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Sourcing a s/h bucket seat (to be re-purposed)

Graham B said:
A decent car or racing bucket seat certainly has potential, but you would need to buy or build a frame for the wheel & pedals etc. For simplicity, Currys offer this among other options: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gamin...7-gaming-chair-black-orange-10164407-pdt.html

There’s an unused one on FB marketplace in Cambridge for £80. It scores 7.9/10 across 230 reviews, so it should be reasonable and might do the job with less hassle if you can find something similar near to you.
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Christ, end of thread! So the purpose built, unused, as new, ready to go solution is £80, when a car seat is going to be £50 all day long and you have to build a load more stuff and make it work? Get to Cambridge. As ever, don't build it if you can buy it.

That is of course unless you want to build this together, as an activity, offering education, teamwork, father/son bonding, etc, in which case you have a reason to build it and not buy it.
 
Graham B said:
A decent car or racing bucket seat certainly has potential, but you would need to buy or build a frame for the wheel & pedals etc. For simplicity, Currys offer this among other options: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gamin...7-gaming-chair-black-orange-10164407-pdt.html

There’s an unused one on FB marketplace in Cambridge for £80. It scores 7.9/10 across 230 reviews, so it should be reasonable and might do the job with less hassle if you can find something similar near to you.
I have no experience of these things or that brand however - this was only after a brief search, although I have been vaguely thinking about something similar for flight simulator.
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I did look that up and show it to him (across the room) this morning. Brief glance at the screen, then 'Is that the ADX?' 'gets really poor reviews from people who have actually used them etc.' Apparently there are various aspects to do with lack of rigidity and mounting points which cause issues. The main point being that he is actually doing some proper research before committing to anything, which is good to see.
The subsequent replies have it I think - what passes for GCSEs this year will be coming to an end in a couple of weeks and so a 'project' is something to have in the future. Having found a few options online, a decent looking Impreza seat for example that could have been shipped, the pendulum is now swinging back towards something more track oriented - OMP is the brand that seems plausible. It looks like the fixings will be easier to work with and there aren't the extra bits and pieces that get built in to road seats.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Yes, my reading of this was that the building was as important here as the usable end product.
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In that case it's a fantastic project. Not to be underestimated though. I'm good at this stuff and it would make me think. A 15 year old would be very stretched by it. My dad's a retired CDT teacher, he used to do stuff like this with his more able GCSE kids, and this would have been very much the outer envelope of what the more skilled ones who were prepared to put in a LOT of time and effort would achieve.
 
stevec67 said:
In that case it's a fantastic project. Not to be underestimated though. I'm good at this stuff and it would make me think. A 15 year old would be very stretched by it. My dad's a retired CDT teacher, he used to do stuff like this with his more able GCSE kids, and this would have been very much the outer envelope of what the more skilled ones who were prepared to put in a LOT of time and effort would achieve.
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I'm trying to steer him towards pre-built bits of framework as far as possible for exactly the reasons you give. His old toddler bed frame for example is pretty much exactly the right size for a base to build up from.
 
Coda II said:
I'm trying to steer him towards pre-built bits of framework as far as possible for exactly the reasons you give. His old toddler bed frame for example is pretty much exactly the right size for a base to build up from.
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That makes a lot of sense. If you can repurpose an existing structure then it's almost always cheaper than the raw materials. I recently sold a ski machine home exercise thing, in the end it went for £10. It had a metal frame, hardwood components, all sorts. The metal alone in it was more than that. You could have bolted a seat to that very easily and gone on to attach a pedal box and steering column.
 
Coda II said:
I'm trying to steer him towards pre-built bits of framework as far as possible for exactly the reasons you give. His old toddler bed frame for example is pretty much exactly the right size for a base to build up from.
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Apologies, I wasn’t trying to kill the thread earlier, honest!

If you’re going to build it as a joint project that sounds excellent. You could use pictures of commercially available sets to give you an idea of what goes where, materials to use etc. There are also lots of gaming / simulator forums where people post pictures of their own setups which might help for inspiration.

If you do use a proper racing seat, the manufacturer might be able to help you with mounting brackets and adjustable runners if you need. Corbeau made a set for me years ago to fit some of their seats in my car at the time, and the other manufacturers may do the same.
 
You can pick up out-of-date rally car seats for a song. They have to be replaced every few years for MSA regulations so they are no use for competition work any more but are usually in good condition. Speak to any local car club that is involved in stage rallying.
 
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