jaime240z Posted November 11, 2002 Share Posted November 11, 2002 WOW. Great info. I've been wanting to put new seats in my 240. I'm not ready to spend big $$ for custom race seats, though. What year was the donor car. I had heard that Miata seats were a good fit! How much $ did you pick yours up for? Jaime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utvolman99 Posted November 12, 2002 Author Share Posted November 12, 2002 Well guys, I broke down and bought some leather Miata seats for my 240. I have read where some people had problems putting them in but these were as easy as pie! - Pull out old seats - Remove sliders from both sets of seats - Throw away Mazda sliders - Knock upper studs out of Datsun sliders (These are the short ones that hold the sliders to the seat). - Use front hole in slider the (one you just knocked the stud out of) to mount in front hole of mazda seat. (Use same bolt that held on Mazda slider) - Drill new hole in slider for back bolt - Use die grinder to cut aprox 3/4" by 4' section out of seat pan to clear seat adjustment mechanism. - Use dremel tool the slot seat mounting holes in the floor board. (I slotted mine on the outsides of the car near the doors. This moved the seat center maybe 1/2" towards the middle of the car allowing me for more sholder room with my roll cage) - Bolt in the new seats The Mazda seats fit much better whith my roll cage. They also seem to sit a little lower than the Datsun seat. Lord knows they weigh less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utvolman99 Posted November 12, 2002 Author Share Posted November 12, 2002 I am not sure what year they are but I dont think there is any difference except for some color shade changes. Mine are tan leather and I think the older ones are darker than mine. My drivers side seat is in less than perfect condition and I think I will be using the leatherique kit on them both once I get carpet. The seats were $185 for both but it ended up costing my $80 to have them shipped. All in all I think I came out okay. You may want to look on Ebay, that is where I got these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaime240z Posted November 13, 2002 Share Posted November 13, 2002 Sweet! I guess they're probably from a first gen. Miata? There's a honda/mazda auto wrecker about 5 miles from my house. I'm going to try to get down there this weekend. Thanks for the info! Jaime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImportRacer Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 How about some honda s2000 seats, they are real nice for stock seats and you can pick them up for about $100 a seat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Not sure on the width, but the celica (88 all trac) seats in my toyota are awesome, they have the adjustable side bolsters and lumbard and around a turn its like someone is clutching you in a big hand. They may fit though, starion seats look good too. The miata's work well, I put them in the z a few years ago and was happy with the way the fit the car, as a plus you can put some tweeters in the head rest on those (unzip them and you'll see either speakers or on the strippo models holes where the speakers go. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S30Z Bushido Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 i put a pair of cloth miata seats in the z almost a year ago now, and have absolutely no regrets. they are great alternative to expensive aftermarket seats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DRK Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 My seats are shot. I bid on a set of Miata sets on Ebay the other day, and got out bid at the last minute. You think they are actually lower than the stock seats providing more head room? If so that is great! I am 6'2", and can just fit my hand between my head and the roof so I do not have much room to spare. Thanks, Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BadKarmaCreepin Posted December 11, 2002 Share Posted December 11, 2002 i just did this swap a couple months ago. they were black cloth seats from a '92 in MINT condition i got on ebay for $200. i followed ut's directions, except i drilled 2 holes in each new rail (needed the seats to sit back farther) and the new bolts didn't line up exactly (took some banging with a rubber mallet and a little wedging) but once in, NICE AS HELL! they are sooooooo much more comfortable and since they are one of the more prominent items in the cabin, make everything look better! oh yeah, i used 8 3/4" brass spacers with nylon washers on either side to raise the seat up beyond the reach of the pan. so maybe i didn't do it exactly the same way.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flibuoy Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 Thanks to the info gleaned from this great site I recently installed the Miata seats...mine are tan leather and are great color match to my dyed interior panels. If you do the swap then I can attest that slotting seatpan instead of large hammer route is the way to go. I used a hammer to "save time" and slotting with cutoff wheel or similar would have been way faster/easier. On passenger seat(since I had 2 sets of trashed z seats) I used 2 non-adjustable runners and pinned them with a through bolt nearly all the way back to save weight. They seem to be about same height...close anyway, to Z. Feel/look a lot nicer. Mine were from salvage yard, delivered for $150. Can you say win/win? john Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eric-z Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 how about a 280zx, there are alot more miatas in the junk yards than there are Z's. eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl327 Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 are you serious, more miatas than z's???? you guys are super lucky, there are no miatas at the yards around here, we get a early 240sx and a random honda with rims sometimes, but never a miata. no mustang 5.0s either, and if we get them at all, everything good is gone the same day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DRK Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 There are no miata's in the junkyards around here either. I have been outbid on Ebay three times now. I guess I am going to have to be more aggressive and spend more than I thought. Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 Another option is a first gen Eclipse, Talon seat. Even easier than the Miata seat, it requires ZERO mods to the floor pan. Chop the "foot" off the rear of the Eclipse slider and weld a stud to the slider that lines up with the rear hole in the Z. The front hole bolts directly to the Z's hole using the Eclipse hardware. They are even the same shape as the Z seats for the most part. This will probably not work for you if you are over 6" tall, but if you are 5'6" you'll actually be able to rest your arm on the window. I'm right at 6', and I don't think I can ever do a rollbar since my head is right ther, but they fit well, are really comfortable and reasonably priced. They all have adjustable lumbar, but the sport seats have adjustable thigh support as well. The adjustments are all mechanical and require no mods to car or any wiring or control installations. Here are a couple of pics, first with my Talon sport seats and then with Eclipse standard seats. (FWIW, the Talon seats are FS, $100.) My server is down, will post pics when it comes up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eric-z Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 well, I might have exaggerated a bit but there is this one junkyard that I go to often that just doesn't have to many Z's, I go there for other cars because it is huge, I guess its just coincidence. oh well, I probably just need to do more scouting around. eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToplessZ Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 Yep lets see the talon seats. Anyone have pics of their installed miata seats would really like to see those. Thanks guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted January 29, 2003 Share Posted January 29, 2003 Well, better late than never, here are the shots of the Eclipse seats, and the Talon seats. Talon seats: Eclipse seats: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 I did second gen CRX seats on mine with no floor pan mods. Pretty sure they're not from the SI but those would probably work just as easily I would think. I'm 6'4" and it's not a big issue for me to sit in the car comfortably, feels a bit higher up and maybe an inch to inch and a half further forward vs the originals but I'm not smacking my head on the roof either or even close to it. It's probably on par with how the original seats would have been heightwise before 20+ years of butts and sitting down hard getting into a low car put a little more slack in the seat's webbing. The install only required using some 1/4 x 1 1/2 bar stock from home depot or any other hardware store to relocate the mounting points so the CRX seat would bolt to the original Z's slide rails. Seems like I may have reversed the side on those to clear something on the seat bottom but it's been a couple years since I did the swap. I did use some countersunk socket head bolts for a couple spots where clearences were tight with the metal shell of the seat itself. As for the seats, they don't have any adjustments, other than recline, but all in all they're pretty decent seats and the only catch is I had to reverse the passengers and drivers seats to clear the recline lever. Very easy swap and CRX's are a dime a dozen in junkyards, I paid like 50 bucks for the pair and they're much better than stock. They have the widened high back across the shoulders with the headrest somewhat inset. Only gripe I have is that they're blue and my interior's not, but I couldn't find the black/gray ones that day and the price was right. Probably will just get em reupholstered somewhere down the road. Definitely check it out though if you're tall and want to do a junkyard swap. Down the road I may look at modifying the two cross rails that the sliders bolt to (the ones on the car floor not the seat) so they move down an inch or so from the current seat height, that should set it back about where I was used to with the originals. It's not a perfect swap as implemented, but I just wanted to get em in the car in a hurry, I think with a little more finesse they could be made to fit with the recline on the right side (outboard vs tranny tunnel side) and everything else better taken care of as this was somewhat of a preliminary fit install and I just left it at that when my cylinder head cracked and put me on the garage queen status. If anyone wants more info I can pull one out and take some pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ON3GO Posted January 30, 2003 Share Posted January 30, 2003 where can i find S2000 seats for a $100 a seat? if so ill buy them today. mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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