Midget seats...

[jcatnite]

Yeah I noticed them. I'm not ready for them just yet so I'm kind of waiting for the once in a lifetime deal on them. For example, I got a set of hinges for my Daughters CJ-7 a couple of weeks back for 8 bucks shipped. They run around 60 bucks for that brand at the usual 4 wheelin outlets. Enjoy the seats.
JC

 

[Jim_Gruber]

OK once you sit the seats flat you'll notice the front locating pegs. Those can be cut off with an angle grinder. Now seats will not sit level but I discovered a 1" piece of square bar stock, underneath the rear will raise the seat angle so it is level. Both seats are not the same BTW in the rear so measure both seats before cutting and drilling the square bar.

I drilled the bar stock to accept some 3/8" bolts. By raising the rear of the seats and with use of several large fender washers that will fit the depressions exactly on each of the seat bases, I was able to get bolts to sit almost straight up and down. I had toyed with the idea of making some sort of angled shims but the effort just didn't seem worth it. The front inside hole can be lined up with the inside front Spridget mounting hole and original bolt can be used on both sides. 3 new holes will be required but the inside rear can go into the reinforced rail area just a few inches behind the original hole. I used again large fender washers on the underside as backing plates.

On the outside, get the seats straight, mark and drill. Again be careful of the brake line, make sure you aren't drilling through anything inmportant. One other improvement I'll make when I get to it will be a piece of 1" angle iron to fit on the bottom of the car going between outside seat bolts as a larger backing plate for additional reinforcement.

Now for creature comforts, you will find a couple of hefty 3" speakers located under a hidden zipper in the headrest. I added a Bass Block Capacitor thanks to the suggestion of one of the listers here and the speakers sound fabulous. I've got a set of 6 x 9 in the back deck plus the headrest speakers. I did find that having pass and drivers speakers connected on the front channel plus the 2 6 x 9's on hte rear caused my little Sony CD Player to pop a fuse at high listening levels. Too much power required to drive 6 speakers. Since I drive by myself in Bugsy 99.5% of the time, I simply disconnected Passenger Side Speakers.

End result, more legroom even with Rollbar in place and since seatbacks are thinner, more recline on seats. No more sweaty backsides from the stock Spridget seats on "perches upon." I'm happy I made the switch.

Anyone contemplating doing one of these swaps, try local Junk Yards in the Yellow Pages, https://www.miata.net/cgi-bin/isc/classifieds.cgi, or post an add on local Miata Club bulletin boards. I was able to get a decent set of seats for $150 at a local junk yard. They were inside and dry although dusty but had been out of the weather. Also you can bargain with the junk yard guys. I talked him down from $225.00.

Go for it for 1/2 the cost of an upholstery kit I'm driving in comfort.

 

[Roger_67MG]

Well, I have the seats in, mostly. I say mostly because I ran out of bolts for the driver's side. Anyway, I used info from all the tips that everyone has provided, but had to make some "edits" because on peculiar circumstances. Here's what I have done and why:

First, it is important to note that all of the floors in my car have been replaced, so some things aren't exact to factory stock for 1967. Also, my seats are from a '99 Miata, and I believe that they are a bit different from some other years.

The seat tracks on the front have have "paws" that tilt down at an angle. Imagine a cat lounging on a shelf with its paws drooping off the edge. These paws are attached to the rails with very heavy duty rivets.

The rear of the inside track does not have riveted paws. Instead the turn-down is effected by clever bending of the metal in the rails. The effect is the same, however.

The bottom of the seat pan extends below the plane of the rails, so it is not possible to bend up the front paws. Besides, the rear angle can't be bent up anyway because of the way they are made. Why bend them up? In theory that is an easy way to attach the seats to the floor. The diagram below illustrates what this. it shows one half of a seat bottom.

I decided to make adapters of some sort. There is a debossment in the bend-down areas. It turns out that this debossment is a bit less than 3/4" in diameter.

I wanted to spread the load as evenly as possible, so I for the bottom adapter part I cut 3/4" I.D. schedule 40 black pipe at an angle so that it fit under the paw. The top half of the adapter was cut from 1/2" I.D. Again, the angle was matched to the angle of the paw. Using this technique, 3/8" bolts will go straight down through the holes in the seat brackets.

