CERBERA SEAT INSTALLATION GUIDE

 

 

Ian Barrett kindly submitted this information. As some owners find the original seats a little uncomfortable and also not as figure hugging as you may expect in a sportscar. Which means you slide about in the seat especially the lesser pie eaters. So a good option is to change the seats to to the Cerbera ones. These are nearly a straight fit with a few little mods to make.

Ian takes us through this process.

 

FINDING THE SEATS.

The light grey seats in my '92 Griffith were original and with a lovely patina (in fact I never really understood the meaning of that word until I got the Griff) but they were a bit too soft and spongy, short in the back and only half hide which no longer looked so good because of the change in texture and colour of the leather sections.

I'd heard that Cerbera seats were a direct fit so I went in search of some and found a grey pair at Douglas Valley Breakers in Wigan, so I took the Griffith and the miss's up to look at them.
I tested for colour match with the interior by covering the passenger seat with a towel, taking the roof off and plonking the Cerb seat on top
"They're lovely but really don't go at all" was the verdict of the miss's. Bugger! ... and we went home!

But there was still a chance. I'd been told not to worry if the seats were a bit scuffed because there was someone locally who could re-connolise seats. Ian Mackenzie Bell, He is in the Nottingham area can be contacted on 07970157003

A phone call to him with an explanation of the problem and I was assured we could indeed change the grey shade to match the rest of the interior. I decided to take the plunge and bought the seats I'd seen.
The minute they arrived I booked the connoliser man.

The pictures show the seats before, during, and after the recolouring.

 

So, with the seats now the right colour it's time to fit them.

OUT WITH THE OLD.

The original seats came out easily enough. There are just 4 nyloc nuts and washers under the car to undo and the seat lifts straight out. You will just need a 13mm socket. Be careful though, the headrests come all the way out so don't pick up the seat with it.

 

Fitting the Cerbera seats isn't quite the 'plug and play' job it's made out to be though. There's a box section spacer attached to the Griffith seats which needs to be transferred onto the Cerb seats. It's a simple job but mine were in need of de rusting and repainting which delayed things overnight.

To attach them is a simple matter of bolting them to the seat frame.

Tighten these up gently though to allow some movement when the seat goes in the car. I wedged a spanner in the frame to keep the bolt head still while I tightened the nut with a 13mm spanner. (PICTURE)

 

Dropping the seats back in is simple enough, although I took the opportunity to put washers on the inside of the car so give the bolts a bit more support instead of sitting on carpet and Fiberglas.

 

IN WITH THE NEW.

Before you start putting the seat into place you should be prepared for having to wash your hands about half a dozen times per seat throughout the operation to avoid getting underseal/waxoyl on the seats.
The operation is the same for both sides of the car. Except for one washer I found underneath on the drivers side (front, outside) which had a chunk cut out of it. I think the missing chunk allows the washer to avoid a curved bit of floor so I created a new version of this from a new washer.
Incidentally, the smaller new washers in the picture were drilled out using a 9mm bit to enlarge the hole for the bolt.

Sit the seat in position and slide the washers onto the rear bolts. Then locate the bolts into the holes in the floor and finger-tighten the washers and nuts on underneath now to stop them from pulling back out again. Now go back inside and to the front and attach the washers onto the spacer bolts there and wiggle the seat and spacer until you find the hole for the bolt.
Now you're back under the car again to attach the washers and nuts onto the bolts and tighten all 4 nuts nice and tight. And finally, back into the car to pinch up the nuts and bolts holding the box section spacers.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

I discovered after fitting the seats that the seatbelt 'clunk/click' bit was fitted completely at random in either 8in or 18in sizes. You will need 18in long on both drivers and passenger sides to allow the head to clear the much deeper side bolsters of the Cerb seats. You can see the considerable difference in size in the pictures of the two sides.

The Griffith seats also had a 1 inch long bolt poking through a corner plate on the sub-frame which seemed odd and I couldn't figure out what it was. You can just make out the shiny round nut in the bottom left of the picture of the bottom of the Griff seat. I've since discovered it allows the seat to slide only so far back before the slider hits the bolt. This is to stop the seat being pushed into the seatbelt mechanism and damaging the back. The Cerb seat has no metal you could attach something similar to, so you will just have to be careful when pushing the seat back.

SIZE MATTERS.

There was a bit of myth and hearsay about the difference in 'ride height' between the Griff and Cerb seats. The reality is you do actually sit about 4cm higher in the Cerb seats.
Before doing the swap I had about 5cm head room with the roof on. Now I have about 1cm.
I still have a really good view through the windscreen and don't have problems with the wind coming over the screen. I think I prefer the new position because I can see more of the bonnet which makes it easier to maneuver.
BUT, with the roof on, a bumpy B road can have me smacking my head against the roof very easily, but I just squash down a bit until I'm past the bumps and I tend to take the roof off at every possible chance anyway.

This simple measurement might help you decide if you would still fit in your car with Cerb seats installed.
Sit on a hard floor and measure the distance between the floor and the top of your head.
Mine is 36 ½ inches and I have 1cm head room.

 

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