Seat fixings

Let's talk seats. Since the start of the build when I got my donor, I knew that I wanted to reuse the seats. They were from the V spec edition MX5, and they are a really old brown leather with a decent level of wear. Not only would they suit the Healey, their age and patina would also work perfectly.

This meant I had to deal with a few things. First off was mounting them. Fairly easy, just straighten the sliders and bolt them to the floor. That was one of the easier problems I've had so far. Next step, the width of them. Again, not a huge problem, at least for the squabs.

The issue came from the hinges. The seats were adjustable, in that the seat back could be tilted. This mechanism was a good inch or so wide on either side of the seat. But it wasn't going to be used in my car, the seat back had a limited range of movement in the first place so fixing it at a specific angle seemed to make sense. After removing the mechanism on both sides, the front and base fitted no problem. But of course they were now separate pieces.

The solution is for me to use two cut pieces of metal that mimic the original hinges. These will be made in an L pattern, and cut and drilled in the same place as the hinge. I'll also reuse the screw holes in the back and base, and that should give me a seat that is properly secure but still able to fit in the relevant place on the car. I do need to make sure that the seatbelt routing takes into account the seat back as there are certain restrictions on shoulder height etc. Basically the seatbelt shouldn't need to rely on the seat to provide restraint, the loading forces should go straight from the person to the seatbelt anchor/mechanism.

On the subject of seatbelts, I want to use the donor seatbelts. Again, they're a nice match although a little less wear than the seats (thankfully!). The problem comes from where to mount the reel as it's quite large. Mounting it to the welded mount is a no go as the seat would have to be a good foot or so closer to the wheel to get it to all fit, not a chance.

My first thought was to mount it to the diff cage, then use the donor belt guide to bring it over the drivers side left shoulder. This would work quite well, it would keep everything in the right place and the reel would work as it should.

But there is an option, I could mount it outside the frame to the original welded mount. This wouldn't work with a seven as it would be on the outside of the car, but since I'm building a Healey it will just mean that it's between the frame and the body. Which will work fine!