Seats

[Gee]

Does anyone have any experience with the reupholstery kits for 240z seats, i.e the one from Victoria British or Too Intense Resto?
Is there anywhere else I can buy them from?? How close are they to original????

[Marty Rogan]

I bought some ffrom MSA a couple of years ago and am not real happy with them. The pattern is close to the original but not exact. They are missing the "grain" that was in the center portion of the seat on the originals.

I visited Classic Datsun Motorsports when I was in CA last year. They restored many of the Nissan 240Z Program Cars. Theirs are the closet to original that I am aware of. Here's their website: http://www.classicdatsun.com/

Marty

[Victor Laury]

I got a set from CDM, just before the MSA show. But, Les offered me a "Special" set with "240Z" embroidered on the head rest. how could I refuse? Fitted them on in my living room. they look great.

[ZCCOR#109]

Be sure and rebuild the webbing under the seat when doing any other work. Get the kit offered my MSA or VB. The rubber stuff is called Pirelli webbing. I guess for the tire maker.
Anyway, carefully take off the original rivets and use them over again instead of using hog rings. Fresh webbing will go a long way in restoring the comfort of the seats. Also, put some extra padding into the back to give some lumbar support. There is none originally.

[Bambikiller240]

Originally posted by Lowell Marx
...........Anyway, carefully take off the original rivets and use them over again instead of using hog rings. ......

Lowell:

I'm planning on re-doing my seats later this year. How do you un-do the original rivits so that they can be re-used? Do you need a special tool to re-use them.

[ZCCOR#109]

THe rivets are hollow and the tube that sticks through the material is "split" and spread out with about 6 to 8 thin pieces of metal reaching out from the hollow center of the rivet. I used an box cutter knife with a sharp blade to lift these "fingers" up somewhat. Then I carefully brought them together in the middle with screw driver and needle nose pliers. To replace make adequate holes in the new material and spread out the fingers again after pushing the rivet through.

You will have an as original job, with an original feel to the seat bottom.

One other thing I did was get some heavy clear vinyl and make larger vinyl shields for the seat back release arm area. The original shields are too small to protect the seat bottom tearing when a fat A#s pushes the vinyl into the release lever. You have to take the back off from the bottom seat. This requires a special tool. It is a type of screw driver that can be made to turn left or right and is struck by a hammer. The blow causes a cam inside to turn the screw driver bit while the bit is forced into the screw head. This loosens the very large and very tight screws that hold the mechanism together. A cool tool that is also used to retighten those screws.

All this is covered in the How to Restore your Datsun book. A MUST have for fixing your Z.

[Victor Laury]

I got a set from CDM, just before the MSA show. But, Les offered me a "Special" set with "240Z" embroidered on the head rest. how could I refuse? Fitted them on in my living room. they look great.

Here's a photo.

My Seats

[Marty Rogan]

Victor,

You read my mind! I was going to ask you to post a picture. I think they look fantastic. But if you were entered in the stock class at a show, you would probably lose points. For the custom class they would be great!

Marty

[Victor Laury]

I go to shows to support the effort, meet Datsun folks (the best kind), oogle cars, sunshine on shining chrome and string bikinis (hopefully). That's what's important to me. If I win anything, well that's extra gravy.

[ZwolleY]

I recovered my seats with a MSA kit and it did have the grain pattern in the middle areas. It fits very nice. I also added some foam for lumbar support and some hd foam in the butt area. Do reweb at the same time-saves lots of hassle later.

[JEFF]

I bought them from VB . They are very nice and very close to original. They were also easy to install.

- Jeff