RE: Sparco or Corbeau seats for 74 GTV? (LONG)

["MSI: John Christensen" <JohnC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<<I am going to replace the front seats in my 1974 GTV and
was wondering if anyone had any experience they could
offer, and/or seat recommendations. I have been considering
either the Sparco Star or the Corbeau GT7.>>

Oh man, you really shouldn't get me started on this topic.  Shortly before
Christmas, I looked at new seats for my '69 GTV.  My local speed shop
(Speedware in Redmond, WA) explained that Wedge Engineering makes the
required adapter brackets for the Alfa, so I wouldn't need to fabricate
anything to install the aftermarket seats.  The voice in the back of my head
- -- the one that usually informs me that I'm about to experience car-related
pain -- told me to avoid the cheaper mail-order sources for the new seats
(Sparco Sprints) and just buy everything from Speedware in case something
went wrong.  It's a good thing I took that approach.

To set the stage, you need to understand what the bracket does and how it
fits into the final assembly.  Each bracket should have 8 bolt holes for a
Sparco seat: 4 "seat-holes" through which bolts pass and attach the bracket
to the bottom of the seat and 4 "floor-holes" through which bolts pass and
attach the bracket to the stock seat-mounting holes on the car's floor.
Pretty simple, right? 

The first set of brackets from Wedge were two inches too short and
consequently the "floor-holes" didn't line up with the GTV's seat-mounting
holes -- i.e. the brackets wouldn't fit the car.  The second attempt
appeared to have the "floor-holes" properly aligned, but this time they
built the brackets for Recaros, not Sparcos -- i.e. now they wouldn't fit
the seats!  The third attempt arrived Tuesday and things were still wrong.
The parts looked like hell, needed slight modification to fit the seats (I
had to elongate the "seat-holes" with a Dremel tool), and the "floor-holes"
were also slightly off on the passenger side and significantly off on the
driver's side. The latter problem *may* be a result of large production line
tolerances at Alfa.  I still need to measure the floor to see if the
dimensions on the driver & passenger sides are the same.

Speedware has been very helpful throughout the process and has offered to
fix everything this Saturday (I'm tired of grinding away metal).  I plan to
drop the car off that morning and pick it up after lunch with newly
installed seats.  I'll let you know if they are worth the trouble :-)

- -John
Seattle, WA
'69 GTV

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