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Triumph TR6 - Miata Seats

I am finally getting around to looking for Miata seats to install in place of my pretty much collapsed original seats. I bought the adaptor brackets from Uncle Jack before he died, to give some idea how long they have been sitting in a dusty corner of the garage... Not sure what has finally spurred me to action - maybe it is that the weather here allows more or less year round use of the TR6 or maybe it is the searing pain of sitting in the vinyl seat while wearing shorts - how those seats have avoided melting in the Texas sun I will never know!

Anyway, I found a relatively local Mazda spares place and I am hoping to buy the only decent set of cloth Miata seats they have, which I am told are from a '95 or '96. I have been looking around on the web and it appears that anything up to '99 seats will fit, but only the early (pre '92) seats are really comfortable. I guess I am looking for feedback form anyone who has done the swap to see if you are happy with the later seats? Anything else I should be thinking about? Having waited at least 3 years since buying the brackets, I don't suppose delaying a month or three to find better seats will make much difference! Maybe while I wait I can install the dash pads I bought 4 years ago, or the soft-top I bought 3 years ago, or work on the Stag I bought 3 years ago... Apparently I boutgh a lot of stuff a few years ago and then just let it gather dust!

As always, any advice or comments appreciated.
Alistair
A Hewitt

Alistair- Never heard that about the 92 only being comfortable.
Most what I heard is that the post 2000 (I think that is the year) Are taller.
I think any of the early to mid 90's should be good.
Also depends if you want speakers too.
Might I also suggest the seat heater package for those chilly Texan winters


My future seats for my Wedge

Don Kelly

Thanks Don

I think I will pass on the seat heaters, though maybe I shouldn't be so hasty - it is a very chilly 70F here at the moment!

I bought the seats last night, and after working very late I decided that before I went to bed I wanted to get an idea how one looked in the car - so I decided that taking out four bolts to remove the passenger seat would be a nice easy 5 minute job. Last summer my wife insisted on parking a real car in the TR6's spot in the garage for a few weeks, and of course, that was a month of heavy rain. I have only a tonneau cover... Turns out that even in the hot sun, the jute underfelt retains a lot of water. So, some surface rust on the floorpan to sort out, and two of the bolts had rusted solid. They sheared off as soon as I tried to remove them, so instead of 5 minutes it took me an hour to finally get all four holes drilled out, threads tidied up with a tap and the "new" seat placed in roughly the right spot. Looks a bit odd at the moment, possibly becasue it is very obviously not the appropriate seat - it is a good 6 inches higher at the headrest. The guy at the Miata shop where I bought the seats told me that they had no speakers in the headrest, so I opened up the zipper to see if anyone had messed with the mounting holes, and there were a pair of factory speakers! A nice end to a pretty frustrating evening.

Now I feel like I finally have an excuse to buy a working radio. I bought an old Austin Rover (the successor to British Leyland) radio on a trip to England, because it was a cheaper way to fill the space than a blanking plate, but I have no idea if it works, and even if it does, it has only LW/MW tuner and I believe it works with one speaker only. A quick look online suggests that shaft-type radios are few and far between now. There is a Pyle unit which has awful reviews everywhere, or a company making RetroRadios or something like that, which looks great, but would cost a couple of hundred dollars.

I don't really want to cut my dash support to fit a modern radio, but if that is the best way to go then so be it. Anyone have any experience or recommendations for this? Does the constant electronic display bother you? If you have a picture of a modern radio in your car then that would be very helpful. I like the idea of being able to use USB or similar instead of tape/CD, as the ride can be a little bit bumpy. I am also quite interested in the possibility of streaming Pandora by bluetooth, though that seems a bit too modern...

It looks like it would be possible to put a modern DIN size radio in the glovebox, but then controlling it would be a problem.

At some stage, hopefully in the next few months, I plan to do some electrical work on the car - upgrading the headlights, adding a 12V power outlet in the ashtray and so on, and adding a radio would seem a sensible addition to that project. The car's main use is driving my daughters around and I know they would like to have some music (though whether I want Disney songs blaring is another matter!)

Thanks, as ever, for any thoughts and advice.
Alistair
A Hewitt

This thread was discussed between 21/11/2011 and 23/11/2011

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