Small MX-5 mods

DRZ

DRZ

DRZ

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When I bought the car I knew that eventually the state of the seats would get to me and I would have to have then re-trimmed. I took the car down to a very respected trimmer that my Dad has used on a number of occasions to ask his opinion and get a quote. He was in the middle of doing a Ferrari when I popped in! He quoted me £500 to retrim the seats in my choice of leather, any way I wanted them doing, piping etc - the works - plus he would trim the centre bit of trim to match and clean up the door cards.

I would probably have done it that way but he had a 1-2 month waiting list so I went off to see if I could plan around those dates...

Fast forward to earlier this week and I was browsing on eBay when I came across a breaker selling a set of mk2.5 seats and door cards for £400, Buy It Now / Best Offer. Threw in a cheeky offer of £300 and he accepted! :eek:

So today they showed up and I set about starting the job this evening after work in the last of the daylight.

Before:
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Seats looking a bit tired:
IMG_0253.jpg


Old seats out:

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Footwells given a clean:

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New seats prior to cleaning but otherwise ready to go in:

IMG_0261.jpg


In place:

IMG_0266.jpg


Now the tricky bit!

Mazda made a number of small interior changes to the mk2.5 over the mk2, the most annoying of which is that they moved the door handle by 15mm. This isn't the end of the world and there are two options - move the handle or move the hole in the door cards.

The first option is a nightmare because some of the rods are adjustable but one of them isn't and so in addition to drilling all the holes etc I would have to muck about with the rods and making sure it all worked with the central locking mechanism etc. The alternative is to find and fit a complete mk2.5 assembly but pff to that!

So, moving the hole! By this point I was fast running out of light but basically I needed to move this hole

IMG_0272.jpg


to the left by 15mm. Thankfully this is easily done with a stanley blade. Problem is, I am now left with a 15mm wide gap at the "front" of the handle - I am going to make up some plastic rings to surround the handle which will cover the hole and look like they should be there.

I also need to re-site some holes for the odd fixing but other than that I am pretty much there and this will be complete when I get daylight back tomorrow!

More or less done:

IMG_0273.jpg


vs mk2 door card on the passenger side:

IMG_0274.jpg


I just need to decide on what to do with the centre cover (which is still white at the moment). I could DI-NOC it to match the little bits of trim I am going to make up or I could get it trimmed in the same colour leather.

(P.S. All pictures taken on my Apple iPhone 4)
 
mk2.5 seats certainly look nicer and were a popular mod when I owned my mk2, door cards too.

Personally I found the mk2.5 a bit more cramped inside, seat seemed a bit higher to me and and the door cards perhaps intruded a little more. I opted for some more supportive recaros, depends what you're after though.
 
Looks much better.

I found fitting mk2.5 seats meant you sat higher in the car.

Personally I would have put in the extra work n moved the mechs extended the rods etc, its not actually that bad.
 
Yeah they are definitely higher but much comfier and give a bit better support.

I might do the foamectomy mod which should get me about 30mm or so lower, I will see how I get on with it.
 
The re-trim would have won for me, definately. You can't beat new leather and it certainly wasn't worth the £200 saving going with a used interior.
 
[TW]Fox;18959658 said:
The re-trim would have won for me, definately. You can't beat new leather and it certainly wasn't worth the £200 saving going with a used interior.
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But the mk2.5 seats are a lot nicer so good decision if you ask me :)
 
Clarkey said:
Nicer to sit in I assume, they certainly don't look nicer imo.
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Obviously it is all personal opinion etc but I personally think that these new seats look massively better/more "modern" than the mk2 seats.

In terms of comfort they are on another planet! The old seats are comfortable but these are not only streets ahead they have better bolsters so hold you better. You can't really tell in the pictures but the seats are also a significant amount taller - the headrest is at the level of my head rather than just above my shoulders! The obvious benefit to that is my shoulder blades aren't above the level of the back of the seat which makes a huge difference.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to mention that these seats are heated, so I just need to wire them in :cool:
 
The new seats look loads better to me.

Bit of a thread hijack, but I'd so be all over this if I had £1500 in my wallet right now:

http://www.pistonheads.com/SALES/2637398.htm

I didn't realise they did them without assisted steering? Is that just the seller saying the power steering system died so they tore it out?

Seems way cheap, especially as it's the best time to sell. Maybe it's hiding something nasty...
 
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danza said:
I didn't realise they did them without assisted steering? Is that just the seller saying the power steering system died so they tore it out?
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Nope the mk1's often had no power assisted steering, they're light cars and RWD so don't need it really.
 
Shimmy said:
Nope the mk1's often had no power assisted steering, they're light cars and RWD so don't need it really.
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Yeah, kind of makes sense then. But I've never noticed one advertised as having unassisted steering. Maybe they're not that common?
 
The non-PAS MX5s are bloody awful, especially at low speeds. They're not that uncommon, it's mainly the poverty spec later UK ones i.e. the one above. Get one with PAS if at all possible.
 
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