Leather seats for $1 gorilla?!

[byroncobra]

Hi Fellas

I've been offered a pair of newly trimmed grey leather repro cobra seats for $1k.

Can anyone chime in and give me a few pointers on what I might expect to pay for purchasing mx5 seats and retrimming those or buying bases from Harrison ($500) and getting those done instead.

One problem is that I'll be stuck with trimming the rest of the car in grey (happy with that i think) and matching up the leather colour.

Cheers

[stephen low]

Byroncobra

My mx5 seats were bought at a very good price for what they were (late model donor & leather) but as seems fairly typical for a lot of the cobra kits, even these seats didn't quite have the clearance to enable me to make them fit the way I wanted. Not sure how the Harrison kit goes in this regard.

I ended up narrowing these seats by 50mm and with the retrim of the leather, these have costed me a $1000 anyway.

I'd be doing a lot of measurements or better still borrowing a seat to make sure they fit as is or whether you are then up for more money.

Best advice I heard after I'd bought and started down this line was that it would have been just as valuable to have gone searching for suitable second hand seats from anything small that suited remodelling. That way the donor seats would have been very cheap.

I needed to get adjustable seats but if you can live with fixed buckets, this option will give you more possibilities.

I now keep on eyeing off those smart cars that you infrequently see. They are so small that the seats in those must be fairly tiny.

Just be wary of all the plastic skirts and so forth on the sides, as it is these bits that help compromise fit as much as anything else.

Good luck

[ledge]

Hi Byroncobra
I have the Harrison seats in my kit and also my trim is grey.
There are some pics in my gallery.
I think Grey interior looks great but i may be biased.
It cost me 1500 to do seats in leather and enough leather left for me to do doors and dash stuff myself.

Regards
Paul

[Merv and Sharon]

Same as Paul - I used Warwick's frames as I knew that they complied for inspection. Paid $1500 for the seats to be trimmed in dark green leather and the door panels in the same material and the dash in black leather. My gallery has some pics. Very pleased with the seats they sit low in the chassis and look reasonably original.

Merv

[FWB]

Originally Posted by byroncobra

Hi Fellas

I've been offered a pair of newly trimmed grey leather repro cobra seats for $1k.

Can anyone chime in and give me a few pointers on what I might expect to pay for purchasing mx5 seats and retrimming those or buying bases from Harrison ($500) and getting those done instead.

One problem is that I'll be stuck with trimming the rest of the car in grey (happy with that i think) and matching up the leather colour.

Cheers

i dunno but, i will surely buy the old west coast seats in black from you, if
you still have them
Fred

[byroncobra]

Thanks fellas

These seats are designed for the cobra/clubman so should fit ok. I was going down the Mx5 route but must say I prefer the original look.........hopefully they're comfortable.

slowy - I hadn't realised that the old style buckets aren't able to be put on adjustable rails. Is that what you meant?

paul & merv I guess you mean that the costs you quoted didn't include the bases?

FWB.........you've lost me!!??

greg

[Merv and Sharon]

No Greg the bases were extra but with trimming in good leather should be about $1500 in total. The seats need to be compliant.

Merv

[Beejay]

If you are planning on going through rego with the MX5 seats it would be worth checking with your engineer.

I had to swap mine out with some SAAS seats to meet the new ADR that came in mid year.

Ben

[stephen low]

Greg

No I mean seats that have no recline capability to the back rest section of the seat.

I don't believe you are now allowed to fit any seats fixed to one location on the floor and that they must be capable of being slid forward or backward on sliders.

Have seen standard mx5 seats fixed at the recline pivot point used in a cobra. This allowed all the bits on the sides (recline spring, lever, plastic cappings) to be removed which effectively narrowed the seats heaps. But why go to this effort when you can buy one piece buckets or race seats that achieve the same end??

Anyway there is some discussion on new ADR requirements on seat heights that you do need to clarify first. This may just be a current topical issue being pushed by the regulators then again it could be hard legal fact too.

Do your legal research first, then go target the seats you want.

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

Are the seats made by this bloke?

http://www.classicandsports.com.au/

He's got some nice seats on eBay at the moment http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=170281923749

Cheers

[Merv and Sharon]

Warwick Harrison's frames are quite light, compliant and seem to trim up quite economically.

Merv

[byroncobra]

Yeah Aussie Mike the seats were from Classic & Sports........I procrastinated too long and they wre grabbed on ebay by another buyer for $1k.

No big deal I'm not sure if grey is the colour for my car, although the new ones you found are a fair bit more $$.

Thanks Merv, when the time comes i'll have a look at Warricks'

[Aussie Mike]

I saw them on eBay too. A good buy for someone wanting grey leather.

Cheers