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seat question

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roscoe

roscoe

Jedi Knight
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I hate to ask this lest someone think it an abomination but has anyone considered or actually installed any aftermarket seats in a big Healey? The only ones I've seen are either in the kit car healey's or some of the uglier V8 conversions. We all know there are many things in our cars that are not particularly designed around safety and would probably contribute a less than pleasant outcome in the event of a serious accident. The seats, lacking anything close to a head rest are an obvious one. If you have a good shoulder harness it might keep you from getting to know your steering column or wheel or windshield in an up close introduction but lack of a headrest is also a potentially nasty avenue for an injury in a moderate impact in front of rear. I'm just thinking about something that would be decent looking enough so that it might look "natural" for the Healey lines. I think a turtle deck faired into the trunk looks very nice but that is a bigger project than a seat change and I like my passenger to have the same protection. There are tons of reasonably priced seats on the market but what I'm asking is has anyone seen a particular seat/ headrest combo, that fits under a soft top or hard top that looks really nice. When you start looking at seat dimensions many seats get eliminated. I would want one that might need modification for mounting but It must fit in the space available. I am trying to avoid buying a seat for a couple of hundred bucks and finding that it isn't what I'm after. I cant find any photos on line of anything like this in a big Healey. I suspect this isn't a project that is going to get very far unless I build my own seat which I am considering also. Mud season is coming up so I might have some time on my hands.
 
Google Berni Motori for a good selection of seats. image.jpg
 
Not sure if they fit or not but a number of guys with TR6's put in the early Miata seats. they are comfortable and the early ones had speakers in the headrests.
 
Hi Roscoe,

Although I can't disagree with all you've said, I have never considered using sholder belts in my Healey because of the lack of a Head Rest and opted, from new, for lap belts. Yes, in a very minor accident, a new seat with head rest supported shoulder belts could keep you a little safer. However, with all else that is unsafe in the Healey, it would not be for safety that I opted for a new more comfortable seat. As the Miata seat appears similar to the standard Healey unit, changing would be less dramatic, but it would still alter the appearance and project a more modern false temperament to the car. Also, although the head rest is built into and supported by the seat structure, a secure reinforced seat anchorage would have to be constructed to keep all on/in track.

I very much appreciate your desire to make your Healey safer but would have been more incline to agreed with a desire to improve driving comfort rather then addressing this task for safety reasons.

Just my opinion,
Ray(64BJ8P1)
 
Some of the Spridget folks tend to fit early Miata seats, so I presume they'd fit just fine in your BN. Availability may be a problem, particularly if you end up coveting the ones with the speakers built into the headrests. We have stock seats in our BJ7 and three point belts (and LED brake/tail/signal lights). I've got a shop looking at fitting a roll bar into the BEs to provide some protection against getting t-boned, and will hopefully be adding a cross bar just above the body work for connecting four point belts and a head rest pad (of unknown design or source) on the cross bar or hung from the main roll bar. No roll bar for the 3000 (aesthetics and function) but am going to try to create a high-mount LED third brake light that would attach to the top of hte trunk lid with a magnet this winter. Doug
 
I like the idea of a cross bar or something similar with a headrest not attached to the seat in that it would allow the stock seat to remain. Thanks for all the comments. I probably should have added that I'm not one to part with a dollar very easily so I am not going to be buying Cobra or other similar seats, very nice though they may be.
 
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