Alternative seats - 2-dr Toledo

[Ian Perry]

My newly-acquired Toledo has rather tired front seats and I would like to find something to replace them. Two problems:

1 - It's a 2-door car, so the front seats need to be able to tip forwards to let people into and out of the back

2 - The interior is "tan" which is a very orangey brown, so finding something to match (or at least, not look glaringly bad) will be "fun"

I want something supportive, with a head restraint; one objective for the car is the 2018 RBRR so they have to be good for 48hrs continuous occupation. A design that has a separate HR looks (IMO) inherently more authentic, but then again I wasn't planning installing full harness so a seat that fits the bill in every other respect would be ok.

Any suggestions, anyone?

[thescrapman]

You can get MX5 seats in a colour not far from Triumph gingery tan.

[thescrapman]

You can get MX5 seats in a colour not far from Triumph gingery tan.

[Ian Perry]

Hi and thanks for responding. I've not yet seen any gingery tan MX5 seats, but they do seem to fit the bill in every other respect.

Most of the ones I've seen look a bit like Mr Blobby rolled out flat, with an integral head restraint as part of the backrest. They do another version though with a separate head restraint which would (IMO) look slightly better in the car. But f they are the right colour I guess either of them would be ok

Hmm, just seen a photo of that colour seats - yes, you're absolutely right, not at all bad (notwithstanding the fact that it IS gingery tan, possibly the most hideous interior colour of them all 🙂  )

Cheers...

[iggy]

Have a look round at MGF front seats or smaller alfa romeo two door model seats. dont no about there colour match but reckon they could fit your toledo

[Ian Perry]

Hi Iggy, thanks for this. I am looking at MGF seats, the only problem with them is they don't tip forwards. The mechanism looks very similar to the ZR seats, so it might be possible to modify the MGF mechanism to make it tip forwards like the ZR seats do

The only fly in that particular pot of ointment is that all the MGF seats I've seen advertised so far are blimmin' miles away :-o

Mmm, Alfa seats look nice, but the only ones I've seen so far are priced at £ohmyGodhowmuch???

They say you aren't a real petrolhead until you've owned an Alfa. So far I can't even afford a seat from one!

[iggy]

Ian  no what you mean about the price i had the same thing when looking for the alfa front seats for my mk2 saloon but breakers yards are your best bet, i did own a mg zr diesel for a while the seats are very comfortable but the leather on the leather seats isnt good quality, i recon may be some alfa 147 seats might do the job have a look round your local breakers yards they will be cheaper than ebay

[Ian Perry]

Heh - yep, that's where I'll be heading this week.

Of course I could always change the colour of the interior! It's only...

Full carpet set
Door cards
Rear 3/4 panel cards
front footwell side panel cards
Rear parcel shelf
Back seat
as well as the front seats!

[Pete Lewis]

Fitted mgf into my vitesse and made a simple latch that allowed the back to tilt

pic will have to follow later

pete

[sujitroy]

Sorry to be off topic, but your photo brings back good memories.
My brother put in 5" pioneer speakers in the door where the ash tray went. This seemed to be the only place.  All looked great when panel went back on the door, only to realize the window winder would turn full circle. It interfered with the speaker. He had to cut the handle down by about  1/2"

Sujit
we has a '71 Toledo.

[Ian Perry]

Sujit - love it!

I now have a pair of MGF half-leather seats in their 'light tan' - and down the road there's a specialist independent cobblers who can do me a darker tan dye for the leather - I'll just have to be careful where I splash it to miss the fabric :-o

I cut the brackets off the bottom of the runners and welded a couple of simple crossbars on, through-bolted to secure the seats into the original mounting holes. They slide forwards a long way which for the moment at least means I am not worried about modifying the seats to tip forwards. The installation, however, has two problems;

1 - The seats are a long way forward even on the last notch of the runners - I'm not the longest-legged person in the world and though I fit in OK, my planned RBRR18 co-driver is a lanky streak and won't be comfortable leading to 2000 miles and 48 hours of moaning. But apart from serious floor modifications I can't see how to get the seats further back.

2 - the seats are a very tight fit against the tunnel. I couldn't easily get bolts into the runners to go through them (as per the originals) so have drilled and bolted on the crossbars instead, but this has pushed the seats closer to the tunnel than comfortable which makes lining them up/bolting them down a real pain in the proverbial. I could try getting some cap headed bolts to go through the runners (a socket to fit the conventional hex head is too fat to reach through the runner) but access with an Allen key to the back inboard mount would be difficult to say the least.

I will probably put the original seats back in for a bit, so I can mess about with the mounts and dye these seats, and hopefully take the car to the West Berks Classic Vehicle Show at Newbury College (13th August, anyone?), so not a rush but any bright ideas will be gratefully received!

(also any suggestions on how to fit two full-size greyhounds into a 2-door Toledo...)
The seats