What seats will fit, MX5 and what else ?

Hello all, does anybody know what MX5 seats fit a late bay camper. I have a 1972 model. I have read this post by Rob.e and see that he has ended up with the
Mx5 Phoenix Edition brown leather seats.
https://thelatebay.com/index.php?th...without-drilling-any-holes-in-your-bus.70375/

Another post being :-
Bay bus seat replacement


I have searched the late bay.com with different wordings for seats but only come up with the two threads. Are there any other MX5 seats that fit do you know.
Have all the seats been the same size mainly in width in the MX5, another way of putting it, have all the the seat well spaces been the same size even.
I was going to ask these questions on the MX-5 it could offend MX5 owners to think the seats are being taken away and used on VWs. I say share and share alike.
Thanks for any help you can give, Dan.

 

I think @cunny44 has them in his, he might have some pictures?

 

... or are they MG?
I got a pair from an MG and sold on when our project changed.
Buyer v happy with those.

 

Good point, not sure now.

 

Thanks for that I have messaged cunny.

 

Thanks for that I have messaged Cunny,. The backs of them can be seen in one of the pictures where he was advertising he's sink and child seat thread

 

Has the question changed in your title? Which of any manufacturer seats?

any seat with a flat bottom and flat runners can be made to work. Porsche 944 seats are quite common, although they’re now expensive.

MX5 and MG seats apparently, but they look bulkier than the 944 seats.

I guess that any aftermarket seat with universal sub frames could be made to work too

 

yep, as above, anything can be made to work if you put the effort in, but something with a flat bottom is easier to engineer. i'd avoid anything with electrical adjustment or height adjustment as its just not needed and adds complexity/weight that you don't need. ditto avoid anything that has an airbag.

mgf are a popular choice but you'll need to drill holes in the bus to fit the mg runners to the tub, plus from what i could see they would sit higher than a stock seat which is the opposite of what i wanted. Ditto Saab seats are comfy and cheap but also add height. if you've read my thread you'll see i tried some mk2 gti seats - v comfy when you're sat in them but not easy to get in/out of in a high up bus - you need to hop over the hard side bolsters - i couldn't live with that hassle. that rules out a lot of "sports" seats recaro etc i just don't think they work in a bus. 02p etc.

the mx5 seats i have are from a mk 2.5 version, flat bottoms, light, no bulky side bolsters, manual adjustment, are heated and have no airbag plus the style suits the bus IMO, doesn't look to modern or out of place plus they are cheap as chips. everyone assumes they are porsche tombstones as they look very similar. My seats cost me 100 quid, another 400 for trimming, sold my oem seats for 500 so overall cost zero.

if money is no object then check out newton commercial for a lovely set of new seats that fit nice. or if you just want something that'll slide on/off your current runners (assuming yours is a late bay) then early T25 seats will fit and hens-teeth rare but factory option Ispiri (spelling?) seats are the bees knees apparently. only ever seen one set for sale and they were mega money.

 

How did you wire up your heated seats? The ones in the baja are heated but I've not connected them up as I was wary of just putting 12v straight to them!

 

i had them on the heated rear window switch on the dash, direct 12v. worked fine, switch didn't appear to get hot. i guess vw put a switch that could cope with a proper current in order to feed the rear window - i did some reading and (i think) the mk5 seats would pull a similar current to the vw rear window, so i wasn't overly concerned. If you're a bit worried you could always wire in a solenoid and take a feed direct from the battery ? mine are currently disconnected as i had to pull the seats out for some reason, not got around to re-connecting but they did get nice and toasty

 

Porsche 911 Tombstone seats fit.

 

Yes I did change the title so that it was more to the point.
When I first got my bus back in 2018 it was not long after using the bus for short journeys and realising that the original seats were not going to be by suitable that I purchased a pair of Saab seats.
I purchased these from an eBay seller after I had not done enough homework as to what would fit.
As soon as I received them I had the original driver seat out and and I offered up the Saab seat and see straight away that it was not going to be suitable because of the lack of space between my legs and steering wheel.
Considering I only have matchstick legs I don't know how anybody else has used them. I also found that when sitting in them the top line of the screen was level with my eyes.
I have used the bus a few times for holidays and runs out using the original seats but I also have a bony backside which disagree with them. This is why I'm now livening up to gain the info to replace them with more comfortable ones.
This still leaves me with the Saab seats that I will need to sell rather than just sitting in my shed so they will need to be sold to a twiggy, shorter like person unless anybody can say how they can be used.

Can anybody say as to whether the MX5 seats are all just about the same width and seat base height as each other throughout the the models, same for MG seats.

But hey, thanks everybody for contributing to this post till now, much , Dan

 

I found later seats were more comfortable and after some years on early T25 seats (ostensively the same as very late bay seats) a pair of caravelle seats with armrests came up at a reasonable price and thats whats now in. They are a bit bigger than the ones i took out but i do find them quite comfy.

 

I had Saab seats in mine for few years without any problem, but I am a 5ft 8½” short arse. They were full leather and got uncomfortably hot in the summer so I changed to half leather MGTF seats.

 

pretty sure mk1 and mk2 mx5 seats are very similar underneath. mk3's will have airbags so you won't want those.

fyi nick @EggBoxes is also currently fitting mx5 seats to his bus.

 

Looks like I may not have made such a big mistake by buying them in the beginning, worth a try.
I would have seen information somewhere about they have been used in T2s, that's why I bought them. Its a bit like Rob.e, he has tried a few options and ended up with the ones he wants. The best way to sort out which ones are going to be best is probably at a VW show or meet. I just jumped the gun a bit.
So maybe I will advertise my Saab seats on thelatebay. They after all are in very good condition. They are brown in colour but I cannot remember as to whether they are leather or vinyl, heated or non heated. I will get out to the shed ASAP to check and then post for sale. Putting them in the post is a bit of a bugger, I collected them on the way back from our holiday.

 

Cheers Dicky

 

I've got the latest bay seats in mine and find them comfortable, I also have a bony arse.
I've had early ones too and they are not so comfortable. When I got a double cab seat I was surpised it had no springs at all, just a piece of rock hard polystyrene i the shape a seat would be and paper thing scrim foam in the covers. Definitely original as well. Virtually zero padding! I suppose these 3 seater vans were for hairy arse builders back in the day.

 

The pics of my bus with the Saab seats and one MGFT seat might show the height difference. The MGTF seats are a few cm lower than the Saab ones but you’d have to have pretty chunky legs to have insufficient clearance under the steering wheel. Did you actually fit the seats or just place them on top of the runners?

 

T25 captain seats here, really comfy.