1997 Hatchback Seats

[crazyivan]

I am new to the forum, and I am pretty new to civic modding, coz even though I have owned my car for a year, except for Audio, interior lights, and rims, my car is stock.

I am looking at putting in a 2.0 or even a 2.2 litre honda engine of some sort in my civic, turbo, new headers, tune, new exhaust and all that stuff
(some serious power gain), but that is years away (I am poor).

My question at the moment is about weight reduction. I am going to replace both front seats with light weight racing bucket seats.

First Question: Does anyone know how much a stock front seat weighs?

That way I can calculate the weight difference between old and new seat.

I am then maybe going to simply remove the back seat all together and just have a two seater car.

Second Question: Is it legal to remove the back seat? do I have to fill out any paperwork or inform anyone to make it road legal?

Another option, more for the novilty of it, is replacing the single back seat with two racing bucket seats. That would be more expensive and and harder (requiring steelwork and stuff I assume), but think of the novilty and *wow* factor of the back seat passangers having bucket seats too (plus it means my car will be more practical for transport while still reducing weight)

Third Question: How much would a rear seat weigh?

If i can find out the weights of the seats, I can do my oh-so-nerdy calculations of power to weight, and find out which option is best.

Any comments on my plans are welcome. Please tell me which you think is cooler and/or faster/better for performance.

Thanks :D

[Zdster]

First Question: Does anyone know how much a stock front seat weighs?

Second Question: Is it legal to remove the back seat? do I have to fill out any paperwork or inform anyone to make it road legal?

Third Question: How much would a rear seat weigh?


1. It has been discussed - try searching
2. Yes it is illegal. You will have to have your car reclassified as a two seater to drive it legally.
3. Not alot. Dont know the exact weight, but from feel i would say less than 10-15kg

[kcokla]

First question :

some can be super light, some can be reasonably ordinary, if your going for the expensive stuff, from my understanding <7kilos

second question :
yes it is legal, some people notify the RTA and then iot becomes registered as a coupe,
but other people do nothing, and its also fine( someone should clarify)

3rd question : depends on the car but the back seats alone arnt very heavy at all in general

[simonnowis]

as above lol.
btw if you taking the rear out from my experience seems to put the car off balance when taking corners, guess there is a trade off between track and drag

[crazyivan]

Ok, so from what I have read, thanks to Zdster, I should loose approx 45kgs if I take out every seat, and gain 20-30kgs if i put in 4 bucket seats, or 10-15kgs if I put in 2 bucket seats...

And I have had two completely different answers on the legality of removing the rear seats...

[Dell99]

deleted

[DvSnGuYeN]

it's illegal to remove the rear seats... well, not illegal to remove, but illegal to drive around without rear seats... a mate of mine got fined for not having rear seats in his hatch... besides, you can't get pink slip if there's not back seats where back seats should be... therefore i'm pretty sure it's illegal...

[crazyivan]

Well, I have asked the RTA about the rear seat... We will know for sure in a few days...

[crazyivan]

Nope... never heard back from the RTA... so they ARE as usless as I origionaly thought...

Update to my plans: I have given up any weight reduction ideas. I will be gaining enough power with my engine mods that Im not going to bother. If I swap the seats, it will be for the sake of having racing seats. What are your thoughts on racing rear seats aswell? Big novilty factor no? lol :P

[nd55]

RE: rear seat removal.

My understanding is that if you remove the rear seat, and then re-register as a two seater it's OK.

The important bit is to re-registering it. With-out this step, the rules for four seats still apply and hence it's defect-able.

RE: Engine upgrade.

> I am looking at putting in a 2.0 or even a 2.2 litre honda engine of
> some sort in my civic, turbo, new headers, tune, new exhaust and all
> that stuff (some serious power gain),

There is a Honda Prelude H22 (2.2litre engine) but the engineering to swap it into a civic chassis is significant.

There is a Honda CR-V (2.0 litre) which is a bolt in, however you have to source a B-series gearbox from another vehicle, the CR-V box is four wheel drive and not applicable.

