Miata seats redux -long-

[Joe Martin Cantrell <agiyo@domain.elided>]

Jake,
Gordy Hyde, who has sat in the Spider you saw the pictures of, forwarded 
your message to me.  I've been out and about, and missed your original 
posting.  I probably sent you the picture of the tan Miata seats in my 
Spider, but as Gordy will attest, I ain't no gentleman.

Funny, I spent last Saturday afternoon helping Scott Fisher put the new 
seats in his Berlina...

Anyhow, to respond to your questions:  I think the Miata seats may be the 
best single improvement in my car, at least for comfort.  If I ever get 
around to mounting a little amplifier and hooking up the speakers in the 
headrests, I may even be able to hear the radio with the top down---those 
traffic times when it isn't more fun listening to the motor.  Sometimes, it 
is reassuring to hear evidence of higher intellect than I see evidenced in 
the jacked-up pickups and cell phoned SUV's around one.

The seat mounts themselves are considerably sturdier than the basic Alfa 
floor pan material, particularly when it is rusted!  I strongly recommend 
configuring the Miata seat rails to use the stock mounts, and it wouldn't 
hurt to be sure the mounts are at least as strong as new.  If you are in a 
head on collision, god forbid, and the seat tears free, it will help propel 
your body toward the steering wheel.  We don't need that.  My seat pans 
have some rust, too, so we welded square tubing across between the mounts 
to reinforce them until either Bill Gillham or Joe Kollmann, both of whom 
have offered, get around to patching the floors with me.  Having friends of 
their capabilities is a great advantage!

Miata seat rails are longer than Alfa ones, and are bent down at each 
end.  They are also too narrow for Alfa mounts.  AND, like Scott's 
replacement seats, yours may have been in a collision and be bent.  Mine 
were.  They are malleable, and respond quickly to a BFH.  We determined 
that the seats would line up best if we drilled the outer seat rails to 
match the Alfa's door-side mounting points, then welded steel tabs to the 
inside rails of the seats and drilled them to fit the inner mounting 
points.  The entire process took about 2 hours, if memory serves, it was a 
one of several idyllic Alfa afternoons at Kollmanns' last summer, and 
nobody was looking at his watch.

Even Nasko, Portland Alfa guru, raved about these seats this week.

Now, Miata seats don't have seat belt guides and that bothers some 
people.  I wish I had 3 point belts for the street, in addition to my 5 
point harness which is too restrictive for the street.  You need to be able 
to turn around to park, and need to lean to raise the passenger side 
window; competition harnesses don't allow that.  If you need belt guides, I 
suggest going to a salvage yard and checking what they have.  The place 
where I got mine is on the web, www.maztoy.com, and Richard Soelberg out 
there is a smart guy: <richard@domain.elided>.  There are several riceburner 
seats which look like they'd be good for a Spider; look around and take 
your choice.  The cost for seats like mine was $450, the cloth ones were 
$125, I think, and they looked excellent for an Alfa.  There just weren't 
any in stock.  In the interests of full disclosure, my seats cost me $125 
because they were *as-is*, still in the totalled car, wet from rain, and if 
they didn't work I woulda had to eat them.  They worked.  Y$MV.

I still have jpegs, if anyone wants to see them, but (having just bounced 
two more Klez doses) I'm off to a flintlock makers' fair today.  Y'all come.

Cheers
Joe

Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 20:35:09 EDT
From: JHahn22@domain.elided
Subject: mounting miata seats in a spider
Hello everyone,
I'm in the process of mounting Miata (or some other plentiful, small seat) in
my 87 spider. As always, things have gotten complicated. It seems as though
someone else had these seats out, and when they put in the passenger side
seat, the outer rear seat screw was put in wrong. I'm not sure what they
did, but even after drilling a hole in the rusted seat pan, in order to get a
real screwdriver on the screw, I couldn't get it to budge. The bolt ended up
breaking off in the hole when I used vise grips around the head. I then
drilled a hole and tried to use an EZ out bit. Not too mention all the PB
Blaster I've sprayed on it.
My question is, can anybody think of any reason why drilling a hole in the
floor pan in the proper place to mount the miata seat rails, and using a bolt
and nut with a stack of washers under the rail, and perhaps a rubber bushing
of some sort underneath to keep out water, would not work to safely mount the
seats? Should I use somekind of reinforcement on the seat pan, or is the
sheet metal strong enough?
Also, can anybody think of a nice, supportive, small seat like a miata seat
that has an adjustable headrest? It would make the shoulder belt guide a lot
easier to rig up nicely.
If the gentleman that emailed me pics of the tan miata seats in his 70's
spider is still on here, could he please contact me off digest? I seem to
have lost your email address.
Thanks for any ideas on this one,
Jake Hahn
Bryan, TX
87 Spider
87 BMW 325i
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