Another Miata Seat Question

I assume that a subcontractor made Miata seats for Mazda, as some manufacturers tend to sub that kind of stuff out. Anybody know who that might be?

The reason I ask is because I have a set of 95 M seats.

Now that I've installed the roll bar, I can't get completely comfortable without whacking my head. I was thinking about getting some taller headrests, but I want to make sure that they will be compatible with the latching setup of the seat. I'm hoping to find another brand of car that uses the same subcontractor for the seats.

I would measure the distance between the headrest posts and take a good look at the latching mechanism and then go searching in the junkyard. Are you hoping to find headrests in the same colour leather or just hoping to avoid hitting your head.

mw wrote: I would measure the distance between the headrest posts and take a good look at the latching mechanism and then go searching in the junkyard. Are you hoping to find headrests in the same colour leather or just hoping to avoid hitting your head.

I plan to do just that, but if I know what will crossover for sure, then I can search e-Bay as well, which would give me a better shot at a similar color. I think I'm probably going to need an Acura style open headrest, even though I don't really like them.

I've had them completely apart and I don't remember ever seeing a maker's name on them anywhere.

Woody wrote: Now that I've installed the roll bar, I can't get completely comfortable without whacking my head.

That is why I sold my Miata

Just because the task was subbed out doesn't mean Mazda didn't have their mitts all over the design. Seats from the same manufacturer, but a different automaker could be very different.

Foamectomy on the seats?

Do you not like your passengers very much? (No padding for them?)

amg_rx7 wrote:

Woody wrote: Now that I've installed the roll bar, I can't get completely comfortable without whacking my head.

That is why I sold my Miata

Yeah, I'm hoping that's not the final solution here.

It's a low mileage car that I've owned for for ten years and I spent all Winter setting it up exactly as I have always wanted it.

In reply to Woody:

Forgive me for asking, I think you went throught this with your previous Miata: Why not ditch the seat & rails and bolt a shell style seat right through the floor?

Dashpot wrote: In reply to Woody: Forgive me for asking, I think you went throught this with your previous Miata: Why not ditch the seat & rails and bolt a shell style seat right through the floor?

That's true, I did.

Here's the deal: I've owned this car for a long time. It has low miles and is in outstanding condition. When I decided that I wanted to spend some time on the race track a few years ago, I knew that a Miata would be the perfect car, but I didn't want to risk it with this particular car. So, I bought another Miata which, from day one, was to be a sacrificial track car.

In order to get a race seat to fit in that car, I had to cut a bunch of spot welds and remove the rearmost factory seat mounts. I made some non-adjustable, custom seat rails and bolted them through holes drilled in the floor. I fit pretty well, but no one else could drive the car, unless they were exactly my size. Also, when it came time to sell the car, I needed to weld the original seat mounts back to the floor of the car and fill the holes that I drilled.

I don't weld nearly as well as a Japanese robot.

I still have the seat and the rails from the other car, but a little adjustability would be nice. I'd also like to keep the floor pans intact for the next guy. I built another bolt in mount for the race seat, but it doesn't leave me with a good seatbelt option for the street.

I guess I just want it all.

In reply to Woody:

If you go back to the floor mount you can bolt the inboard seatbelt receiver through the tranny tunnel with a backup plate. All you lose is fore/aft adjustability of the seat. I have the same roll bar as you, and it limits the seat placement/back angle. The saving grace for knee room was to mount a quick release and flat bottomed wheel.

P.S. The Bethania Door Bars are a really worthwhile addition too.

Dashpot wrote: In reply to Woody: If you go back to the floor mount you can bolt the inboard seatbelt receiver through the tranny tunnel with a backup plate. All you lose is fore/aft adjustability of the seat. I have the same roll bar as you, and it limits the seat placement/back angle. The saving grace for knee room was to mount a quick release and flat bottomed wheel. P.S. The Bethania Door Bars are a really worthwhile addition too.

I don't really have a problem with knee room and when I mount the race bucket I tilt it back a bit which helps with thigh support. The problem is that it limits the use of the stock seatbelt. The five point harness is a pain on the street.

For the M seats, I think I'm going to remove the cover for the headrests and see if I can bend it forward a little. I may restuff it with denser foam and cut a new notch lower on the post.