Street Faction Engineering E46M3 Rear Seat Delete

[mrgizmo04]

Lol, yeah that rear seat bottom feels like it weighs nothing. Conversely, the rear seat backs feel like they weigh a ton... anyone got a number on that?

Would post 17 above help you out?

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[timmo]

Would post 17 above help you out?

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Ha, silly me for not seeing that.

Wow, they felt much heavier than the seat bottom. Must be the form factor playing into it as well

[clawhamm3r]

^picture isn’t loading

Weird, I see it on my computer but it's messed up in Tapatalk.

[STAATS]

Well Street Faction cam back to me with a way better deal on shipping and I have recently made some money selling some old parts so I decided to just dive in so I have the Fixed Back with Lower Panel kit in Aluminium on order. I will try get some weights and install photos etc to add to the pool of information available for others in future... I should have enough scratch left over to order all the Brey Krause bits I need so then I just need to save up for my Cobra Nogaros haha

[clawhamm3r]

Nice, can't wait to see the result.

[Estoril]

Well Street Faction cam back to me with a way better deal on shipping and I have recently made some money selling some old parts so I decided to just dive in so I have the Fixed Back with Lower Panel kit in Aluminium on order. I will try get some weights and install photos etc to add to the pool of information available for others in future... I should have enough scratch left over to order all the Brey Krause bits I need so then I just need to save up for my Cobra Nogaros haha

What the cost of an aluminum set? Any weight est.? I might get a set for the track car.

[STAATS]

What the cost of an aluminum set? Any weight est.? I might get a set for the track car.

They said the weight is ~23lbs for the Aluminium so you halve the weight vs the rear seat... theres a few more lbs to be saved if you remove the rear seat belts, head rests and the ruber pad under the rear seat as well.

They are quoting $500USD on their site and when I queried them on it they claimed 60% material price increase for Aluminium... not sure what grade they are using... 5000 series Aluminium is only marginally more expensive than Steel so unless they are using 2000 series which seems like massive overkill... but anyway. They also claim (and this bit is fair) that the price was high as everything else they make is Steel so they get economies of scale whereas they don't usually use Aluminium so obviously they consider it custom in the sense they have to buy who sheets of it and potentially only get one sale (as a side note I still think its crazy to run a business selling RSD's, which are normally a weight saving type item, and not have Aluminium as at least a standard option if not the base standard...) Anyway give them an email and if there is a few people starting to get the Aluminium kit you should be able to get them to give you a kickback on the price a bit.

[Estoril]

They said the weight is ~23lbs for the Aluminium so you halve the weight vs the rear seat... theres a few more lbs to be saved if you remove the rear seat belts, head rests and the ruber pad under the rear seat as well.

They are quoting $500USD on their site and when I queried them on it they claimed 60% material price increase for Aluminium... not sure what grade they are using... 5000 series Aluminium is only marginally more expensive than Steel so unless they are using 2000 series which seems like massive overkill... but anyway. They also claim (and this bit is fair) that the price was high as everything else they make is Steel so they get economies of scale whereas they don't usually use Aluminium so obviously they consider it custom in the sense they have to buy who sheets of it and potentially only get one sale (as a side note I still think its crazy to run a business selling RSD's, which are normally a weight saving type item, and not have Aluminium as at least a standard option if not the base standard...) Anyway give them an email and if there is a few people starting to get the Aluminium kit you should be able to get them to give you a kickback on the price a bit.

Thanks. The track car (AW) is stripped-out completely now - so I have to weigh the addition of ~26 lbs. I may make a set out of Kydex as a test balloon.

[STAATS]

Thanks. The track car (AW) is stripped-out completely now - so I have to weigh the addition of ~26 lbs. I may make a set out of Kydex as a test balloon.

If I was pure track car I would probably go with the Hard Motorsport E46 Rear Seat Delete instead (http://www.hardmotorsport.com/hard-m...-filler-panel/) I see its on special for ~$179USD at the moment but even at full price the $210USD is cheaper than the SFE back plate only which is $275USD in Steel and $400USD in Aluminium so it is basically double the price for an equivalent product (apples to apples with aluminium as that's the standard for the HMS panel).

The place where SFE wins out is cosmetics with the matching lower panel, pre-drilled mounting system, powder coating, etc to help make it look at home in a Street driven car that isn't fully stripped... In every other way it is either more expensive, by double for their Aluminium option, or it is more expensive by ~30% and heavier by ~30% if you buy their standard Steel option.

I personally feel for Street cars they have cornered the market (which I applaud them for actually taking the project on and bringing a product to market for us, irrelevant of my thoughts on the price point) but for stripped track cars I think there are other cheaper options...

Just my 2c - not throwing any shade or judgement just a dump of my thoughts when I was looking into RSDs for our car in general

[Jersey_M3]

Nothing looks better in the rear seat then this delete. I’d be interested in a group buy

[heinzboehmer]

-Rear seat cushion 13.5
-Both rear seat backs 34.5 (larger driver side 22.5, smaller pass side 12)

Was really surprised by these numbers the other day (especially the weight of the bottom part), so I weighed my rear seats while they were out of the car. Weighed them both by carefully balancing them on the scale and by weighing myself plus the part. Weights fluctuated +-0.1 lbs between both methods.

Lower. 12.8 lbs:



Small upper. 12.0 lbs:



Large upper. 23.3 lbs:



Total 48.1 lbs. Used a cheap bathroom scale so the <1 lbs differences between my numbers and gizmo's are probably due to that.

Thought I'd post this here since this is where the discussion started. I'll also start a weight thread to keep all the data in one place.

[Nick_P]

Was really surprised by these numbers the other day (especially the weight of the bottom part), so I weighed my rear seats while they were out of the car. Weighed them both by carefully balancing them on the scale and by weighing myself plus the part. Weights fluctuated +-0.1 lbs between both methods.

Lower. 12.8 lbs:



Small upper. 12.0 lbs:



Large upper. 23.3 lbs:



Total 48.1 lbs. Used a cheap bathroom scale so the <1 lbs differences between my numbers and gizmo's are probably due to that.

Thought I'd post this here since this is where the discussion started. I'll also start a weight thread to keep all the data in one place.

Crazy that the bottom seat cushion is ~13lbs...it feels like nothing. Thanks for this!

[Nick_P]

I got one of the original aluminum ones from the group buy. I wasnt concerned about weight and I eventually wrapped them in Alcantara. Also swapped the OE rear deck back in as I preferred the look. My build thread is gone but here are the pics from my flickr account. Hope that helps.

How is the fitment on these? Any complaints in general? Do you have the fixed back or folding version? I’m thinking of getting this since they have 15% off...been looking for a rear seat delete panel for a while

[robgill]

How is the fitment on these? Any complaints in general? Do you have the fixed back or folding version? I’m thinking of getting this since they have 15% off...been looking for a rear seat delete panel for a while

Fitment was very good for the base and back panels. Bolsters and speaker shelf required some tweaking. Overall still very happy with the kit. Only change I would potentially make is going with the solid and not foldable back panel. I generally just take it out when I need the space, and I could just as easily remove the fixed panel without all of the hinge hassle.

[Nick_P]

Fitment was very good for the base and back panels. Bolsters and speaker shelf required some tweaking. Overall still very happy with the kit. Only change I would potentially make is going with the solid and not foldable back panel. I generally just take it out when I need the space, and I could just as easily remove the fixed panel without all of the hinge hassle.

Awesome, thanks! Just pulled the trigger on their fixed back aluminum and lower panel.