Changing the seats with Miata seats.

homegrown32

homegrown32

True Classic
I am thinking I want to change out the seats, and replacing them with Miata seats. I have a pair of 1999-2000 seats.
Does anyone have any experience putting these in?
Does it make sense to cut up my existing X1/9 seat pans to get the slides off or should I make some other slides work?
I want the seat to sit as low as possible to avoid the targa bar.
I have never actually driven an X1/9, I just want to make sure there is head/helmet room when driving along with a comfortable driving position for long trips and big drivers.

Any help, advice, or other options are appreciated.
 
I have no experience with Miata seats. But I fitted an OMP racing seat.

I removed the rails from under an old X19 seats (early style rails, Bertone had a different system)

I was lucky enough the bolt holes underneath are nearly at the right distance, I could just bolt the rails under the OMP seats and I could slide it on the floor rails.

It the width is not right, then you could just bolt side to side a pair of straight steel or aluminium edges, thick enough to prevent deforming. Then you could bolt the rail to these rails in the appropriate width. Only drawback is you will raise the seating height by the thickness of the edges.

BTW, I could not seat under the top when wearing an helmet. I need to remove the top... even in the rain. But it depends on the lenght of your upper body.

Other options would include Honda S2000 seats or RX7 seats. I have seens in pics some x19 using these seats.
 
I put earlier Miata seats in years go. Have to cut sheet metal out the Miata base, if yours are similar to these:

X19-0861.jpg


also needs an offset plate to make it line up

X19-0862.jpg


Seat belt reel needs moving

X19-0866.jpg


X19-0867.jpg


I later re-covered them in vinyl, since the cloth feels quite nasty in warm weather, IMO. Vinyl was worse in some ways.

X19-Miata-SEAT0005.jpg


In the end, I cut the pans off the X1/9 seat base, and welded them to the Miata tubs, as the sliders never worked well for me.

I replaced them with leather S2000 seats, a much better option, IMO - since mods are needed either way

IMG-20200302-173723.jpg
 
homegrown32 said:
I am thinking I want to change out the seats, and replacing them with Miata seats. I have a pair of 1999-2000 seats.
Does anyone have any experience putting these in?
Does it make sense to cut up my existing X1/9 seat pans to get the slides off or should I make some other slides work?
I want the seat to sit as low as possible to avoid the targa bar.
I have never actually driven an X1/9, I just want to make sure there is head/helmet room when driving along with a comfortable driving position for long trips and big drivers.

Any help, advice, or other options are appreciated.
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Could you add your car’s info to your signature? (The year tells a great deal about your car and its features)

It is said that the ‘99-00 seats were the least comfortable of any of the Miata seats (I have a 1992 Miata) so you might want to try them for an hour or so to gauge them for your comfort prior to doing all the work of installing them.

A difference between the Miata and the X is the Miata has effectively a flat floor where the floor on the X is higher at the seat mount zone than the footwell. Late X’s separated the seats and the rails from each other and the floor. It might be easier on a pre ‘84 car to drill out the floor sliding track welds and get a set of later model X seat rails which are bolted into the floor. (Hussien’s car is a late model and uses the separate bolted in rails).
 
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Thanks everyone for the help and advice.
Is there much value in the stock X1/9 seats? Or is it ok to cut them up just to see if the parts might work?

I'd hate to cut up parts that I don't need that someone else does.
 
Seats have some value only if the upholstery is nice, or at least acceptable. If not (probaby the reason why you are planning a seats swap) then that's fine cutting into them. Even if our cars increase value recently, they are still far from being "valuable investments". A pic of your seats may help us give advices...
 
homegrown32 said:
Thanks everyone for the help and advice.
Is there much value in the stock X1/9 seats? Or is it ok to cut them up just to see if the parts might work?

I'd hate to cut up parts that I don't need that someone else does.
Click to expand...

I'd say save the seat bottom cushions. I use mine almost daily when I'm working on the cars - anytime I have to kneel, those are my knee pads. I just wrapped them in clear plastic to keep them dry.
 
