Rear seat removal mod

[Slow_335i]

Originally Posted by shodanusmc

Have you considered removing the paint and taling it down to bare metal? You can also remove the floor mats, visors, passenger seat, trim pieces, glove box, headliner, grab handles and most importantly, hire a 110 pound jockey to do the driving. You may also want to drain several Qts of oil, some antifreeze, and keep the gas at the 1/8 mark.

lmao

[greensto]

Just wondering, do you pull the rear seats through the trunk or doors when taking them out?

[Eyeman]

I'd assume they'd go out either way but I'm sure I pulled mine out the door. The seat back is the big/heavy piece and it will come apart into two pieces.

[iStig]

ok, i want to get these bad boys out NOW.
I am 98% of the way there, but the center screw at the bottom of the seat back is killing me!
how on earth did you get to it? what size T is it exaclty? I can not seem to find the "magic angle" to get it out.
tips?

[Eyeman]

iStig, it was a little tricky. I assume you read my intial post. Best I can remember, I had to really push around the center hinge bracket to find the smaller T headed screws bolting it down. For sure it was a little difficult to find the screws. If I get a chance I'll try to check it out further, maybe take a picture, etc if you are still stuck. Good luck!

[iStig]

Actually, i put everything ack in and decided to keep the back seat... for now.
but this project will be given the green light later on for sure.

[Venom]

Few things to help others who want to do this
1. You only need a T50
2. The seats "pop out"

so in this order is how you remove them:
1. remove both T50 on the left and right side of the rear seat.
2. put both sides down, tug on the driver's side rear seat with GREAT STRENGTH you will see it start to wiggle out.
3. remove the driver's side rear seat fully and the rest should be simple/obvious.

[romak47]

nice, i wanna do weight saving mods now too. rarely have ppl in my rear seat and dont want to anyways cause i rub in the right rear. lol
Id like to do weight saving mods for the front of the car if i was to remove rear seats though. I think a carbon hood would be the most significant..

[EINSER M]

noted a lot of hate on this thread

bottom line is everyone mods their cars for their own sake, not to please anyone else. seat removal looks good, albeit maybe some safety issues that may arise from collision but if you say there's no increased cabin noise then awesome!

i couldnt do this though, my ears would bleed from the meisterschaft exhaust rumble :suidice:

good work!

[Adam135]

It's impossible that there's no increased cabin noise...

[Eyeman]

Yep, noise and problems with stuff flying forward out of the trunk are bigger issues to me with this mod than not having a rear seat or cosmetics.

[ilikebmxbikes]

Originally Posted by Adam135

It's impossible that there's no increased cabin noise...

+1 , just dropping my back seats, my exhaust is significantly louder in the cabin. That being said I'm still gonna remove the seats.

[Venom]

Originally Posted by Eyeman

Yep, noise and problems with stuff flying forward out of the trunk are bigger issues to me with this mod than not having a rear seat or cosmetics.

What do you have in your trunk? Everything in my trunk is bolted down But my 1er isn't my DD, my integra is.

Wouldn't be to hard to make a template of a wooden barrier if you still want to separate the cabin from the trunk.

[Eyeman]

Venom, if you look back in the thread you'll see my wood barrier. I later made an acrylic barrier also.

I'm not saying that I'm personally bothered by noise or stuff flying from my trunk. I was just agreeing that noise and unstrapped groceries, spare tires, etc can be an issue.

I have a cargo net in the trunk. I also carry my donut spare back there half the time. Funny enough my mechanic had moved the spare and didn't restrap it back down. He was test driving my car and had to slam on the brakes. The spare flew right through that wood barrier which is why I later built the acrylic one..lol. No damage done except to the cheap barrier and my mechanic's pride.

[Venom]

Originally Posted by Eyeman

Venom, if you look back in the thread you'll see my wood barrier. I later made an acrylic barrier also.

I'm not saying that I'm personally bothered by noise or stuff flying from my trunk. I was just agreeing that noise and unstrapped groceries, spare tires, etc can be an issue.

