Mazda Miata seats

S

steven

Gold forum user
Messages
875
I have heard somewhere the Mazda Miata (MX5) seats are a bolt in replacement for the alpine/Tiger. As the seats in my restore need full rebuild including foam/lining etc, I am thinking modern seats, I am not a purest when commen sense prevales. I also hear they come with speakers in the headrests. Whats the consenses?
 
They do fit the car.. but require some mods to the runners. Not "bolt in".

The early cars have speakers in the headrests... i guess it's a matter of personal taste... the microcell seats look and feel great when in good condition, they fit under the tenneau cover.. and they dont make you look like you are driving a mazda. :rolleyes:
 
Pics

Any pics of the seats installed? Also anyone modify or adapt any of the Mini or BMW seat roll bar set ups?
 
I too have been looking for a better seat for my Tiger--tough to find low backs on modern cars.
 
I dont htink the GTS seats are that bad a value.. i have sat in them in a few cars and they are REALLY nice. They look great and are well made.

If you pop say 795 for the vyvil ones x 2 you get 2 brand new seats. Now if one was going away from the stock setup.. these look period correct and hold oyu in better.. if your standard seats need bebuilding they can easily take 450+ each once you weld the frames, new foams, webbing, covers...

put in that context... GTS seats are not to bad.. trouble is which type to choose.... :eek:
 
I am going through my car and doing all the updates that I have been putting off and recently fit Miata seats to my car. If I remember correctly, I had to remove the rivets from the Miata tracks to remove the mounting "ears". I cut a portion of the tracks off to make it flatter. I drilled out the rivet holes for clearance for a 1/4-20 allen head bolts. Then I made 1/4 inch adapter plates that bolt to the Sunbeam floor and use 1/8 washers and bolt the seats onto the plates. The Miata seat mounts were different drivers and passengers seats so the adapter plates were different to match the seats. I am 6 foot tall and the seats are comfortable and fit just fine.
 
Sunbeam_in_AZ said:
I am going through my car and doing all the updates that I have been putting off and recently fit Miata seats to my car. If I remember correctly, I had to remove the rivets from the Miata tracks to remove the mounting "ears". I cut a portion of the tracks off to make it flatter. I drilled out the rivet holes for clearance for a 1/4-20 allen head bolts. Then I made 1/4 inch adapter plates that bolt to the Sunbeam floor and use 1/8 washers and bolt the seats onto the plates. The Miata seat mounts were different drivers and passengers seats so the adapter plates were different to match the seats. I am 6 foot tall and the seats are comfortable and fit just fine.
Click to expand...

Any pictures?
 
Sunbeam_in_AZ said:
If I remember correctly, I had to remove the rivets from the Miata tracks to remove the mounting "ears". I cut a portion of the tracks off to make it flatter. I drilled out the rivet holes for clearance for a 1/4-20 allen head bolts. Then I made 1/4 inch adapter plates that bolt to the Sunbeam floor and use 1/8 washers and bolt the seats onto the plates.
Click to expand...

I'm very interested in doing this. Do you have any pictures of the brackets or mounting? Are you saying you used 1/4" bolts to mount the seats? Is this enough strength in the case of a crash? I only ask because the seats in the late model cars I've worked on use 1/2" hardware.
 
Seat Belts

Crash loads are applied primarily to the seat belts which are attached to body with bigger bolts.

Fasten the lap belt on the empty passenger seat to keep it from flying out of the car.

Rick
 
TigerBlue said:
Crash loads are applied primarily to the seat belts which are attached to body with bigger bolts.
Click to expand...

The belt might reduce the liklihood of the occupants being ejected in a crash, but would do little to keep the seat and occupant from tearing free of the floor and moving around with undesirable consequences. Take the case of being rear-ended at a stop light, for example. This is the case for which a more modern seat with a headrest is desirable for me, to guard against whiplash. This does little good if the whole seat tears loose and flips rearward. I don't think a seatbelt would prevent that, so much as act as the pivot point.

Perhaps I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I am relatively new to Tigers, after all. All I know is, the size of hardware and amount of floor bracing used for the seats in my Mustang imply much higher loads in this area than I would trust to 1/4" bolts. At least, they do as I am envisioning the attachment to be. That's why I asked for pictures, as maybe I'm thinking about this wrong. I guess I need to put my transmission parts down and go look at my seat mounting brackets.
 
I will post pics of the seat track mods and the brackets I made later tonight. If someone desires some additional pictures, let me know. As far as the strength of the 1/4 inch bolts go. My MK1 seat tracks were held in with 4, 1/4-28 bolts. The shear strength of a 1/4 inch grade 5 bolt is 85 ksi or 85000 psi. So I would guess with 4 bolts holding the seat, I would assume the actual shear strength is some multiple of the 85 ksi number. My point is if you hit, or get hit by, something that causes the seat bolts to shear, your outlook probable is not very good anyway.
 
FMVSS

At last look Tigers even a MK2 did not have a dual master cylinder or a steering with a collapsible steering column. I was of the impression that both of those mods were a Federal motor Vehicle Safety Standard for 1967. 1968 saw most cars starting to have high back seats. Point is If you worry about getting in a hard hit in a Tiger you may never get in it and stay in the family truckster.

The reason I veer slightly off track is I am sure we all love the look of the stock seats which lack any head rest or restraint. I think most would all agree that you are toast in any tangle with anything but a early VW bug. The big concern is not to get your neck injured in a low impact event. I do not really want to add a "show bar" but there lies the easy add for a head restraint.

I have been rear ended at 10 mph by a SUV in a 64 Falcon with low back seats, was not fun to be hurt from such a stupid little boo boo.

A designer friend of mine pointed out a lot cars trip then roll sliding sideways into a curb then like a drunk trip over it.

Autopower in San Diego sells the show bar but I find myself drawn to keeping the stock seats and adding a modified hoop bars like on the newer cars.

Great thread with great ideas..
 
Warren Cucarullo said:
At last look Tigers even a MK2 did not have a dual master cylinder or a steering with a collapsible steering column. I was of the impression that both of those mods were a Federal motor Vehicle Safety Standard for 1967. 1968 saw most cars starting to have high back seats. Point is If you worry about getting in a hard hit in a Tiger you may never get in it and stay in the family truckster...
Click to expand...

Since you brought it up, I plan to rectify those, as well. After all, the collective driving intelligence of the US is not getting any better.
 
As rare as they are microcell offered headrests for the alpine/tiger seats. The works rally cars used them as did a road test S3:

as always click for larger images.

S3 seats, top left seat features the head rest:


works tigers:




This said.. i posted a selctio of period looking seats with headrests earlier in this thread.. i know they are a bit more expensive than the mazda seats... but at leats they are well made and dont stand out so obviously
 
Are right I hope this worked, and please excuse the poor quality of the pictures. Also I am in the middle of tearing down so it is messy in there.
First pic is of the brackets
Second pic is of the brackets mounted to the floor.
Third shows the seat mounted in the car
Fourth shows the Miata seat next to the stock seat, to show height
comparison
Last one shows the Miata track with the stock mounting ear removed
sorry I don't have a before picture.
If anyone has any question, just ask
 
Thanks for the images. When I pick up my seats it will become clearer what is required.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top