I recently bought a very nice but used Recaro race seat from P-car guy so he didn't have any handy hints on how to install the darn thing. Not that I'm going to do the work myself but has anyone had experience swapping the stock seat out with an after market seat in my 2002 e46 M3? Can I use the same track? Do I need new hardware? Yahda, yahda. Thanks!
The easiest thing to to would be to find a custom fit bracket so you can swap back and forth if necessary (even if only when selling the car.) I suggest you contact one of hte BMW race car suppliers for brackets. You can try my brother James or anyone over at Road Race Technologies (roadracetech.com) or Turner, Pelican, Bimmerworld, etc.
Nicky, Recaro (and I think most other aftermarket seat mfg's.) have a standard either fixed or sliding setup, that then mounts to a custom bracket for each model of car. Usually the adapter brackets are available from any Recaro dealer, unless you happen to know the company that makes the bracket. Unless TC Kline's not selling Recaro's anymore, he should be able to set you up. If your seat mounts as many earlier bimmers do, pulling it out is a simple matter of removing the 2 or 4 bolts - from realoem.com, looks like it's just 4 bolts. http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BL93&mospid=47714&btnr=52_2729&hg=52&fg=25 Unbolt the 4 bolts, unplug any wire connectors to the seatbelt, etc, and pull the seat. Presumably the M3 seats don't have some airbags built into the seat itself; if that would be the case then removal would involve some additional precautions. Bolt in adapter bracket, attach seat sliders or seat bracket to Recaro, and bolt seat slider/bracket to the floor adapter bracket. If you've got a Bentley manual for your car, that should offer up any specifics about seat removal, or doublecheck w/ Ken.
Garrison is correct on seat removal. Remeber that it will take some doing to make your seat belt female portion fit without the proper mounting setup. It must be installed or the airbag light will come on. If you put in a passenger seat, there is a passenger seat occupancy sensor that will cause the airbag light to some on unless you move it over to the new seat or fake it out. Of course I always tell people to go to my brother first, but any Recaro dealer should be able to hook you up.
