Anything and everything Vitesse.

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Hi has anyone tried fitting stag mkII seats in a vitesse convertible? - they look quite nice and have headrests

I think that Stag seats would probably look great in a Vitesse, although I have never actually seen a set fitted.

I imagine that you would need to modify the floorpans; I did for my Jaguar XJS seats, and they are a relatively narrow seat (see photo). I had to alter the shape of the floors around the propshaft tunnel, as well as fabricate four new brackets for the rear fixings for the seat runners; these would otherwise float in mid-air as the seats are designed for a car with flat floors and Vitesse floors slope down to form the rear footwells (the original Triumph brackets were in the wrong place, of course!). It was a lot of work but, as you mention, you do get the benefit of headrests and a very much more supportive seat. They are also recliners but in convertble this is fairly academic as the hoodwell somewhat impedes travel.

If you do the conversion I'd like to see some pics.

Regards,

Tom

Yours look excellent - it does seem like a lot of work, though.

Hi Tom,

I'm fitting a pair of xjs seats just like yours, I don't suppose you took pictures along the way did you? Any dimensions or sketches you made along the way would come in very handy as well, if you still have them.

Thanks, Russ

These 2 photos may help?

Jaguar XJ6 Series 2 seats.

Non-recliners, but I know that Tom previously used reclining XJ6C seats.

Not much point in having the XJ6 seats as recliners though, because the B-posts get in the way.

I believe the XJS seats may be narrower?

The reason I include the photos is so you can see the bracketry on the floorpan.

Regards

L&195;&169;on

Note that those 'boxes' on the altered floorpan were constructed professionally by Curran Auto Repairs of Merstham, Surrey, to accept the Jaguar ball-race seat runners, much better than the Triumph version.

L

Very useful, thanks very much for taking the time to show me that, Leon.

Cheers, Russ

Hi,

I have taken some photos of the brackets that I made up for the project. I did a "cut'n'shut" (I had to careful with the spelling of this!) job on a pair of front-bulkhead-mounting brackets for the outer rear fixings. For the inner (nearest the handbrake) brackets, I just made something out of some new steel. The job was made much easier for me by the fact that, as Leon correctly says, I had previously had a pair of XJC seats in the car, and the floors had already been modified. When I say "modified", I mean with the aid of a sledgehammer. I'm not joking; an ex-tssc-member, who had set himself up a Triumph specialist, helped me do this; well the truth is, he hit my floors very hard with said hammer whilst I had to look away and block my ears. Anyway, it resulted in a slightly narrower prop-shaft tunnel and an accordingly greater amount of space for the XJC seats, which are of course bigger than Vitesse seats. Saying that, they are only a little wider than the Vitesse ones; they are in fact surprisingly compact. I attribute this to the sporty feel that Jaguar wanted, and of course, if you recall, the old XJ had a very wide centre console. I will try and download a couple of pics of the XJS bracketry in due course....

Regards,

Tom

Thanks Tom, that would be helpful.

I too have come to the conclusion that the 3 lb 'persuader' might have an outing in the near future! Either re-shape the tunnel, or mount the seats quite high, therefore gaining a bit of roomto manoeuvre as the tunnel flattens off towards the top. I don't want to be bug-catching with my teeth though!

Anyway, look forward to seeing some pics. Good spelling, well done

You are not likely to be too high in the seat, but you might want to make sure that the front, er...'thigh support' is higher than the back of the seat 'squab', so as to avoid 'submarining', or sliding forward under braking?

L

Yes, absolutely right. Also, it would feel quite uncomfortable having to keep shuffling back on the seat if mounted at the wrong angle.

At the moment, I am looking into fabricating supports from the runners using 2"x2" aluminium angle, which being bolt-together, makes the whole process reversible if I (or the next owner) have a change of heart about the seats in the future. However, this would be very agricultural, compared to the fabrication of 'proper' mounts (as in your pictures) made from sheet steel.

Whatever I do, it had better be quick, because in 3 months time I am going to be a Dad (touchwood) and therefore will lose all available spare time, or so my friends with children tell me!

Ho-hum..

Section : Bodywork and Interior

Stag Seats In A Vitesse

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