I got the passenger seat installed, and the bloody Airbag warning light turned off (I left the passenger seat for the work while I drove the car - oops).

I'm real pleased with the results. The drivers seat is greatly supportive during hard cornering, and retains ease of entry/exit, as well as all the standard adjustments and heater. It works really well on my favorite hairpin roads, with almost no need to hang on to the wheel or brace myself while cornering. It has few of the disadvantages of a true racing seat, such as limited visibility, little padding, poor back seat access, minimal adjustments, etc., while giving maybe 2/3 of the benefits in car control. With a CG-Lock, it works very well for the street.

My bad lower back is under much less strain during active driving due to the lateral support. It feels so good to sit in it that I find myself making excuses to go out for errands.

In the pictures, you can see that the drivers seat bolsters are now both plumper and go further forward than the passenger side. The drivers side bolster panels go almost straight forward for about 4" from the seam.

The passenger seat is a visual match, even though it's shape is not modified from stock.

Both seats have a 1/4" spacer under the front of the rails for a bit more "in" rather than "on" feeling.

The back-story for the seat customization is in this thread https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=140299

 

please provide a link to the seat vendor

 

The work was done by Bright Auto Upholstery in Portland Oregon. They are my stock `05 S seats, modified for lateral support. Read the link for more.

 

Rick, that looks brilliant. Effective, subtle, racy, maintains the airbag function and best of all...

It works. Nicely done.

 

when you took this in to the shop did you pull the covers off and hand it to the upholsterer or did you just drop off the car?

 

Thanks, JCW. I took the car out for almost 200 miles of coastal mountain twisties on a Portland MINI Club run today, and my lower back doesn't hurt, so it was successful beyond my expectations.

glnr13, I dropped the car off for a couple of days. The removal of the cover is not what you might expect. On the seat, it is foam over the seat structure, and a separate cover, as you might guess.

However the seatback is different - the foam is apparently foamed in place inside the vinyl cover, with the seat heater wires embedded in place. The whole pad and cover is one partno.

To remove the seatback cover they had to use a razor and cut the cover loose from the foam while not cutting the vinyl or breaking the heater wires. When I tried sitting on the foam seat for shape and size, the wires were laying in a pile on the bench, but they are now back in place and work fine.

IMHO, this is not a job that I'd care to try my hand at - I'd leave it to the steady-handed pros.

A couple of other comments: Rasmussen MINI replaced and "repaired" my passenger seat bottom three times - the weight sensor causes a lump in the seat bottom about the size of my thumb - apparently a common problem. After the third try, they gave up and told me they couldn't fix it.

The auto upholstery guy asked if I wanted the lump fixed, and did so in about 2 minutes. The lump is the plastic electrical connector for the sensor panel. Remove a pinch of foam for the connector to nestle into and the lump goes away. Duh...

Also, don't do what I did - I had the passenger seat done to match the suede a few days after the drivers side. They took out the seat and I took the car.

Mistake - if you drive the car without the seat, the Airbag light goes on, and does not go out without a trip to the dealer - $55 and an hour wasted at Rasmussen...

 

thanks for the tips. looks great btw

 

And here's Bright Auto Upholstery on the web:
http://www.brightautoupholstery.com/