11 replies to this topic

[minineon]

Basicly i am putting a set of mk1 mx5 seats into my mini i know people have done this before but could yountell me how younhave mounted these. What kind of changes have you made to the seat runners to acomedate the seats

[TMW.Racing]

I took the standard bucket seat frames available from the various mini specialists and modified them with some mild steel box section to fit the mx5 seat mounting points:

 

- Got rid of the MX5 runners

- Detached the front mounts to body brackets from the runners, and detached the rear bracket from the runners

- Fitted the runners to the seats

- mocked up the seat in the car to mark up the required box section lengths (a helper or two, a tape measure, a permanent marker and a camera help a lot here!)

- Cut the box section to the required length

- welded the box section to the brackets in the sections marked up when mocking up

- tacked the newly created bracket / box section assemblys to the runners again in the sections marked out when mocking up (leaving the runners fully bolted to the seat to ensure a correct fit, and also taking great care not to cause the seat any damage from welding, hence only tacking!)

- Took the tacked up full runner assembly off the seat and welded them up properly.

 

Looks like a lot of work but in reality didn't take that long, but results in a robust fit that uses the original mounting points - worked for me!!

 

Hope that helped!

[humph]

I assume that with the MX-5 being a two seater there is no recliner function allowing the seats to fold forward for access to the rear seat, is this true?  If so what is access to the rear like assuming you can mount them so the tip forward as the original Mini seats? 

 

These seats look great, and I like the idea of the headrest speakers so watching this with interest.

[TMW.Racing]

No there isnt a recline as such, although since the back rest adjust is on a ratchet it does fold forward a reasonable amount so between that and sliding the seat all the way forward on its runners, you can get people in the back although it does help if they are small and flexible (threading my larger and well insulated self into the back is quite a challenge! ).

 

So yes the back seats are useable, but access is not as easy or comfortable as with standard seats or recliner seats.

 

Also with the MX5 seats, if you find that they are not quite as "buckety" as you would like them to be, you can do a trick known by the mx5 fans as a foamectomy - removing sections of foam to allow for a much better position. Loads of guides out there, just google mx5 foamectomy.

[humph]

Thanks for the reply. In fairness our back seats don't get used much, my daughter is in her teens now and the Mini is "emabrassing" and a major no no. My main reason for change is because being tall the headrests are virtually useless on the original seats so want a set of seats for use on long driving events etc.

[TMW.Racing]

Ahh yes I remember the useless head rests! 

 

I do like the MX5 seats and they are comfortable, but If I could choose which ones to fit again I would be looking for a good quality set of cobra le mans style Ford leather recaros from a Sierra cosworth etc - they are available for similar money if you shop around but I think they are even more comfortable than the mx5 seats! 

 

I have one, but not a pair and I'm yet to find one that matches the colour of mine which is really annoying!

 

If you can, have a sit in both before you commit to one!

[minineon]

Basically what I'm looking to do is use the mx5 runners as i don't find the mini ones to be a lot of good. I know the seat runners will need to be modified to fit

[TMW.Racing]

Yeah, I looked into doing that but It appeared to be more trouble than it was worth - its the issue of securing the back of the seat to the floor which it the problem, it will me an MOT fail if the rear of the seat is left unsecured and as the mini seats are secured by clipping over the bar, you would need to find a way of securing the rear of the runners. The most logical way would be to bolt through the floor, but I was not keen as I would have wanted to stiffen those floor sections as the floor wasn't designed to take the seats being bolted through them. Thats why I went for the mini runners, but I agree - they arnt the best!

[minineon]

I might build a box section then weld this into the floor to spread the weight

[TMW.Racing]

Yeah that should do the trick - throw come pics up here as and when you do it, will be keen to see how you get on as it might prompt me into reverting back to the mx5 runners!

[minineon]

Yea i will be posting pics up just got the long 200 miles drive to pick them up :)

[Tamworthbay]

I assume that with the MX-5 being a two seater there is no recliner function allowing the seats to fold forward for access to the rear seat, is this true?  If so what is access to the rear like assuming you can mount them so the tip forward as the original Mini seats? 
 
These seats look great, and I like the idea of the headrest speakers so watching this with interest.

The weird thing is that there is a tip forward mechanism, unfortunately it is part of the general recliner bit so you have to reset the driving positions every time. But there are only a few positions so it's not a problem.