Cobra seat install - help needed

Hey guys, new Cobra seats arrived yesterday and set about installing this morning. Purchased from GSM, with the appropriate 996 mounting brackes, runners and side mounts. No instructions were provided... but think I have figured out the process, the challenge I have is that I think there is an issue with the parts received, and hoped some of you clever people on here can help. 1) chassis mounting bracket. The chassis mounting bracket aligns perfectly in the 4 corners to the car. The issue is the bolt that connects to the runners to the chassis mount is either, i) too long or ii) does not align to the hole in the chassis to allow it to drop into place. Options I think I have: a) assume they have predrilled this second hole in the inccorect place on the mounting bracket and ask for a replacement. b) buy shorter bolts / cut bolt to size (challenge with this is that is would need to be 100% flush otherwise will be an uneven and unsafe install c) find some where that can drill a new threaded hole into the correct space on the mounting bracket (dont think this will work as it will be VERY close to the pre drilled hole already in the mounting bracket. Can someone confirm if this is all correct / making the right assumptions etc? 2) Seat belt receiver fixing The fitting kit came with these plates for seat belt receiver. I assume that because I am using side mounts, these pieces are not needed, are intended for bottom / base mounts, and therefor I do not need them? Thank you in advanced.

Cobra seats will look good 1st port of call is GSM to check on installation and instructions are you using the direct fit subframe ?

I have popped on in and they do look good! yeah the subframe is the part i think the issue is with in that the second threaded hole is in the incorrect positiion. They are A LOT of money for what is effectivelty a 40cm by 2cm metal bar with 4 holes (2 of which are in the wrong place)

As someone who has just this week fitted Cobra seats with the same dedicated Cobra Porsche 996 fitting kit (Also from GSM) I feel your pain. So to confirm the 'Dedicated" kit from Cobra came with no instructions, no guidance and no help at all unfortunately. It also came without a lot of the M8 fixings I felt I needed (But who knows? Maybe all the fittings were included but as you've now discovered there are no instructions to confirm one way or the other!) I had the kit together and apart about half a dozen times before I figured I had them right, largely thanks to the useful video and view of the instructions for his Recaro seats provided by Rob Davie on his 'The Throttle Cable" YouTube channel. The video is linked below. https://youtu.be/0l2OTcQimt8 So to also confirm I too found that the supplied bolts that fix the sliders to the 996 mounting plates protruded through the plates and came close to aligning with the spigot holes in the car. When I say 'Close" I mean 'Didn't fit" so I decided to cut and grind these bolts off flush so that they didn't stick below the mounting plates. Was this the correct thing to do? No idea given as has been repeatedly mentioned.... There's no instructions. So what I did was bolt the sliders down onto the mounting frames. Then I cut and ground the protruding bolts off so that the frames would then sit flush onto the car's fixing points. Next I fitted the side mounts onto the top of the sliders with the spacer / seat belt anchor brackets sandwiched between the side mounts and the sliders (You unbolt the belt clasp from the seat and bolt into the spacer plate with the tab on it). Next I bolted the side mounts (Complete with sliders etc) onto the seats, tight on the inboard side but only nipped up on the outboard side. This allowed me to slacken the various fixings off enough to get the mounting rails parallel and 16" apart so they'll fit pretty well into the car. Then torque up the fixings other than the ones onto the seat itself. Finally I lifted the seats into the car and slackened off the bolts fixing the side mounts to the seats, enough to provide a bit of 'Play", enough to get the mounting plates, sliders etc bolted into the car with the seat loosely held in place. With the mounts torqued down I then just torqued up the easy to reach bolts holding the side mounts onto the seat and boom, the seats were in. Oh, apart from I then needed to finagle the slider lever into place under the seat. Does it work as I've fitted the seats? Yes. Is it the correct way? Without instructions, who knows!? Truth be told I love the seats but frankly I'm pretty appalled at having spent about £450 on the 'Dedicated" fitting kit. If I were to do it again I think I'd go out and buy the Recaro 996 mounting kit; the one that comes with instructions and most likely all the required fixings. Hope that helps! If there's anything else you need just let me know.

Hi chap - thanks for this. I too have refered to the his youtube video and thats helped a lot and think i've now figured most of it out. In short, rather than cut the provided bolts, I've ordered some M8x12's which I beleive to be the right size (with the packers) - they should arrive today. Do you know what Torque rating everything should be? most of it is limited by the threads, and theonly Torque I know of is 40Nm for the rails to the chassis which I heard Rob mention on his video. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty disapointed with the whole experience. what I also find amazing is the "dedicated" mounting kit is litterally a pair of 40cm metal bars with 4 holes drilled into them, of which 2 are in the wrong place compared to the OEM. These fitting kits are £210 each, £420 a pair. In that kit you get a universal seat runner (worth what?... £30?), universal belt plate (again, £30?) and two "dedicated" mounting bars that are not actually fit for purpose..... so about £150 for a bloody 40cm length of bar with holes drilled, not to mention the lack of instructions and correct fixings. Sorry, rant over, but in my world someone would get fired / resign for such customer experience.

