Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Seats

[ShearMe]

I've been meaning to put together a post about it, but my car is rocking modified ND miata seats. Practically zero butt bolstering for wide Americans.

 

[splatrd]

As OP mentioned, the side plastics limits the flex of the side bolsters and I can feel it digging into my thigh. I found that if I adjust both of the seat bottom knobs to the highest setting it helps. I do notice that over time this setting will drop on its own and have to readjust. I did just pull off the side trim piece on the seat and used a heat gun to soften the plastic. Then used a wide flat pair of pliers fold the highest area down to flatten it. I haven't driven it yet as it snowed yesterday. Hopefully it will help.

 

[HuskeRZ34]

I've been meaning to put together a post about it, but my car is rocking modified ND miata seats. Practically zero butt bolstering for wide Americans.

Very interesting! How did it bolt up? Do the Miata brackets fit the Z’s holes or did you get a universal bracket and if so which one? Also do they all connect for the seat occupancy and air bags? I’m not sure on the Miata seats but the GR86 and BRZ I’d be very interested in as they really are about perfect for me!

 

[HuskeRZ34]

As OP mentioned, the side plastics limits the flex of the side bolsters and I can feel it digging into my thigh. I found that if I adjust both of the seat bottom knobs to the highest setting it helps. I do notice that over time this setting will drop on its own and have to readjust. I did just pull off the side trim piece on the seat and used a heat gun to soften the plastic. Then used a wide flat pair of pliers fold the highest area down to flatten it. I haven't driven it yet as it snowed yesterday. Hopefully it will help.

Definitely a good idea! The seats bottoms bug me most to all of the time, but I could tolerate it if the seat back was a little better. I just feel like I’m sitting on the seat instead of in it at times. My daily IS350 seats feel like they hug me much more than the Zs. Sometimes it’s just nice to be hugged! lol

 

[sarge]

Thanks for the good info! I plan on bringing my son and stopping at Dollywood for a day as well, maybe even Jack Daniels since it’s on the way! Possibly even slipping down to Atlanta and Z1 for fun!

I've drove the tail of the dragon on my Harley. FANTASTIC trip. You're going to love it. Take a separate run and just enjoy the scenery.

 

[ShearMe]

Very interesting! How did it bolt up? Do the Miata brackets fit the Z’s holes or did you get a universal bracket and if so which one? Also do they all connect for the seat occupancy and air bags? I’m not sure on the Miata seats but the GR86 and BRZ I’d be very interested in as they really are about perfect for me!

First piece is a universal bracket from a company called Planted. Best I can tell they are the OEM for some other vehicle-specific resellers. These aren't the lightest or the slimest or the lowest, but they ARE thick and sturdy for modification purposes like extra mounting holes.

Stock Miata seat height was too high such that the seat hit the roof well. I modified a lowering bracket system for a flat mounting position and lost maybe 2 inches, which allows the seat to lean back now. Could remove rails for another inch if really needed, but at that point you could just weld the seat to the bracket.

I modified the new seat's wiring by splicing in the wiring harnesses from a Nissan Altima (cheap and easy to get on eBay). You do need a passenger side occupancy emulator because Nissan does those differently than other manufacturers. The emulator tricks the car into thinking an occupant is always present, which subsequently trips the seatbelt indicator, which can ironically be defeated by leaving the seatbelt receptacle unplugged.

My airbag light wasn't on after first install hooked up to the Mazda bags, but I drove around without a passenger seat for a bit and guess it went into memory. Waiting on an srs-capable code reader to hopefully clear it.

 

[HuskeRZ34]

I've drove the tail of the dragon on my Harley. FANTASTIC trip. You're going to love it. Take a separate run and just enjoy the scenery.

Good to know! Since it’s a 15 hour drive I definitely plan on going back and forth at least twice!

 

[MattJ2020]

I want to replace my Z (Performance) seats to Recaro’s but electric not the Nismo ones.

 

[HuskeRZ34]

I want to replace my Z (Performance) seats to Recaro’s but electric not the Nismo ones.

