I haven't finished the install yet but plan to this weekend. The Cayman is getting new seats, oil change, new oil filter adapter, new plugs, tightening the exhaust mid pipe. I don't like having too many small tasks on my mind so I get the small ones out of the way.

I need to go buy some cinching straps to pull back the roll bar like you did. I'm not crazy about the idea of the roll bar having tension energy which puts a strain on the bolts and mounting points. The bar should sit in place without tension. but there's no way I'll be able to mandrel bend the pipes. looks like about a foot off the bottom it needs to be bent about an inch backward to fit properly and idk what the f Kirk was thinking when they designed this POS. but I'm putting up with it because $1,000 for a replacement. I actually do have a weld on roll bar as well but that's for a stripped car, not going to use it.

I actually did find a used pair of rear Akebonos so those went into the powder coating shop and the shop had to redo one of the Brembos so they're just finishing them all. point being, the car is waiting on those parts anyway so there's no hurry on the interior. I just would like to have the bar and seats mounted this weekend. when the brakes are done, the car will almost be ready to drive. I still need to pull the JWT clutch out of the '03 to swap them but that's going to wait.

 

awesome 4-day weekend for me coming to close now and I am hella tired and sore! The roll bar is in and looks great. The seats would be in if the Corbeau brackets weren't such horsesh1t. I've tried mounting directly without the sliders and the seat is a couple inches too far forward. with the sliders it's totally hopeless. I can't even get in with the helmet on let alone wear it. pushing the seat forward and leaning it back as far as it'll go, my helmet hits the top of the roll bar which is not gonna work.

TBH, these sh1tty brackets are too tall even without the sliders. I have had no problems with the brackets in my Cayman or Z3 which are also rocking Corbeau seats. this is a unique design flaw only with the 350Z, no other bracket has this problem that I know of.

I don't want to go to a side mount so I will have to take them to a welding shop and have the brackets modified. or maybe I could modify them myself. bend/hammer the feet into shape, drill new holes. IDK. I'm really pissed about this. I sent Corbeau a wrathful email. this after they sent me two driver side brackets for the Cayman. so I'm not too happy with those guys right now. wasting my goddamn time is what they're doing. these 350Z brackets should be described as blanks for a seat bracket project.

 

I think they ones I used on the driver's side were Planted and they look to be at least an inch lower, they are flat right on the floorboard.
https://www.plantedtechnology.com/pl...iver-left.html


The pass side is another beast altogether, on that side due to the floor shape you'll really need a bracket that the seat falls into to get it low enough to be usable for taller people.

 

thanks for the link. that looks like exactly what I needed.
since these corbeau brackets are useless, I might as well beat them up and try to bend and cut and drill to see if I can get them to work before buying new ones. The only way they would even remotely work is with shaved A4 seats.

 

My concern would be weakening the metal by bending it too much. But I guess it's worth a try...

 

I'm going to try the shop press. The welds look very strong so the corners should be able to bend an inch. If not, getting a welding shop to redo them probably won't cost very much. and I can fall back on the planted if that fails

 

thats crazy about the kirk racing bar, mine was definitely not that far off, oh well at least you got it in. As far as the seat brackets I feel your pain. I had a set of sparco and the passenger side was so high it was unusable, I ended up switching to these: https://zakustech.com/collections/se...-seat-brackets
They are the lowest I could find. The driver side is the same as the sparco, but the passenger is much lower. I would not modify the brackets, I would have a pro cut/ weld them.

 

I had the same issue with seat brackets years ago. The installer fabricated a nice driver side one from scratch and modified a passenger one to fit well there. Not sure why no one can manufacture something decent for the 350z after all these years.
Good luck.

 

:-)

 

Ok, I just told myself screw it and ordered the Planted bracket. $200 will be worth it to not screw with this GD seat problem anymore. thanks for the suggestions here. I'll deal with the passenger seat later.
​​​​

 

Wow! Corbeau called me this morning in response to my complaint email about the 350Z brackets. I explained how they are useless and I've had to order brackets from Planted. He offered to take them back. I explained that I had hammered on the drivers bracket for fitment and it's flaking a bit around the bolt hole, and he said no problem they will just refinish it, and keeping me happy as a customer is more important to them. now that is some great customer service! a full refund with free return shipping on brackets I bought over 6 months ago.

 

Good to hear of proper customer service these day, so many companies have little to no support.

 

thats awesome, good to hear bro!

 

finally got all of the calipers back from the powder coating shop, just wanted to show how they all turned out. I know the Akebono fronts are a different tint of red, and I should have gotten the rears done in a darker tint, but I don't care... not that picky... If anything I would get the fronts done in the lighter tint.

so I think that's about it, time to get this car put back together and insured and on the road again... The planted seat bracket shipped... The car has been in the same spot for 12 months now so it's going to be fun to drive it again. probably won't feel anything like it used to with all of the work done to it.
​​​​​​

 

once they get hot they will change color anyway. turned out nice

 

compared to other threads around here, I just have trivial progress, but step by step it gets done... I'll just share a few photos of what I've done lately. The car is one weekend away from being back on the road. I'm waiting on rear caliper bolts and pads.

 

ran into a snag between the RPF1 18x9.5 and the sport Akebono fronts. it's very tight but almost fits and it's rubbing at the lower seam between the two halves of the caliper. I'm just going to have to sand it. The rears look fine.

 

That's way closer than my wheels, I've got planty of room. Just make sure any weights on the wheels are not attached where they will get jammed in there.

 

damn, thats a tight fit!

 

I didn't know the RPF1s were so narrow inside until putting these brakes on. I put a fresh new wheel on the sander and took off some of the material at the top and bottom of the caliper and that cleared up the rubbing. but, you're right about weights... Damn... hopefully the tire shop can put weights deeper inside the wheel well. I don't know if that's possible with the way balancing works.

using the OEM wheels I was able to get the car back on its wheels for the first time in 12 months. that felt really good. I started it up with the new 75 mm TB and the Z1 exhaust and it is really damn loud and I love it... I'm working like a mad to get the car ready for next Saturday at thunderhill but idk if it'll be ready in time. The suspension needs tuning or it's going to wear out my tires quickly.






​​​​​
​​​​​