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

Coda II

getting there slowly
My son has decided he wants to build a driving gaming rig using a car seat as a basis, which sounds a decent idea to me. Looking on the more obvious resale sites they seem a bit like s/h audio racks - no particular shortage but vendors don't really want to ship them. Added to which is the sat at the back of the garage 'just needs brushing down' appearance of a lot of them, we weren't getting anywhere fast.
So, are we looking in the wrong places? Trying a more traditional breakers tends to depend on looking from the point of view of a particular car first. At least with racing type seats they are listed singly rather than pairs but is it the sort of thing that actually gets well used then binned rather than swapped around?
Thank you
 
Maybe look at a few car owners clubs. Quite often, somebody will be breaking something for spares. Try and get a front passenger seat rather than drivers seat. Less likely to be knackered. Somewhere like the Mazda RX 8 owners club might be a start. Lots of breakers on there usually as there were loads sold, but the earlier engines tend to fail expensively rendering the rest of the car only good for spares.
 
GRP (go)Kart seats are cheap new, £50 upward - so might be worth investigating - could add 'snug/race' proper bucket-seat feel on a budget;and widely available.

(with which ,afterthought -how old/what sort of size is the lad? rolling-around inside a cheap but huge seat from the breakers isn't going to be much fun for say a10yr old... )
 
Get bean bag, not a million miles away from a bag seat, or an old plastic chair like the one's we had a school (Robin Day style) cut the back legs off a bit shorter than the front so it kicks up a bit at the front and write Tillet on it in a felt tip pen.
 
Maybe look at a few car owners clubs. Quite often, somebody will be breaking something for spares. Try and get a front passenger seat rather than drivers seat. Less likely to be knackered. Somewhere like the Mazda RX 8 owners club might be a start. Lots of breakers on there usually as there were loads sold, but the earlier engines tend to fail expensively rendering the rest of the car only good for spares.
great looking seats!
 
Absolutely, they have to look the part and a look on fleabay suggests you'd get a pair for £50, so great value.
 
A close friend of mine had a frame made for his driving game obsession. He got hold of the same bucket seat from his Arbarth, the frame it is built onto is very robust. The foot pedals and steering wheel are full size. Never used anything like that for gaming, it is realistic.
 
GRP (go)Kart seats are cheap new, £50 upward - so might be worth investigating - could add 'snug/race' proper bucket-seat feel on a budget;and widely available.

(with which ,afterthought -how old/what sort of size is the lad? rolling-around inside a cheap but huge seat from the breakers isn't going to be much fun for say a10yr old... )

He did look at kart seats but wants a bit more comfort. He's 15 now but over 6' tall, the main consideration on seat size is actually space rather than fit!

Lots of good suggestions, in normal times we would have taken a trip to the local recycling centre as a first option but they are having to close sporadically to manage the queues and deal with volume of stuff coming through.
I'd not heard of a bag seat, have to look that one up.

Similarly I wasn't aware of Y mount and W mount, which I gather is to do with whether fixings are on the side or underneath. Every day is a school day as they like to say down here.
 
I'd not heard of a bag seat, have to look that one up.
It's a way to a custom seat, you make up a 2 pack foam in a plastic bag in a basic seat mould (or a racing car) and sit on it. It expands around your body and then sets up, you let it harden and trim it to shape. Then cover it in cloth as needed. Obviously it fits that one person like a glove. I looked it up, Demon Tweeks website, bag seat kit. It's going to be £55 for the foam 2 pack so on that basis a Mazda seat found nearby for under £100 is a vastly better idea for what you want.
 
He did look at kart seats but wants a bit more comfort. He's 15 now but over 6' tall ...

How or when did that happen ..?!

Not long ago, harrumph, I remember attending a lovely day you hosted where the assembly ran through Cyrus equipment from Cyrus2s and several of the CD players, to the then latest & greatest monoblocks, and into a variety of speakers, esp. some large Vandersteens. Your lad was ...at the mewling & puking stage as far as I recall.

I remember suggesting that ESls might suit your taste for operatic material. You in turn gave me a thorough introduction & object lesson to listening to sim, inc. the aspect of squillo. Examples include a performance of Verd's Requiem - Dies Irae.

That was a great day; I learned much, and can now appreciate Opera - for which, thank-you.

(I still use ESls - big ones.)

ATB!
 
How or when did that happen ..?!

Not long ago, harrumph, I remember attending a lovely day you hosted where the assembly ran through Cyrus equipment from Cyrus2s and several of the CD players, to the then latest & greatest monoblocks, and into a variety of speakers, esp. some large Vandersteens. Your lad was ...at the mewling & puking stage as far as I recall.

I remember suggesting that ESls might suit your taste for operatic material. You in turn gave me a thorough introduction & object lesson to listening to sim, inc. the aspect of squillo. Examples include a performance of Verd's Requiem - Dies Irae.

That was a great day; I learned much, and can now appreciate Opera - for which, thank-you.

(I still use ESls - big ones.)

ATB!
Had much the same thought myself! He now comes along to shows with me; the immediately pre-lockdown Bristol show being the last time we left the county.
The Cyrus 6 integrated is still going strong and in daily use, have your Impulse speakers gone now?
 
Aha -That is interesting - I recall coming away thinking the '6' was the best -balanced overall,to my taste anyway.

As for me - I keep the Impulse horns; I've immense time for the big H2s yet, and had>15yrs of pleasure from them; besides which: either set works splendidly in the place I was about to move-to ( and remain) when you visited temp digs in the v-short-term interim, way back when; so mostly remains just like this (except currently I'm enjoying a mint Quad FM4 in the tuner slot)
 
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.
 
If you buy a pair of seats, perhaps look at making up two “rigs” and selling one on - maybe recouping enough to make it worthwhile?
 
Have a look on ebay for Alfa Romeo GT/GTA leather seats. You can often pick them up for 50 odd in decent shape. There are usually always a few around because they fit VW transporters.
 


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