Swapping seats

silveroak · Post by **silveroak** » September 15th, 2006, 8:53 pm

With stock seats being extremely worn, their hardware rusting from what I think is years of spilled drinks by previous owner(s), I was looking at something similar to these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-X-F1-S ... enameZWDVW
or
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MAZDA-MX ... enameZWDVW
and also
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Carbon-L ... enameZWDVW
and others...
what they all seem to have in common is this 'universal' straight sliding rail (cannot really be attached to mx floor).
Well, I pulled mx passenger side seat today - our rail mounts (brackets?) seem permanently attached to the rails themselves with studs of some kind. I thought the universal sliders worked by reusing our mounts, but I'm guessing I was wrong, at least not for a 93 rs! My workshop manual seat disassembly procedure also shows mounts as one with rails.
Does anyone have experience using these universal rails,
Thanks!

lakersfan1 · Post by **lakersfan1** » September 15th, 2006, 10:49 pm

You need to grind off the brackets and weld them to the universal rails.

LooseChangeRacing · September 16th, 2006, 8:16 am

I'm doing it right now, about to leave to the shop for a second day of work and they are a b----, yes you would need a grinder and a welder to get those suckers off and on, and i'll tell ya now thats not all you need becuase the rails on aftermarket seats arnt the same as ours, you need to get some steel that can be bent and a drill to make holes through the steel, all kinds of fun stuff. Aftermarket seats are alot of work....

THE easiest way to make this work, if it's possible with your seats is to literally take off the universal rails and weld your mx rails to the new seat...

silveroak · Post by **silveroak** » September 16th, 2006, 10:11 pm

Damn, I thought these would be more or less plug and play, thanks for replies!
I am going to be thinking hard if I should be buying or not.

sampsonmx3sv · Post by **sampsonmx3sv** » September 21st, 2006, 9:47 pm

I have tenzo seats and I made a cardboard template and drilled through the stock rails and used extra nuts on the bolts to compensate for the height difference. It came close.

illapino · Post by **illapino** » September 29th, 2006, 4:57 am

i wonder how much consideration we'd have to put into the width of aftermarket seats ... the thinness of the center console makes me think the whole car is a bit thin, including the seats ... is seat width a concern at all?

Aston Wards · Post by **Aston Wards** » September 29th, 2006, 10:55 pm

seat width shouldn't be a problem..., certainly not with sport/race seats.

guess it depends on how big your butt is

illapino · Post by **illapino** » September 30th, 2006, 2:22 am

so cobra misano L's can fit in our car?

sampsonmx3sv · Post by **sampsonmx3sv** » September 30th, 2006, 10:29 pm

They should, most of those seats aren't too wide.

Custom_V6_Limited_SE · October 3rd, 2006, 9:39 pm

I modified my stock sliders on one seat all day just to find out that the after market seats sit too high on the stock sliders. What I ended up doing was paying a custom shop $300 to apparently weld the after market sliders to the attachement parts of the stock sliders(~7.5 hours). I think I need to learn how to weld lol.

illapino · Post by **illapino** » October 4th, 2006, 1:40 am

92 mx3 seats are great, except for the obsolete looking seat-belt fastener and the side mantle (circular cover right behind the recline lever) always coming loose

trimble · Post by **trimble** » November 22nd, 2006, 6:00 pm

I was thinking of replacing my seats too but if it's going to be a hassle to make them fit I'm considering seat covers? Nothing's wrong with the seats, they just look like crap with stains. Any advice as to where I can get a good deal on some decent seat covers?

mrmike420 · Post by **mrmike420** » November 28th, 2006, 7:35 pm

Why doe the shipping always cost more than the dang seats themselves??? LOL

superman_t11 · Post by **superman_t11** » December 6th, 2006, 4:57 am

grind off brackets

neutral · Post by **neutral** » December 6th, 2006, 10:00 am

superman_t11 wrote:grind off brackets

or... just buy the brackets for correct fitment of Corbeau or Sparco style seats (seats w/flat bottom) and attach them to the universal type sliders that come with the new seats. Brackets p/n 986(driver side) and p/n 987 (pass side) made for 91-97 Ford Escort fits the MX-3. They are available from a couple of suppliers. I'm ordering from Cardomain, which has the best pricing I've seen. Links provided below:

http://www.murrayauto.com/store/myProdu ... ryID=18262

http://www.cardomain.com/item/SPA986