake if needed though which I guess you couldn't do on a tailored version (are they raked as supplied?)

 

Unfortunatley I don't have any pictures - this was done when I got the seats (the guy had them on tailored - I happen to use universal to the floor to keep them lower)

 

Regs

[Badger1975]

Many thanks for the responses. Needless to say Ive not done anything with them yet. Going to wait until its a little warmer and I can justify working in the garage.

[Quincy Sparks]

Good thread - will be keeping an eye on it as I've got a pair of Tomcat coupe seats that I'm toying with using too, for similar reasons :)