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Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better ideas?

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MTribe

MTribe

Jedi Hopeful
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I've been eyeing the "Suffolk" seats in Victoria British to replace my tired TR6 seats. I like that they look roughly period correct (unlike the miata conversion), have better whiplash protection than stock, and look comfortable.

Does anyone have experience with the suffolk seats and can you recommend them?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
Steve
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Steve, I have the Suffolk seats installed in my TR6. There are pluses and minuses.

First off, they are extremely comfortable, with great lumbar support as well as lateral support. Long trips are no longer something to dread.
The seats have way more fore and aft adjustment than stock.
The backs flip forward easily for room to get to the back. Unlike the stock seats which completely flip. The tilt is good as well.

They are, imho, much better looking than stock, with excellent head rests.

Now for the bad news.

They are a real bear to install. They say that you have to use the front bolt holes in the stock floor pan and drill new ones for the back. I did that and it was a mess. Since I had to install new floor boards, this gave me an opportunity to come up with a better mounting system. With the new floor boards installed, I wanted to keep the for stock floor nuts in use. What I did was weld up a large flat rectangle out of 2" x 3/8" stap steel from Lowes. I drilled this frame to perfectly line up with the stock holes in the floor. This allowed me to align the seat on top of the frame and mark it, purposely avoiding the bolts into the floor. Where I marked the frame, I drilled and countersunk from the bottom to fit four (on each frame) high-stength machine bolt with tapered heads. These I welded in place from the bottom. I then just dropped the seats onto these holes and bolted them down with all-metal locking nuts. I installed the frame over the carpet. I hope I didn't confuse you. It works great..
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Steve- 1 word Miata Seats
OK that's 2 . Sue me. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

IMG_5379.jpg

IMG_5378.jpg


Miata seats in my 62 TR4.

I put them in my TR6 for about a week and thought they were really comfortable. In my TR4 with the surrey top, I think they look great. I can't bring myself to recover the original seats and replace the Miata seats. On a side note...I'm now looking for 91-98 Toyota MR2 seats for my TR8.
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Larry- Are the Toyo seats the cats meow for our wedgies?
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

One of my winter projects was to update the seats covered in JC Whitney sheepskin covers (by the PO) and have them recovered. I used the foam kit from TRF and the leather seat covers from Moss. They didn't originally go well together. The bottoms looked good, but the backs didn't fit well. The upholstery shop had to take some material off in places to make them fit right. I've been very pleased with them so far. They have much more support than before.

I've got some slightly used sheepskin covers available for a good price if anyone's interested....
 

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Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Thanks for all the comments, guys!

Larry--Those miata seats do look pretty good. Did you recover them or is that a stock upholstery? If so, what year? And how did you mount them?

Bill--I'm not sure I followed that. Could you elaborate on why drilling the new holes in the rear was a mess?

Thanks!
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Because you ended up drilling into the car frame.
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

I put miata seat in too, I recovered them in leather, pretty easy job too
 

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Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Bill, a-ha! I think I just understood the frame concept. An adapter plate like a big, flat picture frame that bolts into the floor pan, and which has bolts welded in from the bottom to mount the seat. Very clever.

Hmm.. I'm quite tall and want to keep the seats as low as possible. Every mm counts when my head is sticking out the top of the car.

Silly question, but could you just drill new holes in the suffolk seat rails in the proper location in the rear? Or do they not line up?

I imagine this measurement is difficult to get at this point, but if you could get me the measurements of the suffolk mounting holes that'd help think about potential solutions.

Thanks!
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Well, it's more complicated than that. The Suffolk seats really don't line up well with the stock front nuts in the pan either. I pretty much butchered the nuts installing the darn things. The four-hold pattern on the new seats is no where close to the four holes in the floor. And you cannot satisfactorily drill the Suffolk frame rails because access to install bolts is just not there. The "picture frame" mounts worked out perfectly, only raises you a negligible amount, is stable as heck and keeps your floor pan stock. Think I should patent it?
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Sounds like the "bee's knees", I think somebody named Bill recently brought up that term! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

I have recently sunk over thirty grand in a couple of patents. These would have to sell very well!

My question is, do the head rests on the Suffolk seats fit behind your head? Those on our '76 TR6 are at my neck level and lower part of Shirley's head. Actually, the way they attach to the seat frame does not inspire much confidence either.
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

What color are the sheepskins?
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

tomshobby said:
My question is, do the head rests on the Suffolk seats fit behind your head? Those on our '76 TR6 are at my neck level and lower part of Shirley's head. Actually, the way they attach to the seat frame does not inspire much confidence either.
Click to expand...

They fit very well behind both me and my wife's head. And they are somewhat larger than OE head rests.
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Equiprx - they're black.
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Bill--there's a sale on suffolk seats ending today and I'm trying to decide whether to order them. I love your "frame" solution, but have decided against it since I'm tall and even the stock seats with old, compressed padding make me feel like I'm sitting too high in the car. I imagine the suffolk seat with fresh padding and a 3/8" plate will make me regret that solution.

If I could just mount them to the floor it may be OK, though. When you mounted them to your original floor boards, by "mess" do you mean it was just a little trickier than VB implied, or was it one of those things that was a messy solution even when finished?

Also, do you feel like you sit higher, lower, or the same in the suffolk seats as compared to stock?

Thanks!
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

The seats just are not going to fit into your original floor holes at all. That is the mess. Now, having had experienced the seats installed both ways (I am 6' tall), I noticed no real difference in height. Remember, I installed them first directly to the metal floor and the second time to the frame <span style="font-weight: bold">and</span> on top of the carpet. So the 1/2" or less of extra height just is not an issue. I see Moss now offers seats (black only) that are a bunch more money. Look like the same seats.

Just, if you install them as VB suggests, you will be disappointed, IMHO.
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Bill: Way back when you touted your seats as being
very comfortable, even on long drives.
Never got the name, though I've been meaning to.

So is that it: Suffolk Seats from Victoria British?
 
Re: Experience with VB Suffolk seats? Or better id

Hey, thanks Bill! Very, very helpful! You're right, I probably be disappointed once I hacked my floor up. Decided not to go for them right now.

Geez, the moss seats are pricey indeed! The recline mechanism looked different to me, so maybe they're different seats? Wonder if they fit any better. I'll call and report back.
 
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