Better front seats MK II

Hi all, I posted a message a little while back about cost effective better seating in a Micra. well the time had come to do something so I thought I'd fill you in on what I had done. Firstly, while checking the net for ideas I ended up at the Just Jap website and they have cheap new seats of all sorts. I ended up buying a JJR Fixed Back Racing Seat inc rails for $199. It's no Recaro or Velo but perfect for a $5K micra. Then through my various travels I ended up at Peninsula Sports cars in Brookevale (Syd) They directed me to Evolution motorsport located beneath them in the same building. Adam quoted me in the order of $350-$400 to fit.
Pricey, yes but it had to be done and here is the result

As you can see in the above photo it uses the standard seat belt just run through the seat holes which works very well. The quality of work is amazing.

Here is another pic of the right rear mount.

You can see in the next pic of the left rear mount how they mounted the original seat buckle in the correct spot.

As with other responses to my original post the extra feel you get while driving is amazing. Your hands are set free to just steer and don't have to hang on as well. The seat is 5-6cm's lower than std but it also comes with 2 slip-in cousions in the seat base (I use both) so can be dropped further. Oh, it also travels forwards and backwards over a larger range as well. This is one of the best mods I've done to my Micra and has totally changed the way the car feels.

Aaron.

looks like they did a great job! that's a shit load of money but!never looked into getting an aftermarket rail like a recaro / bride? is that adr approved aswell for that price?

man... nice seat rails! Definitely quality work but you get what you pay for eh..

The Deal with a $200 seat is no ADR tag. Even if it was ADR approved to be fully leagal you would need an engineers certificate. I could have got a Velo GP 90 or similar ADR approved seat for $650+ but most are side mount which rules out rails/sliders unless you want to get a bit fancy with the mounting. The idea of spending 1/4 of the cars worth on a seat and install was a bit silly to me but I wasn't going to put myself in some steel tubed death bucket either so I checked the seats construction before of purchased it. It is actually quite similar to the original seat construction ie. steal tube with webbing but a little more solid and with no recline mechanism. As has been stated elsewere you can do it for less, this is just my solution. Did I hear someone say Wakefield Park? Anyone else interested?

AaronS.

I've been looking at getting an OBX Forza 2000 seat for some time - sat in one a while back and it's comfy and it is ADR approved. There's a place in hallam that sells them on eBay. Last time they were on special they were $219 :) Getting seat rails modified or made from scratch was my only issue.

I wouldn't have recommended the JustJap ones as from memory the side bolstering on their fixed bucket seats was just foam, rather than having the steel tube coming up the side for some proper support.

Anyhow looking good! Makes me want to get mine done all the more.

Edit: Actually they do have them on special, but only the blue ones atm: http://tinyurl.com/2gj7gn

---dens

that welding is top notch! any idea what they used to do it?

looks like its tig welded to me

No idea about the welding, sorry. Evolution Motorsport can be found at
http://www.evolutionmotorsport.com.au/ Adam was the guy who did my seat install. They had lots of interesting stuff in their workshop and all the work was of a very high standard.
There are certainly limitations with a $200 seat, ADR'd or not and again I would state to be legal an engineers certificate is required for a seat swap. The seat that I chose fitted my arse and my wallet better than many I sat in at many multiples of its price. The Seat is steel tube construction including side bolstering. It has the odd steel plate in its sides to strengthen the union between the back and the base. The foam isn't going to win any awards and the fabric is basic at best, all very Micra!

AaronS.

looks good suits a micra

yeah that style/colour in a reclining seat would be tops

thanks for posting the pics, good to see what proper rails look like!