The Stock gem seats leave much to be desired. For all intent and pourpous they work just fine and do the job. But the fact that they don’t recline (lean back) makes me feel like I’m in a very up right position. I’m going to have all of my interior re done and it didn’t make sence for me to re-do the stock seats when I didn’t like them, so I started searching C-list I found these seats for $100. They came out of a 99 Mitsubishi eclipse. They recline and adjust a bunch more then the stockers and they feel like they hold you in the seat a bunch more.
The seat tracks need to be modified to work with a GEM but I have my fabricator friend “on the job” he is going to weld up some mounts so these will bolt into the stock GEM mounting location.
Please post pictures of the new bracket and a quick FAQ about what you had to do to make them work and some installed pics… I am very interested in doing something like this with new seat. I do not want to re-cover the stocks…
Also looking for solution/options to change the rear seat.
I just so happend to get One of the seats back today from my fabricator friend. I have been busy with other GEM projects and he finally got around to getting the New seet brakets done.
I didn’t know it when I bought the seats but the way they mounted in the car they came out of (Mitsubishi eclipse) it had a very UN even floor from the factory. The factory brakets were quite odd. This made making them fit in the gem quite difficult.
When looking for a set of replacment seets I recomend getting Seets that have 4 even brakets. This will make retrofitting them into the GEM much easy’er
I have done swaps in jeeps in the past and even from model to model they are wildly different. I was hoping you had found an easier solution. Please keep us informed and I would love to see pics before you mount them up.
Did you cut away everything beyond the adjusting track and start over?
GEM seats are basically weather proof. Do you keep your machine garaged?
Rodney yes I keep my gym in the garage and you can never sit out in the rain. The seats are currently covered in the material that would not do well if they want to get wet. However when I reupholster them I will use a marine read final so I think it will work fineif they were to get wet.
Here is a picture of the seat bracket I had made up
One more pic of the seet base the rails are adjustable so the seet can be adjusted side to side if needed
Exellent.
Fortunately my seats fit me in the stock mounting position so I don’t need adjustment. My steering column is 2 inches shorter though. Gives me a better stance. I am doing all EZ Steer columns to that length now.
How much have you got left to do?
Here is what it looks like side by side with a stock seet
As you can imagin the seet is a huge differance. Just sitting in any seat that has sides you feel safer like your not going to be rolled out of the car on a sharp turn. It will recline as well as scoot back further then stock so you have quite a bit of adjustment
There are several aftermarket seat covers for racing seats that are waterproof and will work until you decide to re-cover. Most are neoprene and come in allot of different colors and combinations.
Thanks for the tip on the covers but I’m going to have them professionally recovered.
I took the seat back to my fabricator and we discussed other options because. I think the frame that he fabricated up that utilized all the stock mounting points was brilliant. But it makes the seat sit rather high and The frame is rather large. And sticks out quite a bit It might not be a parent now but I’m pretty sure when the bodywork gets put back on you will notice the big square mounted below the seat. My fabricator friend is going to come up with a new mounting method that utilizes the stock GEM seet tracks
The idea will be to hide the sea tracks under the seat itself similar to stock.
Suggest you find a comfortable position and permanently mount it. My seats are fixed and I never had the urge to change the position. Makes a lot cleaner installation. You might drill alternate position holes in the fiber glass for future position changes.
[quote=Gwest;23172]Thanks for the tip on the covers but I’m going to have them professionally recovered.
I took the seat back to my fabricator and we discussed other options because. I think the frame that he fabricated up that utilized all the stock mounting points was brilliant. But it makes the seat sit rather high and The frame is rather large. And sticks out quite a bit It might not be a parent now but I’m pretty sure when the bodywork gets put back on you will notice the big square mounted below the seat. My fabricator friend is going to come up with a new mounting method that utilizes the stock GEM seet tracks
The idea will be to hide the sea tracks under the seat itself similar to stock.[/quote]
I have done this similar thing in jeep as I mentioned, never to a GEM. What I did was to cut the tabs off the lower track and fabricate everything from that point down. Sorry I dont have pics of the last one I did. I did notice in your picture that the frame appeared very wide and appeared that it would stop doors from closing if you had them.
With both seats set in place, is the GEM wide enough to accommodate them without the seat protruding past the edge of the seat box towards the doors on the outside and will they interfere with the operation of the emergency brake lever? If the GEM will accommodate both seats width then modifying the bases should be easy enough. Good luck, I am looking forward to your pictures.
Here is a pic of the New and improved low profile seat brakets
Here is the underside it’s using the factory tracks
That looks much cleaner. Will you remove the seat belt attachment and keep the GEM factory seat belt system? If you are going to use the new seat and seat belt point verify the mechanism works with the GEM seat belt tongue. FYI, I have never had them be compatible but with a dremel and a grinder I have been able to retrofit. May be better to lose the new ones mounted tot he seat and cover over that hole.
Cant wait to see them completed. Good luck.