jspoljor

I have been contemplating some GT3 seats for the 986 and have a few questions i'm hoping someone with more experience may be able to answer.

1. Do they bolt directly in? Will there be an issues with the electrical (Seat belt lights, air bags, etc)?

2. When installing a harness in a 986 with gt3, are there any additional pieces needed? I believe the upper straps of the harness attach to the horizontal bar behind the seat. Does the lap strap attach directly to the seat? Does the sub strap attach to a bar under the seat? if so, is that bar already present on the gt3 seats?

Thanks in advance for any help! are there any tutorials for this anywhere that I have overlooked?

Jason

GVA-SFO

..many questions !
I have no idea about the GT3 seats, but about the harness upper straps, .. I do have some experience for the 986.
There are no good anchor places, and if you use the "upper" bar (part of the OEM hoop protection), then you have a wrong "pull angle", as this bar is way to high.

I have done this for a while, but, in the back of the seat (I have Sparco's) I have installed a pair of pull down cables with "rollers" that are just at the good height, in order to have a good angle in the upper straps. But this is not so good, ..but had it this way since about two years !
I'm going to change this setup, having a bar soldered in the back of the top engine access, that will connect to a piece of steel that I put in place around the suspension top support on both sides.
This bar will be in the right place to anchor the top straps of the harness, and will also play a good role, reinforcing the frame between the two rear suspension places.

All to say that with a Boxster, there are no good place to attach the upper straps of a harness, ..till you start soldering a good roll bar and plan for such specific anchor !

zedcat

996 GT3 seats with the factory mounts and sliders are easy to install - just 4 bolts and an electrical connector. You may get an airbag light but a good mechanic can clear it. The seats do not have airbags (like the later 997/991 gens) so resetting is fairly straight forward, at least it was for my indie mechanic. For the lap belts you can get GT3 specific belts from Schroth. These have eyelets that mount to the factory points allowing you to keep the 3 pt belt and receptacle for street driving. Alternatively Brey Krause (B-K auto) has hardware for clip in type belts. You will need a bar to wrap the anti sub belts. Again B-K auto is a source. The bar bolts to the rails of the sliders. As mentioned above for most drivers the factory roll bar hoops are too high to wrap the shoulder straps. I got a bolt in bar from Stable Energies in NJ and it gives the right geometry. See the Schroth web site for guidelines on the angles etc. The bar is a generic one that Stable cuts to the proper size. Not sure it is on their web site but you can call them. In my install I also used the B-K seat lowering brackets as my head was still a little too high even with the roll bar extension. Hope that helps.

jspoljor

That is exactly what I was looking for! thank you!