I've got the stock leatherette seats on my `05 MCS, and find them comfortable enough, but not very supportive for active driving.

I'm a fairly skinny guy, and the seat and back bolsters are just too far apart to give me much lateral support.

I'm considering whether it would be worth it to have an upholstery shop peel the seat covers and insert some more foam in the bolsters.

Has anyone tried this? Is there enough room in the vinyl seat covers to make a significant difference without taking a chance on over-stressing the seams and ripping the seat apart?

 

I'm very interested in this, if you find out. I am skinny as well at 6'4" and 140 lbs. My ideal seat would be only 13" wide at the base, and 12" wide for the back, much wider for the shoulders. The stock seats are enormous.

 

Well, after investigation, it turns out to be a little more complicated...

To make room for more stuffing, you have to have more surface, i.e. leather or pleather. What they do is to add and shape foam onto the original, and then verify the shape by sitting you in it. Once shape OK, they re-cover it by removing each of the outside panels of material, cutting larger ones, and then sewing them back onto the center pieces of the seat cover. This gives you a nice reshaping of any parts of the seat you like, and the only obvious change is that they can never quite match the original leatherette texture, since BMW doesn't sell bolts of the material.

So I'm going to have my drivers seat customized next week, and will report.

Meanwhile, one minor easy tip: the rails on the MINI are held in place by four M8x40 bolts - two at front and two at the rear.

It is really easy to put spacers under the rails to raise the front of the rails about 1/4" relative to the rear. You can get M8x45 Grade 8 bolts and spacers at the hardware store. I used a couple of 1/8" nylon washers.

This gives you more support at the front of the seat, and less tendency to submarine when braking. Subjectively, being able to rake the seat-bottom a little more aftward feels like you are more down into the seat instead of on it.

You can still use the adjuster to get back to the normal range, of course, this just tilts the seat bottom a bit toward more seat recline, and raises the maximum seat height 1/4".

 

Did they give you a price range?

I use a schroth harness all of the time, but the large seat still bothers me.

 

The local auto upholstery shop showed me a pair of BMW seats in the process of having the same thing done, and quoted me $500 for drivers seat-back.

I'm thinking I may do just the seat-back, as I don't move around in the seat when driving hard, but I do find myself bracing against upper-body movement.

 

$500 is not bad. I look forward to seeing how they turn out.

 

I should have the car back in a day or two.

I decided to go for just the bolsters on the seat-back, not the bottom.

Also, rather than trying to match the OEM leatherette and not quite getting a perfect match, I'm having them replace only the lower, inside, bolster panels (i.e. not the outside edges of the seat) using same-color suede.

I'll post pix over the weekend.

 

First off, the philosophy...

I don't like racing seats. I've had them in a couple of cars, and have concluded that they are suitable for racing. Period. They make it difficult to enter and exit, are horrible for a long drive (since you can't change position), and they are generally missing the niceties, like height adjustment, flop-forward, seat heaters, etc. For my uses, they aren't worth the cost and annoyances.

On the other hand, the stock seats are missing a lot of lateral support for my favorite use - flying the local mountain hairpins. I wanted more lateral support, but from a mostly-stock seat at moderate cost.

So I got my car back today, after going in for a "fitting" yesterday. Results are excellent!

In the pictures attached, I found it impossible to get a shot that showed the new suede panels and the OEM leatherette anywhere near their perceived colors to the eye, so I converted the pix to B&W.

The color tone match between the panther vinyl and the synthetic suede is very good, with the suede looking different mainly because of the grain, not the color. Depending on how it's brushed, it is usually a little lighter than the vinyl, and looks good with my grey Lloyds' carpets. From 10 ft. looking through closed windows, it is nearly unnoticeable.

As you can see, I had the bolsters extended about an inch forward, and about an inch thicker at the front of the bolster. At the moment, it feels just a hair snug to me, but there is 1/4" of material under the vinyl that will crush to fit.

By doing just the seat-back bolsters, entry and exit remains easy, and all the features of the seat were retained - adjustments, heater pad, etc. I put 1/4" of spacers under the front of the rail, to get more dish to the seat bottom, and the result is a street version of a racing seat - comfortable, but very supportive in the hairpins.

This work cost me $500 at Bright Auto Upholstery in Portland, Oregon, and I'd recommend them. I decided to let them do the work after seeing some of their beautiful restorations in progress.

 

I took the car out to break in new summer tires - a couple of hours in the local hairpins.

The seat bolsters really do hold you in place, as I had hoped. It changes the steering wheel from something that you hold on to and guide the car, to just a device that is used to precisely control the car - no need to hang on, as you aren't going anywhere laterally. Along with a CG-Lock, it's a great combination for a street/play car.

 

I wish I could sit in them to see if this is something I want done. Looks great.

 

Verry nice seat back!


joe r

 

It's a lot like having a custom-made pair of boots. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to sell the car, now.

Because of the lateral support, my bad lower back is much happier - I'm not straining and twisting my back in odd directions while driving. I expect that I'll be a lot less fatigued and happier at the end of future all-day club rides.

 

I honestly never thought of this. This is something i am going to look into in the future as my seats are getting flatter buy the day and a custom reupholstered, countred factory seat would be the dog's biscuits!!!

 

The suede looks so good that I'm thinking I'll probably take the car back in to have the passenger seat done.

No custom bolster work, just replace those lower side panels on the seat-back with matching suede, leaving the standard seat shape alone.

I'm hoping that will be a bit less costly...

(It came to $320. Here's pix of the finished seats https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=142990)

 

Soooo....Any concern with what this may do to the side air bags? I may just have to take a trip down to Portland.

 

Not really an issue. The stitching around the side panels is nice strong stuff, designed to cut on the dotted line (perforated by the stitching) when the airbag deploys. The thread slices through the vinyl, and the airbag comes out.

All of the foam built-up on the bolsters is on the inside surface, toward me, and not around the airbag at all.

 

can you please show close-up pics of this? i'm having a hard time visualizing it thanks!

 

If you look at the pix of the drivers side, the bolster, originally one concave panel that goes from the center piece of the backrest to the outside edge, is now bulging forward. The added foam is shaped like the bolster, and then covered with a wider-than-original piece of fabric (actually two pieces).

Compare the driver and passenger seats in the B&W picture - it should be apparent. The bulging bolsters can be seen in the image looking down.

Color pix of both seats: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=142990