408 front seat mountings
 

Hi all. I'm scratching my head over the front seat mountings on a 408 I'm working on. On both driver and pass side the floor is about an inch lower where the inner runner sits and this causes the seats to be angled downwards on their inner side. Was there originally some sort of thick spacer to lift the inner runner so the seats were level? Hope someone can help.
Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark
Have a look at the interior shots in this link, you will see that there are spacers under the front seats between the runners and the floor, from memory and its a while ago now so I may be corrected they were wood trimmed in leather to match the car. There was no vertical adjustments on the seats so the spacers may have been made to accommodate the wishes of the first owner.
Geoff.


https://www.gallery-aaldering.com/br...8-saloon-1963/

Thanks Geoff. That's interesting because the spacer's on the outside - I would have expected it to be on the inside! I can only imagine on this car it must have had an even thicker spacer on the inside to get the seat level. From the pictures it does look like the seats are roughly level so it looks like I'm going to have to do something similar under the inner runner.

Mark

Mark, my car is 1500 miles or so away but I promise you the seats are level!!!!!

David

Yes indeed, thicker wooden spacer on the inside and thinner on the outside, both probably ash, and I believe that the sales literature of the period indicated that the sear heights could (thereby) be set to suit the owner. Brian Marelli once indicated to me that Bristols were also quite prepared to reset them for subsequent owners, no doubt at a price. Tony Crook, who was a marketing supremo, made much of Bristols being bespoke cars.

The original mounting screws into the floor pan were I believe bronze, as indeed were the screws that held down the transmission cover, so there is every chance that they will come undone. I only mention this if you are seeking originality but I dare say you could get away with using stainless in this day and age.

Which begs the question - why on earth would anybody have set the seats as you’ve found them?

Thanks for the great info - very helpful.

Mark