Racing seat strength?
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Fiberglass, Fabrication, and Interiors
Forum Discription: Fiberglass Kick Panels, Subwoofer Enclosures, Plexiglas, Fabrics, Materials, Finishes, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=48738
Printed Date: April 28, 2024 at 11:13 AM
Topic: Racing seat strength?
Posted By: realitycheck
Subject: Racing seat strength?
Date Posted: January 27, 2005 at 4:03 PM
Alright guys pretty soon when it warms up, i'm going to be attempting to make my own racing seats for my mustang. I know the design of what I want to make and all that. I am going to make a fiberglass/foam sandwich piece. So I will construct the seat out of foam and then cover it in fiberglass. I've been reading though on different strengths of glass, and my question is this. What should I cover the foam in???? Should I start off with like a layer of roving and then put a layer of mat on it, then another layer of roving and then mat, and the same thing one more time??? Or should I do something different, any suggestions please. I need it to be super super strong since this will have to hold the weight and pressure of me in it and stay together in case there was an accident. ------------- Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Replies:
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: January 28, 2005 at 8:36 AM
Anyone, Anyone, Bueler
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: January 28, 2005 at 1:17 PM
Anybody have any clues???????
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: bluetruck
Date Posted: January 30, 2005 at 2:40 PM
hmmmm... do-it-yourself safty equipment may not be the best idea. it will cost you more to build one than to just buy a racing seat from sparco or something.
Posted By: auex
Date Posted: January 30, 2005 at 10:20 PM
I was going to say the same thing. I wouldn't trust building my own seat. You should think about modifying a pre made seat.
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Posted By: oonikfraleyoo
Date Posted: January 31, 2005 at 12:13 AM
I would lean toward the last two posts. But if you were to build your own seat I would start by making a steal skeleton and then covering that in foam. Then cover the foam in fiberglass. Then possibly some foam padding on top of the fiberglass. The fiberglass should be fine supporting your body weight. One of the alpine cars ( I think the civic) Has a seat that they made and the website has a few pics in the install section that may give you some ideas. But that car was not intended to be driven. With the steal frame, god forbid you do have and accident and the fiberglass fails, you still have something holding you down. Still though I would consider modifing a premade seat. Better safe than sorry.
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: January 31, 2005 at 7:33 AM
Yeah I understand that, but actually I can make one cheaper than sparco sells them for. Plus I really want to try and see if I can do it or not. Thats why I would just like to know what would be the strongest way to build it.
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: DukeDuke
Date Posted: January 31, 2005 at 9:45 AM
Man, fiberglass is strong, however holding a 200lb man, with an impact at 60 mph, I think you are gone buddy, if fiberglass seats were safe and cheaper to make, companies would be useing it and so would APC and Sparco... just my 2 cents, however, if your are going to try it just to try it and NOT install it, go for it, i think 15 or 20 layers would be good if you plan on sitting it in a lot(around the house or whatever) but do post pics if you do it... good luck man, I agree with them, go to a junk yard and pick up a couple garbage seats, and mod the hell out of them, that way you have a metal frame and some foam already, and recover to your likings...
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Duke Duke
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: January 31, 2005 at 10:38 AM
Well does make fiberglass racing seats almost everyone single one of their one piece seat is made of fiberglass. https://www.sparco-usa.com/pseats_comp.asp?id=82 and if you continue to look at their website you'll see a whole lot more. I know it can be done I just need to know the highest strength glass to make it with. I've been looking into what has the highest strength and i'm thinking the roving and some of the continuous strand mat, is probably going to be the strongest. ------------- Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: January 31, 2005 at 3:43 PM
Well guys I think I found my combo, of glass that I need to use. This is my roving I will be using https://www.uscomposites.com/specialty.html , 18oz woven roving, first layer then come back and apply this. https://www.uscomposites.com/cloth.html this is a 8.9 oz fiberglass cloth which is a satin weave so its a lot stronger than the plain weave. What you guys think?? ------------- Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: oonikfraleyoo
Date Posted: January 31, 2005 at 7:52 PM
That seems like it would be pretty strong. 15 or 20 layers over a metal frame would be a good idea still. You have almost got me wanting to make one just to see where I could go with it. Maybe a surround sound tv chair???
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 01, 2005 at 8:01 AM
Hey man that would be awesome. You could make one that looked like this, https://www.sparco-usa.com/pseats_comp.asp?id=512 that would be crazy too have a chair in your house like that. You do yours and I'll do mine and well both post pics of our finished product. ------------- Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: oonikfraleyoo
Date Posted: February 01, 2005 at 1:42 PM
I'm tring to get myself started on my new box but when I finish it I just might give it a try
Posted By: bluetruck
Date Posted: February 01, 2005 at 1:49 PM
im still against the idea, but please post pics if you do it.
