Online fabrication shops

Like a lot of silly Miata owners, I'd like to drop a pair of Lotus Elise seats into my Miata. I've already got the seats; they're light, comfortable, and pretty affordable. It's the brackets that are screwing me up.

I just got a quote from a well-known Miata fabricator who happens to be local. Their work is meticulous and would be absolutely custom-fit, but the price is just a couple hundred bucks shy of a Challenge car. Not possible.

I'm a handy guy, but I just don't have the tools, the room to install them, or the ability to make the necessary noise in my condo garage (other people live above it). If I can get the basic cuts/bends delivered to my door, I can take it the rest of the way.

I've come across places online that will laser/water cut steel to your specification, but I'm not aware of any that also -bend- steel. I'd be working in 1/8" steel and in any of the brackets I've drawn there's quite a bit of area to bend.

Have any of you ever worked with places like emachineshop or bigbluesaw? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

I used eMachineShop to fabricate a small run of brackets to mount Wilwood calipers on my E36 with stock rotors. To make it affordable you have to do a batch to get the unit price down then sell them to others so as long as you can identify a small market for them, yours is free.

Just make sure you don't berkeley up the design or you get a pile of junk.

You need to find a local person like myself that does fabrication out of his garage. They will be happy to build stuff to your specifications.

Do be aware that you live in California and that you will be able to sue the fabricator when the car crashes and you injure yourself. You are in no way responsible for your actions or decisions in this regard. That makes this a great modification!

The price you hint at is nuts. This is maybe a $500 job at most unless the seats are a complete miss-fit to the chassis and tub modification is required.

I think these mounts are available off the shelf.

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/85-junior-sponsors/34298-elise-seat-brackets-yes-means-official.html

"Chance91" and "Ryoku Rob" both made/make brackets for these seats in a Miata. Rob is a good dude, even if you can't find a vendor for them (Try Garagestar), if you reach out to him he'd probably throw together another set for you.

Swank Force One wrote: I think these mounts are available off the shelf. http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/85-junior-sponsors/34298-elise-seat-brackets-yes-means-official.html "Chance91" and "Ryoku Rob" both made/make brackets for these seats in a Miata. Rob is a good dude, even if you can't find a vendor for them (Try Garagestar), if you reach out to him he'd probably throw together another set for you.

"Cost is 250 per seat Plus Shipping"

Order of magnitude cheaper than the quote you got. They look like a reasonable design. Don't see how you can go wrong. How hard are Elise seats to find in the used market?

NOHOME wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: I think these mounts are available off the shelf. http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/85-junior-sponsors/34298-elise-seat-brackets-yes-means-official.html "Chance91" and "Ryoku Rob" both made/make brackets for these seats in a Miata. Rob is a good dude, even if you can't find a vendor for them (Try Garagestar), if you reach out to him he'd probably throw together another set for you.

"Cost is 250 per seat Plus Shipping" Order of magnitude cheaper than the quote you got. They look like a reasonable design. Don't see how you can go wrong. How hard are Elise seats to find in the used market?

Not terribly hard, but they rapidly approached the price point where they're a bit ridiculous unless you find a sweetheart deal. They usually sell for $600-$800 each in the Miata community depending on color/model.

Chance 91 brackets are a "when/if he has time" thing. I asked GarageStar, but they don't know when the next run of Ryoku Rob brackets will happen.

I'm not a huge fan of the design of either of these guy's brackets, having uncertain timelines just kills the idea.

There are $250 brackets on eBay right now, but they center you over the seat rails, which is off center of the steering wheel. Lots of little things like this that make this a frustrating project.