Consider this an update to the build thread and an extension to the seat heaters thread.
I love seat heaters. I don't understand why they are not top priority on a vintage car. I love the crisp air, open windows or top down driving while still being warm.
Seats. The mini seats are awkward. The seating position is abnormal. Anyone who sits down in it immediately reaches for the non existent back adjustment. I have been searching high and low for some seats that are
1. small enough to not seem out of place
2. have back angle adjustment
3. supportive
4. look appropriately vintage.
Short of paying through the nose for some 95 M miata seats and having them recovered in a more vintage style I have come up with nothing. I do still have the surfboard NA miata seats from the 850 in storage but I remember them being particularly unsupportive with the sedan seating position and frankly, hideous. Also in storage were a set of low back 124 spider seats I was saving in hopes of reupholstering them in red for the Fiat. They look a lot like the Ferrari 250gte seats I fell in love with during that restoration. I decided to use them in the mini at least temporarily. Then the seat warmer thread happened and reminded me that it was on my must have list.
So here is the passenger seat. These were reupholstered in the past. I took them from a car with terminal rust. The covers are crooked, the frames seem bent the rails are lackluster. So the perfect starting point, right?
One Amazon sourced seat heater kit
$45 hard earned American dollars worth.
Small round switches should be easy to install or hide, simple cables with relays. Haven't looked to see if there is just a resistor inline for the low heat setting.
The heater matrix is in 3 pieces. According to the instructions is says to cut them to length but not width. It should be obvious why.
Tools and supplies needed. Hog rings and pliers
The groove in the foam for the listing happens to line up perfectly with a gap in the matrix so I punched a hole for the springs that hold the listing in the bottom cushion and adhered it to the foam.
And then I reapplied the upholstery. There is a little steel basket that is on the underside of the foam that the upholstery is hog ringed to. Bottom cushion was super easy. Like less than a half hour.
Sorted!
Now for the back. A fair bit more complicated and then I made it worse!
Repairs to the foam. Looks like someone tried to add material where the bolstering was collapsed and that material just smooshed out.
Making for a wider back than the seat base and a general mushroomed appearance.
Taking cues from the seats in the Mk1 Lotus Cortina I had to repair last year I copied the Lotus method
Bent some half inch tubing X4
And welded to the seat back
From there I made a groove in the bolster foam for the tubing to fit into and lashed the backing and foam into place. Fitted the heater matrix using the same gap for the listing groove.
These listings had to be sewn in place. A strong piece of cord and a big upholstery needle were required.
Then pulling and stretching the cover in place and gluing it with contact cement.
Not perfect. The back portion isn't flared/flattened out anymore. I think one hinge is off one click from the other so I need to adjust that. I also put it on a Sparco slider I had laying around. Certainly good enough for the likes of me though. Initial sitting on the floor of the shop tests says it is pretty cozy.
First seat probably took a solid 6 hours of work. The second will likely be half of that. Had I just installed the heaters in the mini seats with no listings it would have been a 20 minute job. Getting the listings right is the hardest part.
I also still need to make seat rail adapters for the mini, install the wiring harnesses and while I am at it finally pull the carpet and install the padding I forgot when I put the carpet in. That will make it easier to hide the heater wiring.