MGB & GT Forum

I have a set of later seat frames sitting in my garage. I purchased these based on "earlier thinking" about getting headrests into my '66 BGT.
After that "earlier thinking", I changed to looking for Miata seats which never came to fruition. Now my "current thinking" is to have an upholsterer build well bolstered MK1 looking headrest having seats on the later frames from my "earlier thinking". Who has done this? I'm sure that those people can offer advice. What are the differences between frames? How many frame designs are there?

Thanks,

Mark

I basically went through this entire process. I restored a 66 roadster and had access to a set of 1970-ish MGB seat frames with headrests. Moss makes a actual leather "classic" seat upholstery kit for these frames that uses the stitching pattern of the original Mark I seats. I thought the finished items looked great, and they provide far more support.

The seats are visible in the phots in my journal: https://www.mgexp.com/journal/Max-Heims-MGB-Journal.4100/Cockpit-Is-Done.16927/

One issue: if you are used to the seating position in an original beat-down Mark I lowback seat, you may be bothered by how high you wind up sitting with new foams in the later seats. You also sit further forward due to the increased thickness of the back rest. In a GT this may not be an issue, but in the roadster I wound up trying to view the road through the windshield header bar, and I finally had to surgically remove about 2 inches of foam from the bottom rear of the cushion to lower my butt sufficiently. Persons weighing significantly more than my scrawny 148 lbs. might compress the foam more and not have this problem.

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Max Heim
'66 MGB "Uroboros"

Cool. My current seats were rebuilt a couple of years back so I know about the higher up issue.
Can you post a photo of your seats from the front so that I can see the pleats and piping?
I don't see anything called a "classic" seat on Moss, can you point me to that? My extra frames didn't come with headrests, I'll need to source those, and I still don't know which seats they are other then they have a rectangular sleeve to receive the headrest. I assume that that leaves out the seat models with two posts for the headrest.

Thanks for the help.

Mark

You are right — I don't see that seat kit in a recent Moss catalog (MGB-106). However, on page A9 there is a photo of a Roadster Light Tan Deluxe Interior that shows the exact seat pattern. Unfortunately, it is for a full roadster interior in tan only. The 70-72 headrest is what I used — Moss has them at $135 (a pair, hopefully — I got mine on the By, Sell & Trade forum for much less).

Maybe you could call Moss USA and see if they have a leftover unit of the Deluxe Leather Seat Kit 1970-80 which is what I bought... must have been around 2015-17.

Anyway, here are photos of what I started with (seems to be a 70-72 seat), the stripped frame, and a better picture of the seats in the car. I actually had the finished seats sitting around my shop for a year before they went into the car, but I never took any photos, apparently.

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Max Heim
'66 MGB "Uroboros"

Those do look nice.
You solved my frame mystery, my frames look just like your naked frame. So, '70-'72. Do you know if the frame design changed again?

Mark

My understanding is that the frames are to all purposes identical from 70 through 80. One hint — the feature that holds the headrests in place is often missing in the bare frame. I found this out after my seats were completely assembled 8-( ... So you might want to check into that. It's basically a plastic tube around a thin rod that runs through that slot and provides friction against the headrest post. There's a thread about how to make your own on the forum. I haven't bothered yet because I fitted some shoulderbelt locators that basically prop up the headrest to the exact height I would want, anyway.

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Max Heim
'66 MGB "Uroboros"

MINE HAS IT! I wondered that rod with the plastic bit was on about.��‍♂️

Mark