Where are there electric Recaros? Would it be the old Juke ones or find another OE option from another brand to splice into? For me I’m thinking about the NISMO ones for a simple plug and play option (I don’t care about the power option but would like heated seats). However, I have the blue interior so I would almost need to find a custom upholstery place to take the red out and put in a blue leather or suede that matches the rest of the car’s interior. It’d look pretty cool then but I’m not sure if it’s worth spending much over $3500-$4000 all in to do it versus aftermarket or just keeping what I got. Plus I don’t know if the NISMO seats will fix the bottom cushion issues (sounds like it will for the seat back part). I spoke to Corbeau yesterday as they have a very sweet looking option that should work great looks-wise, I’m just on the fence of how to install it and make it all work, plus I don’t know how comfortable the seat will be to me, and I really don’t want to shell out $2000+ on a maybe unless I have a good plan on how to install it.

 

[MattJ2020]

Recaro sell their own seats that are electric. I'm thinking the Porsche style Recaro's

 

[HWill]

There are some aftermarket seats that are electric and have the heated seat option.

I have been searching for a replacement seat. I had recaros in my 24 Mustang and they were snug but comfortable. The seats in the Z performance are not the best I had IMO. I can live with them but if I find a race set that puts me lower and maybe further back I will get them. I don't need the electric or the heated seats.

 

[50thZ]

Call me crazy but my cloth seats on my Sport as more comfortable than the seats in my Frontier Pro-X (leather). I love mine . That's is MHO

 

[HWill]

Call me crazy but my cloth seats on my Sport as more comfortable than the seats in my Frontier Pro-X (leather). I love mine . That's is MHO

I preferred the seats in the Sport over the Performance. It is the added lumbar to the performance I don't like at all. I can even feel it with it turned down.

 

[HuskeRZ34]

Update…

So before I go down the aftermarket route (and losing some safety), pay through the noise for Nismo seats and give up the power function (which I could care less about) and heater (don’t want to give up!), or worse say f’ it and get something different! I thought I’d try and find a seat upholster to take a stab at it and I’m so glad I did!

For the back I had him shave down the middle hump and put in a more giving foam for the side bolsters which makes me feel like I’m seating on the seat instead of in the seat. Then for the bottom I had him build up the tapered front to where it’s more of a cliff to help with thigh support. Then for the infamous side thigh bolster he swapped out the stiffer foam for a more forgiving option. Lastly, based on his thoughts after sitting in it he built up the back of the seat a little.

So for the results, much better! Not transformative but really how it should have came from factory and very close to how my GR86 seats felt! The thigh bolsters are still a nuisance but much less and more comfortable. He did mention when he got in there it is a little bit of the plastic trim that everyone talks about but more so metal support bars in the seat and if I want to completely eliminate it he’d have to really alter the seat which I don’t want to do. Speaking of the metal bars he did find it strange after he checked out the passenger seat and said that doesn’t have it, this is part of the reason I find the passenger seats way more comfortable than the drivers. As for the back it still gives a little bit of the sport seat feel to where it pushes your head forward enough where you need to wear a helmet for your head to hit the headrest without leaning all the way back, but I now feel much more in the seat instead of on top of the seat. To me that’s how a sports car should feel!

Overall, much improved. To me on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is bad wooden kitchen table chair and 10 is lazy boy it was a 3 or 4, now probably a 6.5. The passenger seat to me is a solid 7, the GR86 probably a 7 and my newer Lexus IS350 F sport that I daily a 8.5. Definitely enough of an improvement that it no longer feels like an irritation and I can move on to more exciting things like improvements with driver feedback and road feel! Here are some pics of the seat after the alterations. I really don’t have any good before ones but compare it to yours. This is so far hands down the best $300 I’ve spent so far on this car! Lastly, the best part yet is I have a seat and upholstery guy if I ever want to fancy up or customize the interior a bit. He definitely does very good work!

 

[HuskeRZ34]