Dave Wellings on Classic / Traditional Cars - Taking The Seats Out

I finally found time today to do this job so that I could Danish oil the floor.

The following relates to a 2005 Roadster, but I guess most are similar.

First job is to take the roof down.........

Then remove the cap over the seatbelt bracket and take the bolt out. Make a note of it's position.

The seat is held by six bolts.

The first two go through the cross member and are 8cm over the heads.

The second pair, also in front of the seat itself are 7.3cm and go through the wooden floor.

The third pair are at the rear of the runners and go through the cross member level with the front of the leaf spring.

These are 9.25cm over the heads. All appear to be AF with 1/2" heads.
The carpet was a mess...........(Drivers side).....

It was held down with half a dozen tacks, I bet they do that so that it doesn't move while they drill the holes.

I've pulled the tacks out, because.........

They are tacky...  

The floor is in good shape and was treated to two coats of Danish oil. (I did all the rest on an earlier thread).

Here's the side view of the wooden battens.

I assumed they would be of uniform thickness but no........

They taper front to rear from 4cm to 2.5cm and it's very obvious here....

Newer Morgans don't have these battens, and it's easy to assume that the seats are lower, but I would need to check the frame....it might be different.

If the seats are the same then on later cars the seat base will not tilt back so much if it's bolted to the flat floor.

Either way, you can modify the seat height fairly easily to suit you if you're not happy.

2017 note: Later cars with the deeper dashboard don't have the wooden spacers.

Replacement spacers are easy enough to make up and can be made the right thickness to suit personal tastes.

The next two pictures show how two holes were drilled in the wrong place for the gearbox remote bracket - they were too far forward.

Fortunately you can get at the bolt heads here.......

(Centre of picture)...

I filled the holes with JB Weld and used some penny washers underneath.

Much tidier.

Carpet back in. I've blown the wood over with a bit of black paint.

More to follow>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This was the passenger side.....

Under the seat is a metal plate which I'm guessing is for protection if anything comes through the floor......

These are the seat bolts.....two matching pairs at the front and the rears just visible...

Rears.....

Finally...this is the end of that cross member (this is nearside).

The lower bolt is the front leaf spring, and the upper one is the seat belt mounting.

The offside is obscured by the fuel lines, but is just accessible.

The whole job took four hours.

Replacing the bolts is fiddly but nothing in this job is difficult.

There is one more thing:

My driver's seat had three scratches in the right hand bolster, from rivets on jeans.

I did one myself but the other two were already there.

I bought a repair kit from here......

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Touch_Up_Kit.htm


They advertise in Practical Classics.

Obviously black is easy, but they also supply colour match kits.

It took just a few minutes to sand the leather with 1200 grit, and apply the magic coloured solution.

You finish the job off with a clear liquid finisher which is provided high gloss and matt, so you blend to get a match, and it's amazingly good.

Unfortunately the camera won't show it well enough, so you'll just have to take my word for this one

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Other Comments...............

I had the seats out of my car last year as I wanted to get a slight backward tilt on my fixed seats.

I created new battens with a slightly more exaggerated incline by raising the front of seat.

Luckily I can still get under the larger wooden steering wheel!

I wanted to drop the seat a bit as I am a bit of a 'tall lad' and would be nice to be further 'in' the cockpit.

But on investigation (and pre-advised) the intrusion of the rear spring housing would not allow this unless modification to the underside of the seat.

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If you don't refit the wood, your seat will lower by 4cm at the front and 2.5cm at the rear.

You can keep the angle of the seat by fitting 1.5cm washers under the front bolts, and 1cm washers under the second set.

You will also need to find shorter replacement bolts.

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As regards dropping the seat, again I would be careful of the clearance at the rear of the seat as it may rub on the upstand of the 'box' where the rear leaf spring mounts.

Measure it before you try and remove the battens entirely.

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One other tip is to rout out a circle in the wooden rails big enough to take a nut.

Then you can bolt the seat rails firmly to the battens, giving a seat with wood rails firmly attached and the 4 now captive bolts firmly in position.

You need to rout out a hole to allow the nut to not stand proud of the wooden rail, and it needs to be big enough to drop a ring spanner round it so you can do it up good and tight.

You can now drop the seat into position and the bolts will go through the mounting holes neatly. It makes removing and refitting the seats in future a complete doddle.

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I've just taken out my driver's seat - and suffered the same difficulty as with the passenger seat:

one of the rear bolt heads was not held captive in the runner like it's supposed to be and so would just turn as I tried to undo the nut. I

could not get a spanner on in the conventional way so my solution was to use two open ended spanners side by side shoved end-on into the gap of the runner onto the flats of the head.

If that helps anyone now then great - but I'm planning to post some before and after pics of my treated seats when I'm done and I'll try to remember to include a photo of the spanners in position.

And another note - there are two bolts for the runners on a 1988 4/4.

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