Restoring my P1800E

[redcar]

Gordon,

those look fantastic... i'll drop the e30's in favour of those i think..

you didn't by any chance take pics of the runners, did you, or have any schematics, etc?

i'll take any hellp i can get to get someone to fab them up for me

[Gordon Hunter]

Hi,

I picked them up from eBay for £120. The only problem about mounting them on the original runners is that as the MGF is a true 2 seater, they don't have reclining mechanisms. I can still get my two boys in the back of the P1800 without faffing about too much and just pulling the seat forward on the rails. If I do need to get anything large in the back then I just crank them forward on the adjuster wheel too.
Having said this, now that I'm I'm sure that I don't want to go back to original seats, I do like the idea of making something like Johns pivoting mounting point as it would make for slightly easier access.

There are numerous trim options for the MGF. These are MK2 ones, but had MGF embossed on the head restraints. I got the guy who sold me them to swap them for an earlier model without the MG logo.

I'll try and find some pics of the mounting frames I made. I just used 25mm box section and 5mm plate to make brackets drilled to accept the mounting bolts. I had to cut out quite a lot of the MGF frame to get them low enough.

Gordon

[Burdekin]

Hi Gordon,

The seats look great and a nice match for the rear like you said. I’m modernising the look of my P1800 and am also getting rid of the original rear seat (not sure what exactly I’m going to do yet) so not the look I’m after but I’d say there’ll be a few guys interested in knowing what you’ve done.

Gareth, John’s method above of making a frame to bolt to the original seat mounts and then bolts to the new seat may also be an option for you. One thing for me though is that I wanted to strengthen what the seat bolts to, in the P1800 it’s just the floor so have tried to incorporate extra strength in my design over what originally was used, but whether this is actually required I don’t know but I thought it would be a good idea.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Burdekin]

Almost finished the mounting brackets for the MX5 seat, if only I was getting paid by the hour. They have taken much longer than they should but I'm happy with how they look and the seat position seems spot on. Finished making up the front mounts and welded them in position. As usual a bit of a pain lying under the car and welding upside down but the welds are fine and with a bit of dressing will come up nicely. I'll finish welding the rear mount, tack in position and grind all the welds this week. Added a couple of pics comparing what it looks like compared to the original. Will get the MX5 seats upholstered in leather so will look nice when all finished.

Gareth, if reading this you wouldn't need to weld the front mounts in like I did with the Amazon as you'll have more seat height to play with. So if you decide to do it the way I did then your's would be easier to retro fit seats.

[redcar]

looking good mitch... the old seat just looks a ratty old couch, compared to the mx-5 one doesn't it? what way are you going to cover them?

whats' the final product going to look like?

[Burdekin]

Hi Gareth,

Going to do them in leather, should look something like the attached pic when done.

Mitch

[Nig]

the p1800 has got to be one of my top ten favourite cars
looking forward to seeing it in all its glory

[Burdekin]

Yeah they are a fantastic looking car.

I haven't done much for the last few weeks on the car, I did a course for work, helping my wife with her holiday cottage business and also had a bit of a crappy few weeks with my health; caught a cold, then got better, then caught it again and then sprained my ankle quite badly on the weekend. So I've had plenty of time to spend planning things. Will try and get a bit done on the car this week but my wife wants me to cut the trees down in the garden to make a patio area so that won't be a five minute job.

On the upside I'm looking at a new garage/workshop which is a much bigger space which I'll be able to set up better. It's in a town near our holiday cottage that we use to go to nearly every weekend until I started doing the car and as I'm not going to have this car finished for a while I thought it best to relocate the car to near the cottage so we can go up there again on the weekends as I love it up there and enjoy getting out of Aberdeen. Added a couple of pics of the back garden at the cottage and the former chief mechanic relaxing in front of the fire, so when people ask why I live in Scotland and not back in oz ,they're good enough reasons for me...

[Burdekin]

The mrs didn't organise anything in the garden for the weekend so I've finally got a weekend on the car and can't wait to get stuck in. The car has been so neglected lately...

[Burdekin]

Finally back working on the car after a summer of doing other stuff. Keen as mustard (any antipodeans will know what I mean) now to get back stuck in again. Will take some pics and update the post after the weekend.

Hope everyone is fine and have enjoyed driving around in your old beasts this summer.