mx5 seats fitted in a 280zx!

[Brodie900]

So I spend a day in the workshop yesterday stuffing about with these mx5 seats i got for $120 and after hours of trial and error i finally got them in! I think they do sit a tad higher but im only 165cm tall so for me they are actually perfect. you can probably forget about them being legal but it all feels pretty solid to me. feel free to point out anything you think is unsafe with the design!

 

The main trick with these seats is to offset them towards the middle of the car, using the stock 280zx rails, I re drilled the inside rail to suit the mx5 seat and ran a bar across the seat that extends out past the seat mounting point to the rail on the other side. on the back of the seat the bucket shape of the seat got in the way so i just made a small tab bolted to the seat and out to the rail.

 

there is allot of "reshaping" underneath the seats so they will accept the datsun rails. The adjustment mechanism on the datsun rails will foul on the bottom of the seat so more room is needed under the seats.... i did this with a big hammer and it worked out fine.

 

Also the driver's seat is wider so in order to bolt the tab on and the bar that extends out past the mazda seat mount I had to cut small notches out of the base of the seat that accommodate the bolt going through and the nut on the other side.

 

I had to cut the bracket on the passenger seat rail that holds the cable ends for the levers that flip the seat forward too

 

 

[Brodie900]

re drilled seat rail

[Brodie900]

cut this bracket off

[Brodie900]

seats installed