This is a little hard to explain so the next diagram should help a little bit. Note that these drawings are not to scale and show only the front setup. Field measurements are essential.

Note that I have rubber fender washers between the lower adapter part and the floor. I am using steel fender washers on the bottom. I will probably add lock washers later.

The next diagram shows how the whole thing goes together.

On my car the logical position of the seat means that the inside bolts go through the floor stiffener. That's the u-channel that runs front to back along the center line of the car. I am working on a special spacer that will solve some problems that arise there. On my driver's side the inside bolts miss the stiffener.

Why is this? Well, that is a question that I do not really want to ask. It seems that some questions need not be asked because the answers will lead to other questions, and that can only be trouble.

So far the seats seem to be installed really solidly. I am pleased.

 

[JPSmit]

Looks great! I'd love to see pictures?

can someone explain Bass Blockers to me?

 

[Roger_67MG]

Looks great! I'd love to see pictures?

can someone explain Bass Blockers to me?

Ask and ye shall receive, or something like that!

Here is a closeup of one of my little adapter thingies. I don't remember which one it is, but the principal is the same.

You can see how the parts go together here.

The parts aren't perfectly lined up as the whole thing isn't quite tightened up yet.

For entertainment purposes you can see the interior here.

and

I can hardly wait to get it on the road!

 

[tosoutherncars]

Very nice! Just one little suggestion. If you can find a pipe whose ID is about the same as the bolt's OD, it will remove a lot of the 'slop' in the assembly. Otherwise, it seems to me that the more you tighten it, the more it will want to 'walk' forward.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Roger,

Looks great, again your floors may be a little different since they were replaced. Re. a smaller piece of pipe, I thought about a piece of hardwood in there. You only need a small piece of maple for example to fit the adapter. I decided against the adapters as I calculated my fingers were worth more to me than the effort with a bandsaw and potential loss of limb. I just used large bolts 3/8", once they are tightened down they aren't going anywhere.

Roger, how about support in the rear to get the seats parallel to the floor. I used a piece of 1" square angle iron to raise up the rear. Your adapter thingies can do the same thing if you make them large enough.

I see you just cut off the alignment pegs in the front as I suggested.

Bass Blocker is a low frequency filter capacitor. It keeps those 3.5" speakers in the headrests from overloading on heavy duty bass. The 6 x 9's I have in the back deck in the back deck take care of the bass. Simply fits in line with the positive wire going to each speaker. Google Bass Blocker and you'll find a seller on E-Bay. Something like $7.95 delivered if I recall. Speakers i nthe headrests are almost like wearing a set of headphones while driving.

Now to get the rest of it together and get out driving. Weather is southern OH is absolutely perfect all week for top down Spridget driving.

 

[JPSmit]

Bass Blocker is a low frequency filter capacitor. It keeps those 3.5" speakers in the headrests from overloading on heavy duty bass. The 6 x 9's I have in the back deck in the back deck take care of the bass. Simply fits in line with the positive wire going to each speaker. Google Bass Blocker and you'll find a seller on E-Bay. Something like $7.95 delivered if I recall. Speakers i nthe headrests are almost like wearing a set of headphones while driving.

Thanks Jim, I plan to put a pair of 3 1/2 2 way speakers behind the screen in the dash (where the speaker was - it's gone now) would bass blockers help here?

 

[Jim_Gruber]

They are designed to filter out those low rattling speaker popping frequencies that you can feel from the teenager's car sitting next to you at a stop light even though your windows are up and AC is turned on. It also filters out the low frequency distortion that makes speakers snap and pop. Inexpensive and worth a try. All depends on how much power you are pushing and ultimate goal with a sound system. Google bass blocker and you'll find info about these things. I'm not an expert by any means.

 

[Roger_67MG]

Regarding the angle of the seats at the rear; because of the down-turn of the bracket and what-not, the seats are level, or at least acceptable, when using the same adapter setup as is used in the front. Of course, the angle on the pipe has to be cut differently, but that is no big deal.

Now, if we can only get it started...