I know exactly where you're coming from disappointment wise. I've heard so many good things about Cobra and as you say the reality has been at best a disappointment, largely due to the complete absence of any type of instructions. Given the nature of the 'Universal" runners I can see that the bolts fitting them to the dedicated mounting plates NOT corresponding to the spigot holes in the car is kind of understandable (Albeit never mentioned before the sale) but it's a shame that it was not deemed necessary to at least provide the correct length of bolts to not protrude through or at the very least provide the information that the mounting bolts would need to be trimmed in the instructions (That weren't included). That said for all I know maybe there was / is a way of making it all work... though it's hard to know when, as said many times over, there were absolutely no instructions provided. The good news at least is the seats are in, are very comfortable, are MUCH lighter than the factory Sport seats and have me sat about 15 to 20mm lower in the car (I'm 6' 5") so ultimately I'm very pleased... but if they'd provided some semblance of a guide or instructions (Hell, even if they'd sent me a photocopy of the Recaro instructions with the branding scribbled out!) I'd have probably been singing their praises all over social media rather than sitting here thinking 'Next time I think I'll get Recaros" Shame really. But for a ha'penth of tar (Or an A4 printed diagram)

Oh, one other thing you may have already discovered. It may be worth having a few extra M8 x 20mm button head fixings, washers and nylon nuts to hand as there weren't enough included in my kit so I had to make a run to Screwfix. Also if you haven't already tried to fit the seat belt clasp units to the 'Dedicated" brackets brace for disappointment. Although the correct bolt is provided with the kit the bolt is considerably smaller than the hole in the clasp unit from your existing seats due to there being no 'Shoulder" bushing provided (This bushing in on the standard seats and not, as far as I can tell, removable). I got around this by 3D printing up a pair of dedicated bushes out of semi flexible TPU and it works fine but again it wasn't mentioned in the non-existent fitting instructions that access to CAD software and a 3D printer would be useful for fitting their 'Dedicated" kit.

I was well pissed off with the lack of instruction and the debarcle with fitting kits I was sent through GSM and they were next to useless when trying figure it all out so I wont use them again. I cant remember exacly how I did it but I think it was runners to the bottom bars, then side mounts then seat and then bolt into car. I'll go try take a photo of the bolt set up but I had to do a bit of trial and error with clearnace etc. The seat belt bracket was sent out wrong 3 times by them as well. Great seats, just ***** service.

Well guys ... I found some actual official instructions https://www.cobraseatsshop.co.uk/co...-for-porsche-996-from-1998-to-2005-1651-p.asp If you click on the pictures it shows the pdf with parts list. As confirmed, I haven't been sent a number of parts, namely the M8x12 button bolts to overcome the fact the holes don't align / the need to cut the provided bolts down to size, nor the M8 nuts. Having purchased them, I set about fitting. However, 2 more problems. 1. I cannot get the two sides of the runners to align. And given I am using nylon nut, can't see how slacking them off helps as you need access to both the bolt and nut to tighten 2. When bolting the side mount, the metal frame under the leather has simply sliced straight through. First photo below shows the 'imprint" left on one side, the next three show the razor sharp metal frame and how it's sliced through. I can't believe it. I hope GSM can rectify. I've become so disillusioned... not sure what the next step is. :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

Probably to late to fix your damage problem but here's what I settled on. Where the side mounts bolt onto the seats I 3D printed some flexible 3mm thick packers / washers to space the frames off the GRP shells which on dry assembly were clearly going to suffer with the side mounts gouged up against them. These spacers I'm hoping will be enough to protect the seats and might solve your issue though perhaps you might need thicker spacers. As regards the fitting of the seats I did a 'Dry fit" assembly off the car, assembling the whole kit on the seat (But not in the car). I then measured the side to side measurements between the mounts on the factory seats (16" between centres) and then with the side mounts still tightened I then loosened slightly the nuts and bolts attaching the side mounts to the sliders, enough that I could adjust the sliders to be parallel and 16" apart (To match the car) and bolted to the seat (To match the seat). This gave me a pretty close fitment as a starting point. Finally I placed the seats and mounts in one piece into the car with the mounts located to suit the car fixings. I then slackened off the door side side mounting bolts to give me enough play to bolt the mounting frames firmly into the car (They were already pretty much there), torqued them up and then finally torqued up the two door side side mounting bolts. And that was them fitted. Very laborious, very time consuming and very frustrating but hopefully in for good. I THINK they're fitted right... they SEEM to fit right but as said before without any instructions I have no way to confirm. What I do know though is that I needed an extra 8 3mm flexible packers, 8 additional flexible 3D printed packers, 2 3D printed fitting collars for the seat belt mounts, 8 aluminium 'Cone" washers to spread the load and multiple M8 nuts, bolts and washers, all bought and made in addition to the supposedly 'Complete" fitting kit for which I paid iro £450 I hope you get your install sorted out to your satisfaction but I think both of us may be a little disenchanted with things.

I'm hoping GSM do the right thing ... otherwise I'll use thé Consumer Rights act Of 2015 'The Act requires goods to be: 1. Of satisfactory quality. 2. Fit for the consumer's particular purpose. 3. As described." I believe my experience and what I've received fails on all 3.

Good luck, I found them crap to deal with on anything once ordered. Contacted Cobra direct. That was last year during material shortages etc but sounds like still not the greatest with actual detail.

I've spoken to Citizens Advice and they have stated they are well within my rights to get a full refund, and have said they will be contacting trading standards. Its a shame as the seats look GREAT when rested in the passenger side... exactly the look I was going for to finish my project car ... Lets see what happens next.

So - I think I have figured out why I the seat cover has been cut. In short, whilst advertised as side mountable, where the side mounts are, the leather is pulled taught, meaning when the side mount is attached, it puts pressure ontp the leather, and then it meets the inner seat frame (which is sharp), it has cut though. I have even tried spacers and packers, but with an estimate of 5-8mm, the top still pushed into the leather. The seat that I bought was hand made to order by cobra as I wanted a particutlar look. However, the standard version has an "indent" to allow the frame to be mounted. Letter gone to GSM asking for full refund. Clearly faulty and not fit for intended purpose.

I hope they sort this out for you. Really is very poor for an expensive'made to measure' kit. :nooo: