• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Possible replacement seats from Walmart?

Share this page

t_bush

t_bush

Member
Offline
I am looking for opinions on some seats I found and am concidering putting into my car.
The original seats on my '74 Spit are beyond repair. Original replacement seats are too expensive. Miata seats are rare as hens teeth.
I came across these on the Walmart web site:
Seat
The dimensions of the seat match the original seats quite closly. The hinges are stainless steel. I am not sure if they latch or not. The seat would have to be adapted to mount to the sliders. At $100 ea the price is attractive.
Yes I know they are not original looking. On my car that is not a big concern as the V6 engine, T5 tranny, and Chevy instrument cluster are not original either.

- Tim
 
I think you will find these will not hold up very well. The hinges are normally very week on boat seats and they chip board will tend to break.

But maybe you can take the foam and vinyl out of these and use it in the bad seats.

I see you are on the edge of fishing country, this explains your thoughts. I would maybe go up the road to the Milca unclaimed freight store and see what you can find.

I also want to say there is a GT6 up the road from you by cheakos (I think 2 miles south on 169) that has been sitting in the woods next to a house for years. You may find a usable set there.

Remember, if women don't find you handsome they should find you handy.
 
I would have to ask if installing those seats in a car would void the warranty. If not, you can expect those seats to last the length of the warranty but likely not much longer under normal use.
 
Yikes........originality isn't my thing either but I think I'd draw the line at boat seats. I doubt they are built anywhere near to the crash standards that car seats are.

There's plenty of Miata seats out there. I got a pair for $150 at a local junk yard and another pair for $50 by posting an online free ad on the Grassroots Motorsports site. I also posted a question in the Miata.net forum and got a few replies with offers of seats. I just went on eBay and pulled up 3 seat auctions https://tinyurl.com/32omv7b and https://tinyurl.com/2w3x44n and https://tinyurl.com/2uwp5br The problem with eBay is the shipping costs unless you can talk them into shipping via Greyhound bus which is actually pretty cheap.

The reason the early Miata seats fit so well is that they are narrow at the shoulder level and don't interfere with the top's frame....at least on a TR6. When you get to the later seats they are too wide and the frame gets in the way.

Keep hunting for Miata seats.......they fit great and are very very comfortable.
 
Actualy the frames are injection molded. There is a three year warranty on the upholstry and six year warranty on the frame. No chipboard. Honestly some of the Wise and Tempress boat seats look very nicely made. The hinges are the weak point on the Wise seats. Tempress makes a seat that is very close to the original seat outline, without the head rest.

TomGT6 - I think I have seen that car. There is also a Mickey Mouse (P1800) Volvo near there that has been sitting in a yard for as long as I can remember. I am sure the mice have chewed the interiors to pieces by now. I never have understood why folks just let a car rot in front of the house.

BobbyD - Miata seats are hard to come by up here. None of the junk yards seem to have them. I have seen some on Ebay. The cost + shipping + reupholsering gets pricey. If I wasn't bleeding money into the rebuild they would be more attractive.

-Tim
 
"I never have understood why folks just let a car rot in front of the house."

Hard to figure. This 76 has been sitting for over 10 years. The owner turned down my offer of 2100 dollars saying he'd rather let it rust to the ground.


100_0734.jpg
 
t bush. Possibly an amphibious car in the making? I wonder how they might hold up in a rear end crash? Not a lot of stop lights on the lake,but plenty of beer drinking fishermen.
 
If you are very interested in the Wal Mart seats, I would check first with a local state inspection garage(if your state requires inspection) on their legality before your purchase.
I would agree that they wouldn't hold up to a rearend collision, leaving less chance for the occupants to hold up as well.
 
Where do you mount the rodholder? If you flip up the petrol cap filler, I would think a rod would fit nicely.
 
Injection molded seat frame? That means it's plastic. In a car? No way! If money is a problem, go to a junk yard and find a pair of seats from something else and use them, or recover what you have. Just make sure their designed for a car, not a boat! PJ
 
The biggest problem that I have found with seats for a Spitfire, is that the original seats are not made "square". The seat back offsets to the center of the car.
The seat bottom is made very narrow to fit into the floor, then the seat back goes over top of the center tunnel.
I just took my seats apart and it is very obvious.
There are always clearance issues toward the top frame and door on replacement seats.
I've just had to suck it up and rebuild the original seats.
Looking back on it, I would be time and money ahead to have just bought one of Nigel's complete kits and been done with it.
 
I had looked at a lot of options for seats. Nothing was narrow enough. I even looked at Staples for office chairs. ( Don't believe everything you read on-line). I have just finished one seat with new foam and covers from Park Lane Clasics in the UK. So far so good. Nice material, fit and price. Has anyone checked out any of the new really narrow cars like the Smart cars for seats or are they all wide to fit the majority of people.
 
387597_d.jpg
 
I did try some seats from a Geo Metro I found at a local salvage yard. They looked smaller in the Metro than they did in the Spit. The lower seat is wider (18 1/2") but could fit. The biggest problem with these and most other seats is the width at the rails. The Metro seats would need to have the mounting frame modified and adapted to clear the body framing at the tunnel. fore and aft adjustment might be limited. The front of the seat might be a bit high. They are 35" to the top of the headrest.
Does anyone have experiance with Fiero seats? I think they might be narrower, and more abundant in the frozen tundra.
Funny thing. While searching for Miata seats I came across a forum where they were discussing using seats from an MG to replace the seats in a Miata. I guess nobody is ever happy.

- Tim
 
Back
Top