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 01, 2005 at 2:57 PM
Well as of right now im definately going to be doing this, I will for sure post pics as the progress goes along, for you guys. I just want to wait till it warms up, im not a big fan of having numb fingers, I always end up rushing my work when its cold. Which I really hate, cause im such a perfectionist. ------------- Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: djdaveoc
Date Posted: February 01, 2005 at 11:24 PM
Tuned by Matrix makes some decent seats if you decide not to make any. I got mine on Ebay for about $300 each. They seem to be high quality. www.tunedbymatrix.com -------------  Plan, Research, Do
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 02, 2005 at 9:03 AM
hehe, actually I got their black w/ red inserts seats in my civic right now. Just an fyi for you man be careful about leaving them in the sun I park my car in the same spot everday here at work and that spot is turning brown very quickly. So i'm actually about to get the seats recovered and add seat heaters to them. I dont know about any of the other colors I just know my black ones are fading so im changing it. Do you know any nice comfortable fabric I can recover them in????
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: oonikfraleyoo
Date Posted: February 02, 2005 at 7:49 PM
Neoprean!! Second only to leather
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 03, 2005 at 7:27 AM
How expensive is neoprene?
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: oonikfraleyoo
Date Posted: February 03, 2005 at 12:29 PM
It costs less than leather but it aint too cheap. Also it can be hard to find just neoprene material. You can buy pre made seat covers from wet oakle (sp?) I think they run close to 400 for custom fit. It feels nice and short of a blow torch you can't hurt the stuff.
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 03, 2005 at 1:39 PM
Well I will definately have to check this out. I gotto find someone local that does good work first. Not only am I getting these recovered, when I get done making this racing seat I have to have someone, foam the seat and make the cover for it from scratch.
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: bambalahny
Date Posted: February 10, 2005 at 12:39 AM
If your so worried about fiberglass why don't you use Carbon fiber and kevlar? I am building my own race seats and found from a maker of carbon fiber seats on their site that they use a sandwhich of Carbon/Kevlar/Carbon . I am buying the material from Tap plastics and will cost a little less then $200 for material and resin. I would trust Carbon Fiber but not Fiberglass. It is much stronger and lighter, I have tested it to my own satisfaction with a hammer and am confident that it is safe enough for a car seat. Well do what you think is best, if need be why not buy a pair of carbon seats off of E-bay their plenty cheap in price
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 10, 2005 at 8:06 AM
Well one I just want to have the satisfaction of being able to say that I made my racing seat, when someone asks where did you get that seat. The reason im not using carbon fiber is its too expensive for me. The fiberglass I have chosen is the strongest that I could find. That I know of, I just asked everyone cause I know that are people that are a lot smarter than I am.
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: djdaveoc
Date Posted: February 10, 2005 at 11:12 AM
Didn't they make a glass seat in one of the Alpine cars? You should see how they made their chair. I haven't looked at it in awhile. ------------- Plan, Research, Do
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 10, 2005 at 3:09 PM
Yeah they made one in the rsx, and the one in the mini cooper is made of plexiglass. The one in the alpine started off with just mdf I believe but I dont think they even drive that car on the road im pretty sure it doesnt even have a seatbelt in it so im sure they werent planning on having any big pounds of pressure on it.
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: djdaveoc
Date Posted: February 10, 2005 at 3:17 PM
If I were going to make a seat out of glass, I'd get a welder to make a steel frame first. Then I'd probably put a 1 inch thick MDF board across the top where I would sit and somehow secure it to the steel frame. Then I'd glass around that and probably do like 20 layers. I'd also use plenty for Duraglass/Marglass for extra strength. I'm 6'4" 230 lbs so I would never try to make a seat for myself. I'm happy with the Tuned By Matrix racing seats that I had welded in my truck. I got them for half price in a promotion on Ebay months ago. You'll be able to see them in my new post later today as long as someone answers my new post about how to shrink pictures so I can post them here. ------------- Plan, Research, Do
Posted By: realitycheck
Date Posted: February 11, 2005 at 11:05 AM
Well im only 5'9" and 140 lbs. So I believe it will work for me. I dont think im going to be using any type of filler on this as it will be completely covered in fabric. I am going to be taking a steel plate and putting it on the bottom, drilling holes throught the sitting area and bolting it into place Welding nuts on the top of it so that I can bolt the seat in But its going to be a solid steel plate and once I bolt it in Im going to glass over it. So that it will be even more in place.
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Learning the trade one fiberglass creation at a time!
Posted By: Drocay
Date Posted: March 09, 2005 at 2:00 AM
FG seat, won't that be kinda dangerous consdering if u crash and it breaks it will break into sharp jagged pieces. heh i hope it comes out good for u.
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