Seats

[STANLEY, Murray]

I was interested to read in the latest issue of Top Down a story by
Gordon and Michelle (XJ2441) about their love affair with an MX5. The
article mentioned that they had "pulled half of the foam out of the driver's
seat which means that you now sit further into it. A very cheap
modification making the seat more huggy".
I have always felt that I am sitting too high up in my MX5 and so
was intrigued by the possibility of gutting the seat cushion to be able to
sit a bit lower. Has anyone else ever tried this? Once you have done it,
can you return the seat back to its original state it you don't like it? I
would be interested in hearing from anyone who knows how to do this
seemingly simple mod.

Cheers
Murray Stanley
UK3068

[Charles Lynch]

Murray,

I haven't done this mod, but I have taken my seats apart and replaced the
cloth with leather, so I can take a punt at what is involved.

The base of the seat is made up of a shaped metal 'tray' in which there is a
foam cushion. There are a couple of wires running from front to back which
hold the foam in place and about 10 hog rings attaching the seat cloth onto
these wires. You would have to cut these hog rings with wire cutters and
probably cut the wires too. If you can then remove the foam and cut it
neatly in half, with a bread knife perhaps, then it should be easy enough to
reverse the procedure by simply glueing the two halfs together and
reinstalling.

I have plenty of hog rings and a pair of hog ring pliers which you can
borrow if you like.
I may even have photos of the foam cushions with the cloth removed. If I
find them, I can scan them and put them on the club web site.

Cheers

Chic

[zorruno]

http://miata.net/garage/headroom.html