4-26-04

Installation of the Miata Seats was a breeze. They fit great, and sit well. The front bolster sits a tad bit high, but overall it's pretty comfortable.

The seats I used were from a '95 Miata, in black cloth. They came complete with tracks. A tad dirty, but they only cost me $100 from a guy who races Miata's. These have the mounting for the headrest speakers, which will be much nicer for tooling around with the top down!

The actual installation only took an hour or so. Tools used were a 3/8" drill, 110v MIG welder, grinder, and pliers. I also bought a section of 1/8" x 1 1/4" plain steel flat stock from Home Depot to use as the front mounting plate. The flat stock was cut into two 16" lengths.

(click on pictures for larger versions)

First step was, of course, measuring everything. the Miata seat tracks are just under an inch narrower than the Fiat tracks, but still sit on the raised floor mounts (risers). Unfortunately, the Miata tracks have a couple pins welded into them that allow them to be quickly positioned in the car during manufacturing. These pins need to be removed.

After grinding off the pins, I put the seats back in the car to test fit again. I set them in with the front Miata mounting tabs just ahead of the forward bolt holes of the Fiat risers, and the seat centered between the risers.

The forward tabs need to be bent down at that point.

At this point, there are a couple ways you could go. You could just weld tabs to the forward parts of the Fiat seat risers (using short sections of the flat stock), or go all the way across (which is what I did). You could also screw the tabs or flat stock to the forward face of the risers if you don't have a welder.

Put the seat back in, making sure it's centered, and mark the places to drill the holes. (yeah, the welds aren't pretty. I'm running low on gas...)

Drill the holes with the 3/8" drill (starting with a tinier pilot hole). I used 3/8" x 1" grade 8 bolts with lockwashers to hold the front in. At the rear, with the front bolted in and the seat slid all the way forward, I drilled down through the floor just inside the rear of the Fiat sat risers. then used 3/8" x 1 1/2" bolts at the inside rear, and 3/8" x 2" bolts at the outside rear, with large flat washers and locknuts under the car.

There is plenty of room for the top bows, as is evident in the pictures. The seats sit as low as the stockers in the rear, though a little higher at the front of the bolster. But they adjust so that I can't reach the pedals when all the way back, and to where I'm cramped when they are all the way forward. headroom is virtually unchanged (maybe a half inch reduction) with the top up. After a bit of quick cleanup with  foaming upholstery cleaner, they certainly make a difference in the way the car looks inside!