REFLECTOR: Seats

[Laura Walker]

Geoff,

I thought they each would need 2 also, but the Miata only has the one and just a plain hinge on the inside. If you sit in the airplane seat and lean back purposefully, you can see and feel the back pan deflect slightly, but it never feels like anything is misaligned. No one has ever complained or noticed the inside moving more than the outside. 

Even the stock hinges bind slightly because they are canted out toward the front. You'll have to find your happy medium when tightening the inner stock hinge. In order to square up the Miata hinge, I added a washer or 2 between the hinge legs and the outside of the seat pans on the innermost bolts for both the upper and lower hinge legs.

One thing I would suggest: If you are going to upholster your seats so the seat foams are non-removable or not easily removed, make the hard points much thicker, like 3/8" thick or more. It is really hard to tap these larger holes effectively into 3/16" or 1/4" stock. Be really, really precise here because these hinges are meant to be very tight against the seat pans. Just a little play in this area translates into an inch of rocking back and forth at the top of the seat. My seat foams are removable so I just backed up my hard points with Jet nuts on the insides of the seat pans. If I had to do it again, I would under-drill the holes, ream them to the exact size and not even tap threads into them. Mine are tight only because of the inner nuts.

Bill



Sent from my iPad