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My Weekend Project

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TRDejaVu

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My seats weren't great and they hardly reached my shoulder blades, which is whiplash waiting to happen, so I put in Miata seats. I know that it's not for the purists, but it feels much more secure and comfortable. I am now starting to research 3-point seat belts.

MiataSeatLeft.jpg


MiataSeatRight.jpg
 

pa297pass

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Looks great Ian ... nice job. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

Every time I see your car, I am still amazed at how you painted it ... hard to believe.

Please post when you come up with something for shoulder belts.

Matt
 
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Everyone that has ever changed to Miata seats says there is no comparison in comfort but be sure to hold on to those original seats. There was a TR6 on Ebay a few months ago that had Miata seats. The owner said he junked the originals. He had numerous emails posted from potential buyers of the car asking about the original seats. He eventually ended the auction as no longer available for sale. The car never actually sold on Ebay and never got too high with bids even being a southern car with the factory hardtop.
 

roofman

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I did this conversion also and could not be happier with the results. 10 times more comfortable than the low back seats.
P1040069.jpg
 

toysrrus

Yoda
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Hi Folks;

Please don`t mis-understand this:

If you wanted comfort, support etc! Why not just go out and Buy a "Miata" or something like it?

Personally; I feel My TR4A seats are quite comfortable even for a Long Cruise: The "Orig Seat Belts" (Which I never wear) are just fine: Why do you feel you need a 3 way Harness? You going Racing @ Pocono or the Glen or What?

Just a Passing thought: Ian; They do look nice but I feel they would look better in a "Miata"!!

See Ya All @ TVR on the 19th;

Have a Spendid Day; Russ /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 

BryanC

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TRDejaVu said:
I am now starting to research 3-point seat belts.

I think by 3-point seat belts, he means a lap and shoulder belt - not a 5 point racing harness. Personally, I think seat belts are a good idea and prefer a lap and shoulder belt. I believe the main obstacle will be the lack of factory mounting points on the inner wheel arches. If you want to use the retractable shoulder belts, you'll probably need two mount points on each inner wheel arch in addition to the two mounts on the floor on either side of each seat. My TR6 came with one mount on each inner wheel arch and I added a second one to allow installation of the retractable belts. I suppose you could add the mount points by drilling and using a large backup plate without welding but I chose to weld in the mounting point and backup plate.

I had fixed 3-point belts in my MGA and could never get comfortable. I like the retractable belts in my TR6 much better.

Bryan
 

TR3driver

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toysrrus said:
If you wanted comfort, support etc! Why not just go out and Buy a "Miata" or something like it?
Well, let me put it this way. I still suffer from a whiplash injury suffered in my TR3A some 20 years ago, in a very minor accident. Only damage to the car was the RR bumperette, but my neck cannot be repaired.

I still love the car, not going to give up driving (as soon as it's replacement is ready) but somehow the idea of headrests appeals to me. Not to mention the neat speakers in the Miata seats !

I've driven a Miata, in fact a friend is trying to basically give me his and my girlfriend wants me to take it so she can drive it. It's a fun little car, but it ain't no TR3 !
 
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TRDejaVu

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I actually have 2 sets of "period" seats. The PO had apparently changed them to the later 4/4A type before it ended up in the barn. Needless to say, that they were horrible when it came out nearly 3 decades later; although the frames seem to have held up quite well. When I first got it back on the road I put a couple of cheap seat covers over them.

Last year I couldn't find any suitable Miata seats, so I bought a couple of similar vintage TR seats on eBay; passenger one 8/10, driver's 5/10. I had been using them up until now. I am a bit of a pack-rat, so I will keep the newer ones and probably the older ones (much to the wife's horror), unless I hear of someone looking for reasonable frames.

Aldwyn, it took me 2 days as I was modifying the design of the commonly shown adapter plates and then making them. I still have the original steering wheel and even with the period seats my right leg was not in the best of positions. The standard "Miata" mod makes this worse, so there was a lot of measure twice cut once happening. I managed to keep the seat height about the same, but I had to drill 2 new holes in the floor for the mount (it's a driver not a show car).

Russ, I didn't find the originals too uncomfortable, but the thought of a woman yakking on her cell phone while she rear-ends me (even at low speed) and leaves me and the wife with serious whiplash was not appealing. An inattentive driver rear-ended my Daughter last year and I seem to remember that you had your own similar experience, albeit from the side. As to the belts, I would prefer to minimize the chances of me eating the steering wheel in an accident. When I am on "the hurry up" around our local narrow twisty roads, my driving style can be conservatively described as "spirited"; I don't do ice-cream runs in it. Hhhmmm - maybe we need airbags in these cars?

Thanks for the comment on the paint, but it is still not where I want it to be. I have found that you get very picky when you do it yourself. Every car show I go to I am looking closely at paint, grading my effort against others. I should stop that before it becomes an obsession. I did get one comment where a guy complemented me on the color and I told him how I painted it. He then said that someone had approached him a few weeks ago and asked his opinion on the roller method and he had said that there was no way he should do that, even for just a driver. He then said, "If I hadn't seen yours with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it". As I have said before, it's not for show cars, but for a "3-footer" it seems to work. I am currently experimenting with polishing methods to improve upon that.
 

Brosky

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Every car show I go to I am looking closely at paint, grading my effort against others. I should stop that before it becomes an obsession. [/QUOTE]

Make sure that you remember your own advice to yourself. Your car is just that, "your car" and it should remain so and in whatever condition that YOU decide to keep it.

Just for the record, it looks like a "10" to me!
 

WidespreadPanic

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I too am contemplating the Miata Seat conversion for my 6.

I have two questions:

1.) What should I expect to pay for a nice set of used Miata seats? There are several large auto recyclers in my area so I think availability should be no problem.

2.) What did you use for the bracket that attaches the seat to the floor? I know there's a guy in the UK that periodically sells them on ebay (I actually sent him an email and never got a reply) but I have not seen him offer any in quite some time.

They look terrific by the way. Nice work.
 

roofman

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simonabh is his UK ebay trade name, and the brackets are key. I bought his after trying to fab my own. The miata seats have a kind of bowl shaped bottom and these brackets compensate for that. A good pair of seats will run $150-$200 for cloth and closer to $300 up for leather. They come up on ebay often but I would try your local sources first as I would rather pay a extra few buck for good seats than for shipping. I bought a pair cheap with a few tears and put new leather covers on them.
 

scott421

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The Tr book on upgrades by Roger Williams has the instructions to make the brackets . I made mine in an hour or so and they work a treat .
 
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TRDejaVu

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As previously mentioned, there are adapter plates and fittings that can be made so that you can attach the Mazda rails to the original TR seat mounting points and keep the modification completely reversible. I drilled a couple of extra holes on the drivers side so that I could make the seat as low as reasonably possible. I will have to change out that floorpan in a couple of years, so it was no big deal for me; by then I may have switched to a smaller steering wheel, or maybe I won't.
 
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