Seat swap

General conversations about BMW E28s and the people who own them.
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bigjay973
Posts: 391
Joined: Nov 06, 2011 7:43 PM
Location: newark nj.

Seat swap

Post by bigjay973 »

Can e46 seats be used In a e28? If not what seats can be modified?
wkohler
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Location: Phönix, Arizona, USA
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Post by wkohler »

They can work. jjcar and I'm sure others have put them in. Basically just involves making some brackets. Lots of other seat options. E34, E36, etc. use the search function for more information.
oldskool
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Location: coastal north carolina
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Post by oldskool »

"Searchy" must have the night off. . .
cactusjacks1
Posts: 520
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: Orange County CA

E46 manual seats in a E28

Post by cactusjacks1 »

E46 manuals installed in an e28. It was necessary to make brackets in-order to mount them correctly. They are offset to the center for the e46 & we needed to move them out towards the door @ 1 1/2" to properly fit the tunnel & center the drivers seat to the steering wheel. It was not that hard.
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Nosis
Posts: 331
Joined: Nov 25, 2009 10:38 PM
Location: Denver

Post by Nosis »

:shock: Those look awesome!
briangelc
Posts: 48
Joined: Feb 18, 2014 4:26 PM

Re: Seat swap

Post by briangelc »

cant see it, but how did you anchor the seatbelt?
cactusjacks1
Posts: 520
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: Orange County CA

Re: Seat swap

Post by cactusjacks1 »

Look in the first picture - it anchors to the same spot at the side/rear of the seat as it did in it's original car.
briangelc
Posts: 48
Joined: Feb 18, 2014 4:26 PM

Re: Seat swap

Post by briangelc »

The e46 seats I bought have no seat belt bracket for the b-pillar side. I noticed that some e 46 do have a built in bracket . If not you can use a bracket from the center tunnel side of the OTHER seat. Never downsize hardware, and always use grade 8 hardware when supplying your own nuts and bolts
It appeared at first that since the e46 seat bolted into the e28 two front seat holes, that the rails were of equal width. Therefore, all I had to do is move the e46 seat 1.25 inches towards the left, and slghtly forward, and it would fit correctly. Wrong. My measurements seemed fine,but the holes did not line up. There was a lot of "adjustment" holes afterwards, andeventuallyi just started bending metal.
My advice is to drill oversized holes
Bobby Swoops
Posts: 16
Joined: Jun 04, 2014 2:25 AM
Location: Albuquerque

Re: E46 manual seats in a E28

Post by Bobby Swoops »

cactusjacks1 wrote:E46 manuals installed in an e28. It was necessary to make brackets in-order to mount them correctly. They are offset to the center for the e46 & we needed to move them out towards the door @ 1 1/2" to properly fit the tunnel & center the drivers seat to the steering wheel. It was not that hard.
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Is anyone selling these brackets? Need them in my life. Thanks.
kodachrome
Posts: 110
Joined: Mar 30, 2019 6:54 AM
Location: Wellington, NZ

Re: E46 manual seats in a E28

Post by kodachrome »

Bobby Swoops wrote:
cactusjacks1 wrote:E46 manuals installed in an e28. It was necessary to make brackets in-order to mount them correctly. They are offset to the center for the e46 & we needed to move them out towards the door @ 1 1/2" to properly fit the tunnel & center the drivers seat to the steering wheel. It was not that hard.
Image



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Is anyone selling these brackets? Need them in my life. Thanks.
Anyone got the dimensions of the adapter? Frustrating to post up the just the image!
John in VA
Posts: 5295
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: Leesburg, VA

Re: E46 manual seats in a E28

Post by John in VA »

kodachrome wrote:Anyone got the dimensions of the adapter? Frustrating to post up the just the image!
You're lucky the pix are still displayed! Many photo hosts have changed policies & the pix have been lost.
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