Leather looks neat and screams "no expense spared" but clothe is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I will admit the leather is better if you take your dog for a ride, the fluffy stuff doesn't get caught in leather and is easier to vacuum up.
Suede screams " I'm cool and know what really is best".
 
carl said:
Leather looks neat and screams "no expense spared" but clothe is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I will admit the leather is better if you take your dog for a ride, the fluffy stuff doesn't get caught in leather and is easier to vacuum up.
Suede screams " I'm cool and know what really is best".
Click to expand...

Yeah - I have to treat the leather frequently & regularly. I just can't sit on cloth/man made textiles (I bought a leather upholstery set for my C30 for that reason) - I sweat too much as it is, and those just up the ante - TMI, I know :D
 
Are exxie seats that uncomfortable or nonsupportive as compared to Miata seats to go thru the trouble of adapting the Miata seats to fit?

OTOH, if it's the cost of new seat upholstery that's driving the train, Vick's does have a set of $250 replacement seat uphostery for 79-88 cars that has been favorably reviewed by forum members.
https://www.vickauto.com/fiat-parts...y-set-fiat-x1-9-1979-88-black---sku-50-1329-b

What would be nice is if a vendor could do a run of replacement seat foams--at a minimum the seat base foam. By now I'm sure most seat foams have deteriorated to the point where they are providing hardly any support. And a squishy seat foam is going to cause more stress on the seat cover seams, too.
 
Personally I find my 1992 Miata seats uncomfortable on a long ride. With my X on the exact same ride I am more comfortable. Like so many seats its all about your own anatomy.

I personally prefer fabric seats hands down on my cars (preferably with electric heaters) so I don’t get nearly so warm and suffer swamp butt.

X seats are clearly not the best. I think the later seats are better than the earlier seats which look better from a design perspective but weren’t as comfortable.
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
Are exxie seats that uncomfortable or nonsupportive as compared to Miata seats to go thru the trouble of adapting the Miata seats to fit?
Click to expand...

With my '87 seats, the base of the seat had collapsed (the springs latticed across the seat base), and the foam was no longer supportive. Coupling that with the lack of any real side bolstering, was enough to prompt me to look elsewhere. If mine had been leather, I probably would have looked more into restoring & updating them. I also didn't like the way they look - as Karl pointed out - the earlier seats look way better - but I 've never sat in one to see how they feel.

So far, the Honda seats have been the best for my form. On a really long drive (3+ hrs) the underside of my right thigh gets fidgety - but that has been true of all three seat types I've had in my X1/9.
 
One of the reasons I am looking at replacing the seats because you can get custom seat covers to order for more modern seats easier. I am planning on doing most of the upholstery myself but seat covers are beyond anything I've done so far.

I really like the CRX seats. They are super comfortable. But so many more miatas were made and the seats are so cheap.

15866581938857400540822856303933.jpg
 
I'm thinking about having something embroidered into the headrest.

Ferrari does the prancing horse.

image000000.png

I've seen this image floating around sometimes. I would have just the donkey embroidered into the headrest.
 
20200412_163910.jpg 20200412_161744.jpg 20200412_153347.jpg 20200411_195033.jpg 20200411_205854.jpg 20200411_190433.jpg 20200411_190317.jpg I literally just finished installing my RX8 seats. Best part about it was no modification to rails, belt position etc not to mention I paid about$27.00 for the pair, last year on sale at pull a part.
The seats were gutted of the frame which was then fitted to the original x19 seat pan and back (the back frame needed to be cut.
Seats are thin but supportive and comfortable. I'm 5'10 and have 4 inches headroom with the top on and 3 inches between the rim of the steering wheel and my legs.
20200412_163910.jpg
20200412_163910.jpg
20200412_161744.jpg
 
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I saw a set of FC seats for sale recently which were pretty tempting.

The base of those looks pretty flat. I guess you really only need to locate the upper body versus keeping your thighs in place.
 
The base looks flatter than it is because it is on the original X19 seat pan, sitting in them you can feel the side bolsters against your thighs. I really dont mind though, to me headroom is more important and this wins in spades. If you google a set you'll see the side bolsters quite distinctly.
 
tajiman said:
The base looks flatter than it is because it is on the original X19 seat pan, sitting in them you can feel the side bolsters against your thighs. I really dont mind though, to me headroom is more important and this wins in spades. If you google a set you'll see the side bolsters quite distinctly.
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Nice Work. However, I have this horrible falling sensation looking at your pics :D
 
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