Manx Club

Just a reference for seat options and info. http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/seats.asp

Chuck, I got your PM (I'd prefer emails, as I can reply and attach pictures to them, don't know how to attach pics to PM's). Here's your answer. The top of seat bottom is exactly 19 inches. The outside of the seat tracks is exactly 15-1/2 inches. I know they look about the same, but, that's just perspective distortion from the way I held the camera. The cloth seats always have that wierd "Moire" pattern due to the weave of the fabric. The pic above are one of a set of '97's that I bought from a junk yard. Planned on recovering them, however I then found a "like new" set, so these are available if you want them. I paid $50 for both. I got my "like new" set from Florida and cost about $70 to ship via UPS (taken apart). These junk yard seats are really not in the best of shape, but I do know of an Ebay shop (Ebay seller is... redsea777) that sells new covers that require the original seat covers to be removed and the new one they sell, to be attached with "hog rings", they even give you the hog ring tool. About $234, made of Hampton Leather Grain Vinyl. (Vinyl that looks like leather. or so they say!) . Looks like original, not at all like "seat covers". You can also find some nice seats on Ebay (search on "Miata Seats"), prices for cloth range between $200 - $300, with the higher prices being nicer, leather are between $300 - $500. The big deal for me was 1) to have a seat that fit my bum and 2) those headrest speakers. I got some after market ones here... Performance Buyers Club. I did my own wiring, you don't need no stinking wiring harness.

Thanks for the picture Allen. Are they narrower at the back than at the front? I want to use a little body lift, but want the seats to sit down as far as possible. Therefore they need to be narrower than the lip of the body. I may take you up on your offer if I can't find some locally. I really want to put my grubby little hands on some before I order any. Am I correct in thinking 92 to 97 are the years I should be interested in? Thanks.

Chuck, I'll get back up to the barn Wednesday and do the front to back measurements for you. I do believe that they are wide at the front and narrow at the back. The tracks, of course, are the same front & back, otherwise they wouldn't slide (I can't believe I said that, oh well, I'm dumb sometimes!). I'll report on that on Wednesday. Yes, those are the main years. You can even go back farther to '90 and farther forward to '98 & '99 (I think?) and they are all the same seats and tracks. Starting in 2000, no headrest speakers, if I remember correctly, and a little different design (smaller in the width, both seat and back). If you're looking for seats with the headrest speakers, you just need the seats to have the zippers, not actually the speakers. Mazda made a lot of seats with zippers, but not all of them had speakers in them, but everyone that had zippers had a hollowed out space for the speakers. So, most important is the zippers. No zippers, very hard to retrofit.

Thanks Allen

Chuck, The seat BOTTOM does narrow towards the rear, however, the back hinge & release lever mechanism is large enough to be in-line with the widest part of the seat bottom on the outside, where the FG Body is. On the inside, the hinge is small and probably narrows about 2" from the widest part of the seat bottom. The seat BACK, about 4" above the hinge, is 18" wide and it narrows as it goes up. The side of the back and the bottom are soft, without any metal support parts inside them (as far as I could tell). When I trial fitted mine, I pushed them towards the tunnel as far as possible and I had a enough room on the outside to get my hand on the back release lever. Also, there was never a problem with the way the tunnel gets larger towards the back interfering with the seat, as the seat is small on that side. Here is a pic I pulled off Ebay.

Allen, thanks for all the help. I guess I need to get the body on and measure it and then go look as some seats. The ones in the picture sure do look to be about the right size. I did get a line on some today. Hopefully the body will be test fitted in a couple days. Swapping positon with the seats left and right may help with fitment issues also. One other thing I need to test fit is my back side. If I go this route I will post results. Are your seats mounted yet?

My "like new" seats went in for about a couple of hours, while I did a trial fit of body with hood & seats, to get measurements for dash support, windshield, etc., and now they sit in the back corner of the garage, waiting for me to get my bum in gear again. Work just keeps getting in the way, but when work comes, I work, and it's been coming a lot (a very good thing).