There is also a B18C (integra) , which is bolt-in for both the engine and gearbox. Not cheap, however.

RE: What are your thoughts on racing rear seats aswell? Big novilty factor no? lol :P

By the time you upgrade the seats and get a engineering cert for it, it's probably the most expensive 20Kg weight saving around.

A light glass matt battery and rip out the air con & power steering is much easier.

> never heard back from the RTA... so they ARE as usless as I origionaly thought...

Welcome to the car mod quagmire.

The onus is on you to prove your car is road worthy and have paper work from accreditted authorities to prove it.

Do all your mods at once and get an engineer's certificate and be done with the hassle.


Nick.

[crazyivan]

I have since thought about what engine to put in... I am contemplating even going a B16a. It is nothing massive, but if i do some engine mods, turbo and exhaust, it will easily double what i have now... what do you think? what max kWs could i get out of a B16a, with a turbo, new headers, sports exhaust, etc, total modification without any fabrication?

[EK1.6LCIV]

I am new to the forum, and I am pretty new to civic modding, coz even though I have owned my car for a year, except for Audio, interior lights, and rims, my car is stock.

I am looking at putting in a 2.0 or even a 2.2 litre honda engine of some sort in my civic, turbo, new headers, tune, new exhaust and all that stuff
(some serious power gain), but that is years away (I am poor).

My question at the moment is about weight reduction. I am going to replace both front seats with light weight racing bucket seats.

First Question: Does anyone know how much a stock front seat weighs?

That way I can calculate the weight difference between old and new seat.

I am then maybe going to simply remove the back seat all together and just have a two seater car.

Second Question: Is it legal to remove the back seat? do I have to fill out any paperwork or inform anyone to make it road legal?

Another option, more for the novilty of it, is replacing the single back seat with two racing bucket seats. That would be more expensive and and harder (requiring steelwork and stuff I assume), but think of the novilty and *wow* factor of the back seat passangers having bucket seats too (plus it means my car will be more practical for transport while still reducing weight)

Third Question: How much would a rear seat weigh?

If i can find out the weights of the seats, I can do my oh-so-nerdy calculations of power to weight, and find out which option is best.

Any comments on my plans are welcome. Please tell me which you think is cooler and/or faster/better for performance.

Thanks :D

1. surprising nearly the same as a Saas racing one, lol

So unless you're spending big bux on aftermarket racing seats the gains aren't there, but for better lumbar on a budget get some vti-r seats or any cheap aftermarket ones that meet adr standard

2. You can, in QLD the price varies but it is around $100 to rego the car to a 2 seater (you have to remove the seats, belts and ethier put the stock selt belt bolts back into the rear and use locktite or drill out the thread and seal the holes for a blue mod plate to be issued, thought about it but for the hassel it's not worth it as there is no little to market for a 2 seater Civic, would be hard to sell. You can do it for track days easy enough in no time at all, very simple seats to get out imo)

3. They weigh hardly a thing when it comes to you wanting to lose weight, unless you're stripping out the whole car, it's hardly worth it, you won't be suddenly pulling bus lengths on your mates and all it will effectively do is make your car:

a) defective and a cop magnetic
b) noisy as hell, my gf hates the sound, put them back in recently, lol
c) underneathe it needs painting or at least carpet over it as in stripped state it really does look very primative

[EK1.6LCIV]

I have since thought about what engine to put in... I am contemplating even going a B16a. It is nothing massive, but if i do some engine mods, turbo and exhaust, it will easily double what i have now... what do you think? what max kWs could i get out of a B16a, with a turbo, new headers, sports exhaust, etc, total modification without any fabrication?

it all comes down to budget, parts used, expirence in the assembly of the parts, tuning

depends how much power you want to aim for, could easily spent tens of thousands to double to power safely

I have mates back in the US that have had to buy aftermarket blocks, cylinder sleeves to run very high power levels safely, not to mention billet alum drive shafts, precision cut gears, all big buck options

I'd go NA for the engine, you can turbo the engine as there are alot of parts on the market, but for the same money you can be rolling in a factory turbo car that will respond to mods alot cheaper and easier