Corbeau Racing Seat FX1 Fixed Back

When upgrading the suspension on their Mustangs, many owners overlook the benefits of a true high performance seat. As grip improves, factory seats become more and more of a liability. This owner of this '04 Saleen has upgraded the suspension and the engine far beyond what Saleen ever envisioned. While Saleen's have a pretty good seat from the factory, this car is ready for a true high performance bucket. So today, we're going to install these Corbeau FX1 Pro seats, along with their five point harness and their harness bar system.

The FX1 Pro seat offers comfort, performance, safety, and also a great value. While the multiple mounting locations, seat back brace, lightweight fiberglass composite shell scream race seat, it's designed to be comfortable, as well... comfortable enough that you can drive it daily if you wanted to. The FX1 Pro shown here is designed for somebody up to a 36-inch waist. The standard FX1 will support up to a 38-inch. They offer a wide version as well, which will support up to a 40-inch waist.

The FX1 Pro seat features these lower mounts here that allow you to use the Corbeau bracket and bolt it into the stock location in your Mustang. Brackets are available for '64 all the way up through current models. They also have these bolts on the side allowing you to use a fixed mount bracket, again for more of a race application. This bolt here is designed for a seat back brace. Many sanctioned bodies require the use of an additional brace if the car is not equipped with a roll bar.

These are the brackets we're going to be using to install the seats in our 2004 Saleen. Their made by Corbeau and they're going to bolt to the factory location on the floor, the seat will bolt on top, and it'll have maneuverability just like the factory seat. These also have a secondary bolt over here for mounting your seatbelt, since the factory receiver is mounted to the seat on the '99 and up Mustangs.

This is a Corbeau harness bar we're going to be installing along with our five-point belts. This gives us a mounting location for the two shoulder belts without having to drill into the floor. This mounts between the two bolts on your B pillar brackets that hold your upper seatbelt, two support bars here will go down to the lower brackets providing additional support. The harness bar includes brackets and all the hardware necessary for installation. It ships with this gray finished and can be installed as is, or you can paint or powder coat to match your interior or exterior.

For this installation you'll need a 3/8 ratchet, short extension, 1/2" socket, 11/16 socket, 15 mm socket, 17 mm socket, 18 mm socket, 7/32 Allen key or Allen bit, 3/8 Allen key or Allen bit, T50 Torx bit, 15 mm wrench, 17 mm wrench, 5/8 wrench, drill, 1/8" drill bit, 7/16 drill bit, and safety glasses.

The first step of installation is going to be to remove both the passenger and driver's side seats. We'll start with the front with these two bolts located one on this side and one over here. Now we're going to remove the covers for the rear bolts, pull up and then slide the tabs off the sides. We're going to tilt the seat forward, pull up the studs and carefully remove it from our car. The driver's side seat unbolts in the same way. Since it's a power seat there is one more step. When we pull the seat forward to remove it, tilt it back, and you'll need to disconnect the plug down here for the power seat.

One of the huge benefits of doing a seat swap like this is going to be the weight savings. Our factory Saleen seats are 100 pounds for the pair with the brackets. Our Corbeau FX1 with the brackets only 57 pounds and that's with an adjustable bracket. If we went to a fixed mount bracket it'd probably be less than 50 pounds for the pair. The harness bar is going to mount to the two seatbelt bolts that are on the B pillar on both sides. We'll start by removing the covers and then we're going to remove the bolts.

To remove the cover just slide your finger behind the seatbelt loop, pull out on the corner, and pop off the cover. Now we can remove our bolt. Now we'll do the same thing over on the passenger side. Now we're going to remove this plastic washer here to remove the factory bolt. Now we can push the bolt out through the receiver. Now we're ready to install the harness bar itself.

We're going to grab the supplied hardware, grab the bolt, and slide the collar over it to begin the installation. Take the bolt and the collar, take the factory seatbelt harness and put it through that first. Now we'll wrap it around on top of our harness bar, put it through the harness bar opening, supplied washer on, and put it up into place. Just put enough to hold it in place and you're ready to do the passenger side.

Now we're going to remove the lower seatbelt bolt found down here on the rocker. We have to install the bracket for our harness bar as well as the outside of our five point seatbelt to this stud here. The factory washer is going to be a little too thick and I'm going to take it off so everything will fit properly on the bolt. To get the rubber washer off there's a little metal washer, you simply unthread it from the bolt and then you can remove the rubber sleeve.

We're going to start by removing the sleeve now off the seatbelt having just the mounting stud left. Then we'll grab our lab belt and the factory seatbelt and put the bolt through them both. Now we'll grab the bracket for the support bar for our crossbar. Now we're going to install the metal support bars between our brackets we just installed and our harness bar. These have metal rod ends that thread out. We're going to start by putting it in this end here and then we'll adjust it to fit our lower bracket. We want to get it hand tight and now we'll adjust the lower. Once we have them hand tight you'll want to thread the lock nuts up toward the bar. Now you want to repeat the process on the other side and then we can tighten everything down.

Now we're ready to install the seat on the new seat track and prep it for installation. This stud right here is for mounting in a factory receiver your factory seatbelt. Since we're keeping those along with our five-point harnesses, we'll have to remove the receiver from the original seat. We're installing the passenger seat first. On the driver's side when you remove this there'll be a wire harness attached to it for the fasten seatbelt light. There'll be a plug right underneath the seat, simply unplug it and remove the harness with the receiver.

The stud on the Corbeau bracket is the same thread as the factory stud, so you use the factory nut and tighten it on. Now we're going to install the other half of the lap belt, as well as the submarine belt. The stud here does not have enough room to put two belts on it, so we're going to drill a hole down here below it and mount the lap belt there. The submarine belt, do the same thing over here, drill a hole right in the center and we're going to mount it right there.

We're going to measure between the track here for an approximate center. It doesn't have to be perfect, you just want to get a ballpark of where the center is and drill there. Now we'll drill the second pilot hole. We'll start by doing both pilot holes and then we'll open them both up. We're ready to install the belts to our seat brackets. We'll be using our own hardware for this part of the installation. The belts do come with their own bolts. They do not come with nuts. You want to make sure you have bolts, nuts, and washers to bracket them properly.

Now we're ready to bolt the seat to the track. The seats come with their own hardware. We're going to remove these from the bottom and then install it on our tracks. To begin the installation you'll want to apply the track either all the way forward or all the way back, the only way to access these holes, which are where the seat is going to line up with. Once they're tight we're going to slide the track to the back and then install the front. While we're here we're going to fish this submarine belt through the bottom of the seat and we'll do the same thing with the side belt and the seat's ready to go in the car.

The last step before installing the seats in the car is going to be installing our shoulder harnesses to our harness bar. Since we're using a harness bar with a wraparound style we're actually not going to use these pieces that are included with the harness, so the first step is to remove those. Simply push this up through and remove the bracket. Now you want to pull a good amount of the harness through this little buckle.

Kind of get an idea of fitting it where it's going to go with the seat, get you close, and now we're ready to install it on our bar. We're going to wrap it around and then thread it through the bottom of the buckle. Now you want to repeat the process for the other three shoulder straps. Now we're ready to install our seats. We're going to install to the stock locations using the stock hardware. Now you want to bolt them back in again using the factory hardware.

Now we're going to fish the harnesses through our seat. In the case of the belt here that has a receiver on it; it's not going to fit through the opening. We're going to take it off and then thread the belt itself through first. Thread it through and put it back on, and our installation is finished. Our Corbeau FX1 Pro seats and our five part harnesses is going to keep us locked in the seat no matter what the road throws at us. Installation should take you around three hours. You'll be back on the road in no time.