Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Hey everyone,

My Smoothline hardtop (finally! ordered 3/14) ships next week so I'm almost ready to start my interior changes and safety upgrades. I'll be documenting everything here.

Plans are:
1. Custom rollbar with harness bar
2. Schroth ASM 4 point harnesses
3. Cobra Classic RS seats

I've had trouble picking out the seats that I thought fit the car, both in terms of dimensions and style. The Cobra seats look right, should have me sitting nice and low, and have headrests (a must for me). They were originally designed as a classic 911 seat but I've seen them in a variety of cars. Plus, they're only about $450 each with free shipping and Cobra is a trusted name. They have vinyl on the outside bolsters and a corduroy center section. I'm tempted to have the center sections redone in leather with metal ventilation grommets added, but I kinda like the idea of the corduroy centers so for now I'll leave them as is. Or maybe I'll go with plaid centers...

I have not yet thought about seat rails/mounts so I'll have to discuss that with the shop.

My standard seats are actually in pretty good condition and I will be selling them when I'm done. I just wanted to go a different direction.

New carpet and my black Enkei Compe wheels will also be going on at the same time. The Smoothline hardtop will be painted shiny black and my car is white. I'm excited.

Link to detail and dimensions of seats:
http://www.cobraseats.com/classic-rs.asp

Pic of seats with modified center section in a 240Z:


Pic of standard seats (as I'll probably run them):

Looking forward to watching your progress.

Neato! Who distributes Cobra seats in the US? I was thinking about a pair of Cobra Cubs for my TR-4 because they're about the only seats that are narrow enough.

dustybarn wrote:Neato! Who distributes Cobra seats in the US? I was thinking about a pair of Cobra Cubs for my TR-4 because they're about the only seats that are narrow enough.

The two main distributors are:

Sube Sports (CA)
https://www.subesports.com/

HMS Motorsports (MA and NC)
https://www.hmsmotorsport.com/

They are slightly cheaper at this dealer:
http://www.frsport.com

I might look into a set of these seats for my '59 Alfa Romeo Sprint project.

Will

I finally got my hardtop, so I'll be ordering the seats this week. I'll let you all know how they feel.

Haven't mounted the top yet. It's a little warm outside at 97 degrees, so I'm not messing with it.

The top does looks great. I'm not super impressed with the front mounting system, but I'll have a closer look when I actually put it on.

Now you understand why I made my own front clamps.

SLOroadster wrote:I might look into a set of these seats for my '59 Alfa Romeo Sprint project.

Will

Those seats look a lot like the GT seats from a GTV.

andyroo wrote:I finally got my hardtop, so I'll be ordering the seats this week. I'll let you all know how they feel.

Haven't mounted the top yet. It's a little warm outside at 97 degrees, so I'm not messing with it.

The top does looks great. I'm not super impressed with the front mounting system, but I'll have a closer look when I actually put it on.

Is this how the top arrives straight from Smoothline? It looks like it has weatherstripping and upholstery in the headliner? I didn't know those were options!

I don't understand why it comes without the proper/standard latch for a Datsun Roadster

Alvin wrote:

andyroo wrote:I finally got my hardtop, so I'll be ordering the seats this week. I'll let you all know how they feel.

Haven't mounted the top yet. It's a little warm outside at 97 degrees, so I'm not messing with it.

The top does looks great. I'm not super impressed with the front mounting system, but I'll have a closer look when I actually put it on.

Is this how the top arrives straight from Smoothline? It looks like it has weatherstripping and upholstery in the headliner? I didn't know those were options!

I don't understand why it comes without the proper/standard latch for a Datsun Roadster

Yeah it comes with weatherstripping and a basic headliner as standard.

I'll probably modify the front mounts.

Haven't made any progress really...I had a work conference, few issues with my daily car, minor carb issues on the Datsun, and a new rear bumper to buy thanks to a moron in a parking garage.

I will order the seats tomorrow. Leaning towards doing the reupholstering of the center section from the start.

sfdaugherty wrote:Now you understand why I made my own front clamps.

The more I look at the standard Smoothline front clamps...I can't believe they let the tops out the door like that.

Luckily I have some OEM front clamps laying around that will be modified to replace the Smoothline crap.

- Andrew

So the Singer 911 is my inspiration for the interior.

Aluminum pedal boards, aluminum pedals, painted white trans tunnel, carpet just at my feet, no center stack or console, etc. Black Momo prototipo wheel.

I will also convert to a flat dash when I swap the car (hopefully next year).




We'll see how it turns out eventually.

- Andrew

andyroo wrote:So the Singer 911 is my inspiration for the interior.

Aluminum pedal boards, aluminum pedals, painted white trans tunnel, carpet just at my feet, no center stack or console, etc. Black Momo prototipo wheel.

I will also convert to a flat dash when I swap the car (hopefully next year).




We'll see how it turns out eventually.

- Andrew

Love the singers. Great inspiration. Would really like to see this translated to a Datsun. Do it!

Andyroo,

Smoothline no longer uses the original attachment system used by Parrish:

http://www.311s.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... en#p156033

Others considering a new Smoothline top should be aware of the change.

Jon & Kathy Hayden

SRL LT1 (numbers don't match )