Sportster Seats

[6981marlin]

I am looking for some cheap seats for my marlin sportster, can anyone recommend some ( I need to get through iva with them)?

[MartinClan]

I used seats from an MX5. They just about squeeze in. I recovered mine using some leather covers but you could use them as they are if you are on a limited budget. They are considerably stronger and more comfortable than most aftermarket seats.

Robin

[peterux]

Ditto what Robin has said. I've been in Robin's car and his MX5 seats are very comfortable. They come up regularly on ebay.

...peter

[morris]

Do the MX5 seats flip forward too. That's something I was looking for to provide easy access to the boot (if you can call it that). I saw some Alfa GTV seats on ebay but they looked a little wide

[cabrioman]

Morris, It might be worth checking out Porsche 997 seats, there are a couple of pairs on ebay at the moment. See item 161177135076

They are pretty narrow, i was told 440 mm at the widest point on the seat bolster but that might not include the adjust lever.

I have not measured them in the flesh myself but requested measurements from the seller to see if they would fit in my Cabrio.

They are always in leather and around £500 a pair but quite often seem to be in as new condition.

[morris]

They do look quite nice actually, very similar in design to some of the MX5 seats too. £595 plus delivery is quite a bit though but I bet that they're still more comfy than aftermarket ones that cost close to that each. I'll keep them in mind

cheers

[Cammy]

Morris,

I managed to get a pair of Suzuki Cappuccino seats from my local dismantlers for £120 because there was a small tear in the drivers seat. Very comfy and compact - they fit nicely into my Sportster, they slide backwards and forwards as well as folding forwards and the head rest is adjustable. Have not past IVA yet but am not anticipating any issues with them.

I am about to post a link to Flick where you can see some pictures of the seats and my build so far.

Cheers

Cammy

[morris]

Nigel, yep I'm a good 6' 3" and shall we say "big boned". The main reason I want rake adjustment is I get neck problems so need my seat very upright but good to know they are generally comfortable.

Cammy, yes I was just looking at your photos and the Suzuki Cappuccino had completely slipped my mind. they look quite smart too. The other one I was looking at today was MGF seats but they appear to have a strange arrangement on one of the sliders at the rear where the mounting hole is in the vertical plane rather than the usual horizontal. No doubt some bashing and welding would solve that. The leather ones actually look quite nice for a rover derived part. These are the ones that caught my eye though there are much cheaper ones around

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MGF-MG-TF-...item51b619fd26

[morris]

OK, so I've bought some MX5 MK2.5 seats in very good condition.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5806804...n/photostream/

They have the rake adjustment but the problem is, with the plastic cover for the rake mechanism on, the seats won't go back past the wide point in the foot well. If you take the cover off and the seat belt mount, it goes back a little further but still not enough. Swap sides and it's even better but the rake adjuster spring mechanism still juts out too far.

So here's the question. Is there any reason why the rake has to be sprung loaded for IVA or MOT? If I remove the spring and chop off the pin it sits on I'm pretty confident the seat will go right back against the rear bulkhead. This is all the IVA manual section 15 says

"3. Each seat, seat back adjustment and seat displacement system must incorporate an automatic locking system which operates in all positions provided for normal use."

I read that to mean as long as it locks in position, the fact you may have to move the seat back into position by hand is irrelevant?

I also need to modify the runners as the bolt points are angled and need flattening out. That should stop my knees from getting stuck on the steering wheel. if the seat can go back another 10cm I may stand a chance of getting my left foot comfortably on top of the clutch rather than under it too I'm going to have to put my strengthening bars under the chassis rather than in the foot well just to get the seat low enough to drive let alone pass the "effective seat belt mount point" test

[Cammy]

Hi Morris,
I can't really help with the query about the Mazda seats but I did have the same issue with teh runners on my seats being angled. There are some photo's on my Flickr account but all I did was bend the angled bits to 90 degrees then mount the seats on some box steel section. Both seats fit nicely into the chassis and I have clearance for the seat runners as well. I plan to put some bracing at the points where the seats/box steel will be mounted and just need to make sure there is room for the seat belt mounting bolt.

Cheers

Cammy

[MartinClan]

I used the earlier style seat with seperate headrests. I had to reverse sides and remove seat belt anchors and modify runners slightly to change the fixings. Other than that they fitted ok. But I am only 5ft 6in so they didn't have to go right to the back.

Cheers Robin

[denniswpearce]

The seats in my Sportster were fixed direct to the floor pan with just oversize washers on the bottom. Obviously got through its test with the Ministry just like that.

[timbo]

I used 100mm square plates under the rear seat mounting bolts to spread the load in case of a front collision, as surely the seat would want to throw forward (regardless of seat belt anchoring points) and I wasn't convinced the floor panels by themselves were of sufficient strength. No questions from the IVA man.
Although by spot welding the bolts to the seat runners I could just drop the seats into the holes into the floor panels and bolt them from underneath the car. Simples