I have a cargo net in the trunk. I also carry my donut spare back there half the time. Funny enough my mechanic had moved the spare and didn't restrap it back down. He was test driving my car and had to slam on the brakes. The spare flew right through that wood barrier which is why I later built the acrylic one..lol. No damage done except to the cheap barrier and my mechanic's pride.

Haha! that sucks! glad you and your mechanic are safe from that. I didn't realize you were OP for some reason.

I have followed in your footsteps and maybe gone a bit too far. My 1 is my weekender so I carry nothing in the car There is no barrier in my rendition, I have taken just about everything I could out and put in the rubber luggage mat

[kobeballer96]

some people on here are cry babies. people who track their car and not just for show, this mod comes very handy. I have friends with e92 m3s that removed the back seats and also threw in racing seats. is that making it ugly? no they track their cars and push it to limits on the track

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by kobeballer96

some people on here are cry babies. people who track their car and not just for show, this mod comes very handy. I have friends with e92 m3s that removed the back seats and also threw in racing seats. is that making it ugly? no they track their cars and push it to limits on the track

right I drive my car occasionally and track it; weight savings are one of the best mods you can do, better handling, faster, and better on brakes

[drinkcoke3]

screw the haters, I love the rear seat delete and plan on doing mine in a very similar fashion.

I will be trying to fabricate a piece to go where the seat bottoms were so it looks more complete.

my 1er isn't a daily so I don't worry about having people in the back seat. I also found that with the seats down the car sounds better IMHO.

I'll post a new thread when I get mine all set up. Might be making a fiberglass piece to snap in where the seat bottoms are and carpet it in black carpet like the rest of the interior so it blends in.

[ChrisCote]

@eyeman its your car, let people talk all they would like and do what you like. i see i don't have to tell you this though

Its great to see another ATL area 1er with an impressive build!

i had a Fully bolted Mazdaspeed6 (4 doors 2.3 turbo 4cyl awd 310/310 on 93) before the 1.
Drove around with the rear seats out of a 4 door for a year before it was totaled. fuck rear seats

[ThatKidDavid]

Originally Posted by Eyeman

I'm still very happy with this mod. Strange enough I'd rate it my most effective mod when you consider cost (2-3 hrs and $5 in supplies) vs benefits. The main benefit for me that I didn't really plan for is that this rear weight decrease practically solved my day to day rear wheel rubbing problem. I also feel my KW V1 suspension is better balanced now. I guess that also implies that I feel the replacement rear springs should be a little stiffer than what is provided.

No significant noise increase to me. The biggest negative of this mod is it will take me a minute to remove two screws and then I won't have the longer flat area that the fold down rears seats provide.

My divider is just a piece of custom cut Luan paneling coated with spray on undercoating. That's just a reflection on the right side of the picture.

Hey man I'm trying this out and I'm stuck on the 2 t50 bolts on the center hinge on top of the seat belt (the angle is a pita but I'll be borrowing a power tool tomorrow) but I'm curious as to the 2 corner hinges (t30?) that must be unbolted too, can you point out where those 2 are?

[Eyeman]

Its been a long time and my car is not available today. But if I remember correctly the corner bolts were easy to locate. Venom above says they are T50s and that you don't have to remove the center hinge. I removed the center hinge, and yep, that angle was tough. Good luck.

[fe1rx]

Originally Posted by Eyeman

Venom above says they are T50s and that you don't have to remove the center hinge.

Venom is correct:



1) Remove the two T50 (14)

2) Fold the RH seat down and move it as far outboard as possible to get the wide part of the pivot pin out of the hinge bracket (12).

3) Keep the LH seat fairly upright, pull the outboard end forward then pull the seat outboard. Repeat this in steps until the LH seat pulls off the pivot pin, which is attached to the RH seat.

4) Remove the RH seat easily after this.

Seat backs together weigh 36 lbs.

Rear seat bottom weighs 16 lbs.