So my drivers side seat (vinyl) has been cracking for some time along the bottom outer bolster. Here's a pic for reference.



I got a quote to fix it from Fibrenew back in the summer. It was about $125-150 IIRC, which seemed steep to me. But that had me thinking, what cost effective seat replacement options are out there for the R53 that require little modification to fit? I do not want anything aggressive at all, ideally I'd want something along the lines of the R53 JCW seats you could get in Europe. I see a ton of sti/evo/integra/civic type r seats on ebay and local classifieds but have no idea what is involved in making them fit. Could someone lay out my options for me?

 

Way to use one of the new bills - I bet there will be a few confused viewers here.

That's the commonly damaged spot. Most of the first gens will have (or develop) it.

That's a pretty good price, considering that heated seats are in the $500-1000 range used for a pair and that price each for new.

Full replacement of the material (stripping the old off and replacing) can run in the $1500-1800 range for the pair (using good materials)

There are some seat cover options out there, but when you look at them, make sure they're made to handle the airbags.

 

I have looked into some of the seat cover options (wet okole), they're certainly a better value than the repair. I guess it just bugs me that I could spend $150 on a repair or about $250+ for a set of decent covers when I could just get a JDM Recaro of sorts from a subaru/nissan/honda/mitsubishi for about 300-400. It would be mint too because they all come from from right hand drive cars so the drivers side for our cars would have little to no visible wear. I'm just not sure what exactly what is involved.

For instance, something like this. The drivers side is mint, the grey would go well with our interiors, and I could get just the one I need for about $300.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-auto-body-par...ationFlag=true

 

Have you thought of getting used r56 seats? A few threads around...
Everything will work, and no airbag lights!!

 

IMO that price is reasonable if it’s an OEM looking repair when done. I guess you could the other route and buy some Civic seats and spend a weekend fabbing up mounts that may or may not fail in a crash. There’s an added bonus of dealing with the airbag and seat belt issues.

 

Dave, do you have a pic of your setup? what type of modifications were required to mount them? also how much did you pay for the pair?

 

Do a Google Search of 'Mini Cooper S The Mistress' and you'll find information that you want.

 

If your a Google user (Gmail, calendar, docs, etc) your Google search results are personalized just for you based upon your past search history.

I am also interested in a how to for swapping seats in a Gen 1, but the above Google search didn't return anything helpful.

 

Ok so that search turned up some pretty good information (for me at least). In addition to the new seats, you'll need some new seat brackets ($140 each), you'll lose your airbag, and you'll need to modify your new seats to include the oem weight sensor if you don't want your dash light on all the time.

I really wanted some sweet Recaros but this seems like a little much for me, so back to the drawing board. How do the stock R56S seats compare to the R53? and was there a colour option that would match what I have now?

The $150 to fix the rip is beginning to look more appealing.....

 

in the modifications page under 1st gens there is a write up, preety detailed as well. Gen 2 recaros are nice.


I think my r53 s seats are more comfortable than my GF's gen 2 justa seats