Decided to do some seat work today. Its not out in the garage… I did with my dogs help in front of the TV. She mostly watched, but still…
These showed up from the UPS man the other day.
They are Kirkey model 47 Intermediate Road Race Seats. I got the 17″ wide version, which fits me quite well. The belts are RCI Platinum Series Kam-Lok 3″ racing harness’s.
First thing I did was cut the Kirkey label off the seats. They are rubber and I dont feel like doing all that advertising if I’m not getting paid. Then it’s time to install some seat heaters!
I’m installing Cobraheat waterproof seat heaters from Mike Forte at https://www.fortefactoryfive.com/. He’s a great supporter of this industry and sells a quality product.
Some guys had stripped the padding out of their seats to install the heaters right up against the fabric. I wasnt crazy about that and wasn’t sure I could put it all back together correctly. So I decided to install the heaters against the seat frame, but insulate it to project the heat into the seat. After researching some insulation type fabric stuff, I came up with some thermal batting called Insul-Bright., available right down the road at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Off I go and buy 1 sq yard for $7.99.
I cut this piece in half so it gave me a piece that 1.5′ wide by 3 feet long. Test fit it on the seat with a single piece of double sided aircraft carpet tape across the top.
Marked it, trimmed it,
taped the seat with more of the same tape,
…and stuck it all on there.
Next came the heaters. The back, or upper, heater I decided to install full length. The lower heater wouldn’t fit, so I cut and trimmed it to fit. This is no problem with the elements as long as you are cutting the length. If you try to cut the width, you’ll cut off the power strips inside and then you’ll be cold. These I opted to spray glue onto the insulating batting because I felt the tape on the batting could end up doing something weird when it gets hot and maybe shifting.
So hopefully this will prevent the aluminum seats from becoming big heatsinks and soaking up all my seat heat when I need it the most. I’ve heard from other owners that it still works well and actually works to radiate the heat through all the padding.
Snapped the covers back on and snatched a pic real quick. Tomorrow I’ll get them wired up and see if they work…
By the way, sat in one and watched a movie this evening. They are pretty comfy… cant wait to drive in em. 🙂