Clive are those seats in yet?!
OK, a bit of an update on the Mazda 6 seats installation....
Over the weeks, I've been applying my limited toolkit and equally limited engineering skills to cutting up bits of 40 x 20 x 2mm RHS (which is box section to those less familiar with engineering terms than my extensive vocabulary
).
I have a hacksaw, an angle grinder, a drill some drill bits, a small set of 3 tapered step drills (mighty useful things to have) and a rivnut tool. I cut off the original Mazda seat mounting brackets that were no use to me and went about making a brace to go across the back of the two tracks.
The one front mounting nearest the tunnel was coincident with the 80 floor mounting position, but the rack is wider on the Mazda seats and the door side needed a 40mm strap in 4mm steel. After knocking that up and bolting the front of the seat in place, it gave me the chance to find out where the back mounts should attach to the seat tracks.
To replicate the position of the old seat racks, the rear of the Mazda seat needed mounting about 60mm above the floor. I made up some box pieces to bolt to the Mazda racks with 8mm rivnuts, then I bolted a piece of dropper box each end to give sufficient clearance for a crossbox so as it wouldn't foul the underneath of the seat as it tracks front and rear. Then I made up some angle pieces to bolt to the crossbox coincident with the floor mounting positions.
Using the crossbox means that there could be no undesirable twisting of the racks or non-parallel action going on.
After bolting everything, I stomped up the hill to my neighbor and he kindly welded it all up. After taking the bolts out and cleaning it all up a bit, I fitted the assembly back to the seats and bolted it all to the floor.
Bingo
I can't pretend it's a perfect fit, but its well within what I can live with. The bad points are that the seat is refractionally to the left of the steering wheel, by about 20mm. That means that the plastic cover on the door side of the seat is just against the door pillar trim. It's not hard against it but the seat belt is trapped a bit, but nothing a little tug and positioning doesn't solve. I think a go with a heat gun would give me that extra mm that it needs, no more than that is necessary.
As I think Rich suggested, the Mazda seat is a little higher than the old 80 seat. Remember, my old touch had no electrics in the seats, I could shift it front and back and adjust the seat back rake, that was it.
The Mazda drivers' seat has back and forth, up and down front and back, and seat back rake, all motorized. BTW, wiring them up will be another story
As it happens, the position its in is just great! That extra 20mm of height is fabulous, I can have the steering wheel in the Centre position, instead of the lowest like I used to, and everything seems better. I can see the dash better and have a better view of the road. All good, I'm well chuffed.
Tunnel side mounting coincident with the original...
The door side needed a strap. It's just knocked up at the moment, the whole lot will come off again for a clean-up and paint...
Now the the rear and my box section cobble-up, again it all needs painting. Door side...
Tunnel side...
Some general views...
I also have manual lumbar adjustment which is heaven, and the seat is firm with a slightly bucket style profile, meaning there's no sideways sliding at all.
TBH, I'm in 7th heaven with this driving position, and I don't have a collapsed seat anymore. Next job is the passenger side, and then some wiring.
Brilliant!
