Speedster Seats

[Edwin Ek]

Isn't it true that the purpose of the darts was to hold a rod which secured the upholstery as opposed to rip holes in the upholstery?

[Bil Brown]

Edwin.......no, the darts were used to attach the fabric, no rod.

[Al Zim]

We can ship steel or aluminum speedster seats to you tomorrow February 8. These are made in Germany Please look at our vendor ad for these seats. al zim Zim's Autotechnik 800.356.2964 See our ad on the inside cover of the Registry Magazine.

[Brooks Herrick]

Put me in the rod camp.
My original steel speedster seats have "darts" on the inner and outer parts of the shell. On the inner shell (where your butt goes), there are 5 darts located approximately where the side fabric (vinyl) meets the seat cushion and back cushion, for a total of 10 darts per seat. They are spaced +/- 14cm/5.5" apart. These "darts" are triangular shaped and fabricated/punched from small rectangular pieces of sheet metal (+/- 22mmx30mm) that were then spot welded to the shell. The seat's side fabric/vinyl is sewn tightly around a 3mm diameter rod, approximately 63cm/25" long. The rod with fabric/vinyl is hooked onto the 5 "darts". This forms an anchor for the fabric/vinyl which is then stretched over the seat sides and hooked onto the darts that are located on the outer part of the shell. The outer "darts" are different from the inner darts in that they are simply triangular "darts" punched from the seat shell itself. So, if you want to use original construction techniques when upholstering speedster seats, me thinks you gotta have the "darts"

[Bil Brown]

Brooks......pictures please!

[Al Zim]

These are pictures off our web site. Additional picture of a aluminum seat in the Vendor section. Please contact me if you have any other questions.

[Brooks Herrick]

bil brown:
Tried to upload some photos, but received the message on the first photo, " The attachment file size is too large...." And I was going to try and upload five photos?! I am at my technological limit with this stuff. What kind of voodoo magic do I have to perform?

[Brooks Herrick]

This is my first attempt at resizing photos, so they can be uploaded.....

The original upholstery color was red, but the previous owner turned it into black, but only on the outwardly visible surfaces...hence the red/black color combo.

[Edwin Ek]

Brooks, thanks for the pictures! That's what I thought. Darts tearing directly into the fabric wouldn't allow much tension or be very durable.

[Adam Wright]

Something that none of the aluminum or steel repro Speedster seats have.....are the punched out little darts to attach the upholstery to. I mentioned that to both of the vendors that were pitching seats at RennV, but neither knew what I was talking about!

Here are some close ups of the "darts, both inner and outer.

[David Foster]

I am thinking of fitting speedster seats to my roadster. I have a pair of steel zim seats. If iI use the GT Steel frame as opposed to the wood will the seat be lower ?
Some times big guys driving speedsters look they are driving a toy car.

[Bil Brown]

David......yes, it will lower the seat by about an inch.....and if you don`t use the hinges, even lower. I bolted the upper seat rails right to the bottom of my seat......no hinges.

[David Foster]

David......yes, it will lower the seat by about an inch.....and if you don`t use the hinges, even lower. I bolted the upper seat rails right to the bottom of my seat......no hinges.

Thanks Bill

[Greg Scallon]

David,
Here is a post I did years ago. I made a low-profile seat frame for my speedster seat, that let me sit much lower in the car than when using the stock frame. Some of the images got dinged up during the move to our new servers, but most are still there. It may give you some ideas.

My seat frame does away with the hinge, in order to sit you lower, but it retains the ability to move the seat up and back. I didn't need the hinge, and haven't noticed it missing in the many years since I made the new seat frame.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8549

Good luck with your project.
-Greg

[Al Zim]

Zim's Autotechnik has been installing the darts on the seats we have sold but we no longer do that because it is time consuming. We purchased the tooling from Europe years ago and it is in good condition. We also have two bags of dart reinforcements exactly like the original ones. The instructions are included. Price $575.00 plus shipping. al zim 800.356.2964