MX5 seat defoaming extreme

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MX5 seat defoaming extreme

Postby jass » Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:34 pm

There are many write ups for defoaming the seats. This is the one going to the defoaming limits, but preserving the shape of the seat.
There are 3 parts in this write up - seat, backrest and headrest.

Lets start with the tools needed: 10cm zip ties, wrenches 10, 12, 14, 17, flat and phillips screwdrives, pliers.
To take the seat from the car shift it to the back, unscrew the 2 bolts in the front, shift it to the front, unscrew the bolts at the back and the one that secures the belt rail.

It is a easy and enjoyable job, so best play some nice music in background:).




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There is a nut and screw to remove this.

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Pull the backrest adjustment lever to the front. Flat screwdriver helps here.

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Unscrew the screw in the middle of the arm and slide the trim to the front on top of the nacked lever.
You will see 2 shiny grade 10 bolts, that need to be unscrewed next.

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Now you can detach the backrest from the seat by pushing it gently to the side.(Keep in mind I am working on the right seat, working on the left one could me mirrored)

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Detaching the rails is straight forward unscrewing.

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The fun start here. Start removing the metal clips. Best to try with pliers and flat screwdriver.

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There are two more to challenge you on the side.

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Best experience I made with curved bread knife. Even better than the electric one.

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Cut the hill in the middle. There are wires underneath, so be carefull to not to cut too deep to them.

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Next cut the front, go lower than the front lip. There is so much to remove there. Take the maximum on the sides, as they will be lifted up too much afterwards and can hurt on long trips.

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You can use the chance and clean any rust from the metal seat frame, than paint it.
At this point I am going a step further and hammering the metal frame down in the front part (which is too lifted). It is my personal choice to do that, as this is crash related area. The body normaly slides down by front impact and is held by this zone (which is normaly smashed after the crash).
So it is your choice to do it or not..

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This is how much space we have now between the metal sheet and the foam.

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Assemble the seat and put back the cover. Use the zip ties to zip it together. Check some more times, to ensure the cover looks as equal and good as before defoaming. There should not be any part of the cover hanging.

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If you have made this test initially you would register almost zero movement of the top surface. This is some gold cup achievement so far!:)

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Left over from the seat defoaming.

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Lets proove it.

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Part two

Defoaming the back rest

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Unscrewing those 2 grage 10 bolts and removing the bracket.

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Then we remove the clips at the bottom...

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Gently continuing striping off the front part and uncovering approx 10mm of foam underneath.Doing this to the top and then cutting all this foam to the metal.

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Putting it back together with zip ties...


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Again - this is the left over. Gives a centimeter to the back.

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The we put the bracket back and get the seat together.

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Part 3 - defoaming the head rest
This allows you to fullly tilt the backrest to the cabin brace or wind deflector.


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Tahe out the leather from the clip with some flat screwdriver.

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Cut as much as needed ONLY from the back. Front is crash relevant.

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Well, everything is ready, looks shiny and new.

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Here I did some measurments. Distance from the defoamed seat to the top of the headrest - 85cm.
Distance from the ground surface to the top of the headrest with this tilt - 85cm.

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jass
 
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Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:34 am

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