Foamectomy - do it!
Discussion
After sitting in a car with it done, I tried this the other day - its such a good thing to do.
For the un-enlightened - This works on a standard 1pc MX5 seats in a MK1.
It may or may not work on other stock mazda seats - I would imagine it does though.
The standard seats are nice looking and a good shape, but there not very snug.
You can foamectomise your seats in two halfs.
I started with the top. Drop the hood. 4 14mm bolts, holding the seat rails to the car. Possibly a 5th holding your seatbelt stalk to the tunnel.
Pull it out, flip it over.
At the rear, base of the seat back is a straight flap of material - under here are 7 hog rings holding the cover together. Snip em with sidecutter, pull the remains out of the foam. Flip the seat back over.
Pull the flap of material through the join in the base/back - pull out the foam piece from the centre of the seat - keep this safe in case you want to replace it. Reattach the cover using sturdy zip ties, pulling the cover tight. Vac out 15yrs of filth from the now visible seam in the centre piece of your seat.
Bolt seat back in.
Revel in the new found 'bucketyness' of your standard seat. For free, which is the best price.
Team up with a CG lock for ultimate fit.
Seriously, its worth doing, makes the seat a much better fit and the bolsters wrap around much further.
The only visible difference is the seat cover looks a tiny bit 'baggy' if you dont fold it all back neatly when your re fitting it.
Step 2 is to remove foam from the base, but this is more involved as it involves cutting foam with an electric carving knife. This also allows you to drop down an inch or so, useful for gangly people - I havent done this so far as I'm not too bothered about sitting lower.
For the un-enlightened - This works on a standard 1pc MX5 seats in a MK1.
It may or may not work on other stock mazda seats - I would imagine it does though.
The standard seats are nice looking and a good shape, but there not very snug.
You can foamectomise your seats in two halfs.
I started with the top. Drop the hood. 4 14mm bolts, holding the seat rails to the car. Possibly a 5th holding your seatbelt stalk to the tunnel.
Pull it out, flip it over.
At the rear, base of the seat back is a straight flap of material - under here are 7 hog rings holding the cover together. Snip em with sidecutter, pull the remains out of the foam. Flip the seat back over.
Pull the flap of material through the join in the base/back - pull out the foam piece from the centre of the seat - keep this safe in case you want to replace it. Reattach the cover using sturdy zip ties, pulling the cover tight. Vac out 15yrs of filth from the now visible seam in the centre piece of your seat.
Bolt seat back in.
Revel in the new found 'bucketyness' of your standard seat. For free, which is the best price.
Team up with a CG lock for ultimate fit.
Seriously, its worth doing, makes the seat a much better fit and the bolsters wrap around much further.
The only visible difference is the seat cover looks a tiny bit 'baggy' if you dont fold it all back neatly when your re fitting it.
Step 2 is to remove foam from the base, but this is more involved as it involves cutting foam with an electric carving knife. This also allows you to drop down an inch or so, useful for gangly people - I havent done this so far as I'm not too bothered about sitting lower.
Foamectomised mine this morning 
And got some pics during the procedure for people (like me!) who are better with something more "visual" to put them at ease as to really how easy this is to do! Even I managed it without damaging anything and I'm the cock-up king 
So here is the weapon I used to get around the seat bolts issue - In fact it was only one bolt that caused me to make this (the last one incidentally - why is it always the last bloody bolt that causes you problems!).
After flipping the seat over these are the rings holding the material together, due to a lack of cutting equipment I found bending them open with a small flathead screwdriver worked well. Note that in the picture I'd already removed a couple of them
Afterwards you should be left with this, the flap at the top of the picture will pull through to the front once you've tilted the seat back and you'll be left with it looking like the second picture.
Once you've removed those clips using whatever method you used previously, the piece of foam will just pull out. Now if your girlfriend/wife complains that MX5s aren't "child-friendly" show her these. Look! Floats for their swimming lessons!
Then just pull the flap of material back through and cable tie, here is a picture of what it should look like. Don't pull the flaps too tight and overlap them, just do it like in the photos and they'll look just as good as the standard seats
Flip the seat over and you'll have one foamectomised seat, ready to fit back to your car!
And got some pics during the procedure for people (like me!) who are better with something more "visual" to put them at ease as to really how easy this is to do! Even I managed it without damaging anything and I'm the cock-up king So here is the weapon I used to get around the seat bolts issue - In fact it was only one bolt that caused me to make this (the last one incidentally - why is it always the last bloody bolt that causes you problems!).
After flipping the seat over these are the rings holding the material together, due to a lack of cutting equipment I found bending them open with a small flathead screwdriver worked well. Note that in the picture I'd already removed a couple of them
Afterwards you should be left with this, the flap at the top of the picture will pull through to the front once you've tilted the seat back and you'll be left with it looking like the second picture.
Once you've removed those clips using whatever method you used previously, the piece of foam will just pull out. Now if your girlfriend/wife complains that MX5s aren't "child-friendly" show her these. Look! Floats for their swimming lessons!
Then just pull the flap of material back through and cable tie, here is a picture of what it should look like. Don't pull the flaps too tight and overlap them, just do it like in the photos and they'll look just as good as the standard seats
Flip the seat over and you'll have one foamectomised seat, ready to fit back to your car!
jamhow79 said:
is this a mk1 only trick or will it work with my 2.5 seats as well ??? there is pretty much no lateral support as std so would be a welcome mod - i just dont want to tear my seat apart for nothing !!
I think if your seats are one piece, it will work. It should be quite easy to check though, just remove the seat, snip the hog rings at the bottom of the back if present and then see if there's a foam panel that pulls out. The hog rings are very easy to replace with cable ties and you won't see them anyway.Gassing Station | Mazda MX5/Roadster/Miata | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff