MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Alternative seats

Hi All, I am looking to fit some aftermarket seats into my roadster please note the car has not been rebuilt (saved from a scrapyard in Virginia) to anything approaching concours but will be a very useable everyday vehicle. I acknowledge the space is very limited and fore aft movement will ideally be required to cover a height difference betwwen myself and my wife of nearly a foot.
I sure this will have been considered many times before and I had bucket seats in my racer, I am now looking for something a bit different whilst still being comfortable and reasonably low to the floor.
Many Thanks
Mark
Mark Dollimore

Dave Godwin has MX5 seats in his, but there must be different versions as a set I tried did not fit mine
dominic clancy

Would later MGB seats fit with Headrests and adjustable rake? My wife moans that she would like more rake on her seat.
R Mcknight

My wife refuses to be a passenger for anything other than a short distance because of the 'uncomfortable seats' This is a pain because I need her to drive the car back when we go to the pub. The only solution that I know of is the De-luxe seat although this has no adjustable back and in any event it costs ££££'s There's stuff on this in the archives.
J H Cole

I think that the MGB seats would be far too big for the A.
My brother in law has a very nice 77 roadster and the seats in it look just so big and comfortable compared with my standard A ones. But I think I would have to get the chassis widened to fit them in the car!

JH, I have had some memory foam pillows covered in material to match my cars interior, my wife just puts them where they are needed most. I must admit that it gives my car that "loose cushion settee" look but it seems to prevent that constant whining noise I used to get in my left ear!

Colyn
Colyn Firth

When I first got my car it had MGB seat frames. They were re-upholstered, using common lawn chair webbing, with black vinyl over that. Obviously not to the form of an MGB seat, but they did fit. I think there were MGB seat rails as well. All of this has since been corrected.
G Goeppner

Hi Mark,

I was at Bob Wests last week and noticed that they produce a micro-cell seat which may be worth a look.

Regards...John
J Bray

Mark when I installed the standard seats in my coupe I placed a 1/2" spacer between the floor and front of the seat slide rail, to give them more cant. I think Barney has some ideas on his website on this. I drove the car 250 miles for a MG 2012 and didn't have a problem.

I also removed about 1/2" of foam from the underside of the seat foam so that it goes into the mesh cradle in the wood seat base better. It doesn't seem like I'm sitting on the seat but rather in the seat. Far better. I also added some more padding on the seat back to give more lumber support.

Andy
Andy Preston

Hi All thanks for the responses. Interesting that not many appear to have changed the seating arrangements. Perhaps the requirement to have the seat back tipping forward to allow erection of the hood ahs dictated retaining the original seat format. I feel there must be some aftermarket seats that tip forward yet still off more support or has health and safety struck there too!!

Mark
Mark Dollimore

i like to sit quite high and i found what was best for me was to make up two spacer rails that run front to back raising the seat 2" at the front and 1 " at the back, but before you get into making anything up why dont you put a piece of wood across the front of the seat frame to raise the seat and drive the car for a while to see how it feels, Vin
Vin Rafter

I fitted "rally" seats from Hudson in the UK to my coupe. These were narrow (18", if I recall) and had rear seat angle adjustment. My wife can adjust the seat position and rake to suit her short height. She drove the car two thousand miles to and from Reno last year, and loves it.
She has never driven the roadster with std MGA seats. I suggested fitting blocks to her feet, but this was not acceptable for some reason!
Peter.
P. Tilbury

The A that I am travelling through Africa in has rx8 seats fitted, which are very comfortable even on the bone shaker roads that we have been on.

Mgatocairo.blogspot.com

Now we just have to get the car going again after it died half way between the border and addis abbaba, and we had to truck it to addis.
dominic clancy

When I rebuilt my Coupe with a Roadster body in the late 70s I kept two Coupe features one of which was the seats (the other was the dash). Having never used Roadster seats I don't know how they compare in use but they certainly look as if they should be more comfortable.

Also, originally due to my wife's height, I mounted them on 2 by 2 lengths of wood. A couple of years ago I thought that I would remove the wood under the driver's seat as she never drives the car, but I soon decided that I didn't like the lower position hence I put the wood back.

Paul
P M Dean

SAw this at the site www.crateparts.com . It shows a kit to install Miata seats into your MGA. Check it out.
Gordon Harrison

Resurrecting this thread, today I tried fitting the Mazda MX5 low back reclining seats. With a little modification to the Mazda seat runners and a small spacer they fit. Unfortunately the handbrake is rendered inoperative, real blow that, never mind I'll keep on looking.

Mark
Mark Dollimore

Paul:
Do you have a picture of the coupe dash in your roadster that you could e-mail me or post here. I have been contemplating doing this myself and would love to hear how you did it and see what it looked like finished.
Always Safety Fast
Jc
John Crawley

I have a MGTD and fitted bucket seats from a MG midget/ Austin Healy Sprite. They fit fine and have an adjustable back rake. Should fit a MGA.

Frank Grimaldi
Frank Grimaldi

I have read that Pontiac Fiero seats will fit...but those might be pretty rare now.

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

Any one tried MGF seats?

Chris.
Chris Bond

This thread was discussed between 17/09/2012 and 19/12/2012

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.