Thanks for all the good advice on seat options to meet the new DE rules by PCA for seat/harness/rollbar set ups. I came down to Recaro Speed 5 (tuner with 5pt sub slot) or Cobra Imola (comfy, reasonable access race seat with reg and lg sizes). The good folks at Sube Sorts were very helpful and have the set heading my way ( Reg for driver side and lg for passenger side).

So Now for Phase II
1. remove OEM seats with side air bag
2. install runner/slider
3. install seats

TWO Questions ????? I cannot find in a "Search"

Q 1 - Any tricks to stock seat removal? Looks pretty simple. New custom frame/slider set up uses stock bolt holes

Q2 - What about the air bag thing? Sensors, plug in resistors??? Could not find thread info on it except buy info on a NISMO plug $34.95 each??

 

I would try to sit in a cobra suzuka seat before locking in on the imola. I use mine in my daily driver and absolutely love it. Try before you buy.

In terms of the airbag lights, do a search on resistor to find the right $1 resistor from radioshack that you can use to keep that airbag light off. If you are comfortable soldering or tapping wires, this is very cost effective solution.

Q2 seat removal tricks: Only one I can think of is to be very carefull removing the 4 bolts. There is a nut welded on the bottom of the floor board that can break off and leave you with an expensive repair at the fab shop.
If you are over 6ft tall, you might not be able to get away with sliders. Custom rails are typically better than the off the shelf stuff too.

Good luck, once you have them in you'll wish you upgraded sooner.

 

+1...I'm 5'11" and am using JIC's sliders w/ their seat, w/ my helmet on, the top of the helmet just barely rubs the roof. (it actually perfect for me - for autoX, being as high as possible is how I like it.)

for the airbag stuff: disconnect the batter before doing any of the work...if the battery is ever connected at the same time the airbag connector is off, the airbag light will start blinking, and will require several involved steps to get rid of it (IIRC an OBDII scanner tool can also remove it).

 

There's a simple key trick to get rid of the air bag light.

If you do a search you will find it. Takes 2 minutes.

 

yeah...but it's just one of those annoying things to me

 

Thanks all for the info and suggstions on my Q's


On the air bag light issue? I have searched "air bag light" and I get some confusing info. My seats are 03 OEM with side air bag in the seat.

I saw a post about 07 air bags with weight sensors, wrapping them up and putting the NISMO resistor on each. Is this the simple method? This post also inculded a long sequanece of air bag and on and off techiques, and one post said to disconnect the battery before doing anything.

If I go to Radio Shack, get the 2.2 resistors, is that all I need to do? What rewire do I do with the OEM connections to plug in the new RS resistor, or the $35 NISMO resistor?

I am a bit confused about my 03 OEM seats and air bag light. Which of all of these actions is the best route for my 03 seat remove?

 

Radio Shack says - "Do not have a 2.2 ohm resistor" "How many amps" he said. "Try a commercial electronics supply house down town"

Humm - What to think??

 

Follow the info in this thread. I used the radio shack resistors that he listed and it worked for me. It's really no hard to do. If you are not comfortable doing it, than the nismo is a great alternative for a few more dollars. I'm a cheap bastard so was ok with the radio shack route.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....29#post1560829

 

Great Link - Just right - I am no elect whiz but a dark beer will get my neighbor Elect Eng off the couch!

Thanks for the tips

 

Job Done! - Thanks for all the help - Ready for DE's this spring - Barber first up in a few weeks.

The install went very soothly with the custom 350Z frames for Sube Sport, sliders, and the Cobra Imola seats. The best feature of the custom 350 frame is the flange to hold the seat belt harness (female). It makes the OEM seat belt as easy to use for street use as the OEM seats were - very helpful feature. The seat belt wire just slipped back into it mate attached on the air bag light switch.

Ended up with the Cobra Imola GT (lg) seats on both side. The reg size did not fit right. It would seem pretty tough for entery and exit for me if I had the higher sided Suzukas for 60% street use. "Just right" as Goldie Locks says. I did use the NISMO air bag dummy resistors. Just no time, skills or patienece to do the Radio Shack deal by self. I did disconnect the battery before I did the install. I got all done and hooked up the battery, started the engine, attached my seat belt and no lights were flashing at me - all is well. The seats as quite comfortable. The detachable foam pads on the back and bottom can be taken out to add additional padding as needed for seat lumbar or other spots. The seat shoulder wings do not hit the door (even the large seats), and the slip under the roll bar with just a bit of room left. The 3" harness with sub strap does put me in my place.

Thanks to all of you who were so helpful with timely assistance. No instructions come with any of the products, only voluminous WARANINGs that this product may be dangerous to your health, for just about everything, so you were my install instructors! You did a great job.

Safe tracking. Tomzz

 

Are you attending the Mar 8-9 PCA event at Barber?

I am..

 

great job. Post some pics when you get a chance. Did the Sube Sport setup make the seat higher than the stock seat with the sliders?

 

I will get some pics posted this week.

Height with Sube frame? It seems to be slightly higher but not much more than OEM. The driving position seems to be the same for me. The slider adds about 7/8 inch to the build up since it is a separate layer between the frame and the seat. I presume that is the same for most sliders. It looks like the head rest (top) is about the same height as OEM and my helmet is about the same distance to the roof.

 

So the sube base mount fit with the wide width seat??
They told me that it wouldn't work with mine which is why I spent $$ to get a custom mount.
My custom mount lowers my seat over the stock seat so I probably would have had to go custom anyway though.

 

Hi Dave,


When I ordered my Cobra wide seats from Sube sports, they said that the standard Cobra frame did not work on 350z's so they had a local guy manufacture frames just for the 350z. They came marked 350Z pass and 350Z driver

The Cobra sliders then went on top with the seats next. The seats are a bit highers than stock. The seat top does go under the Kirk roll bar. The rearward motion is only limited by the seat shoulder wings. The wing points do not touch the door panel. My surprise was how well the stock seat belts work with the seats. The connection flange they have on the frame does a great job of accepting the stock seat belt hardware and is in a very good position for ease of street use.

The seats fit great. They are snug even the wide version so they should be good for the track.

Off to Barber this weekend to try them out with a 4 hr road trip and a PCA DE track test with Lase1 as a pit fellow.

Here we go!