Ow....That's Gonna Smart
One thing I noticed about the Blackbird Fabworx roll bar was that it comes really close to my head, with the NB1 seat in a comfortable driving position.
I have the bar padded with SFI approved padding, but the thought of hitting the bar with my oversized noggin, just wasn't that appealing to me. I also want to drive my car on the street, so i wasn't really interested in installing a aftermarket seat at this time. So, I hit up car-part.com and started searching for a set of NB2 seats.
A search in the Kansas/Missouri/Arkansas area didn't show a lot of promise, unlike my search for the same parts in Texas. Plenty of hits, and it had been awhile since I got to see my folks, so...road trip time.
Mazda Heaven....Indeed
Stopped by Nissan-Mazda Heaven in Ft. Worth, TX to pick up a set of seats. Found a set of blue cloth NB2 seats in "decent" shape. Definitely pricier than what I was used to paying for seats from a junkyard, but I needed them and they had them, so..yay capitalism.
Got them home after spending the weekend with my folks and tore them down to properly clean the seat covers, and the foam.
Bought a plastic storage tub and filled it with water and some liquid upholstery cleaner from a spot carpet cleaner. Washed the covers by hand (gently) and then hung them to dry.
I'm glad I washed them, because the water was pretty filthy after I was done.
Wiped the seat foam down with some Clorox Spray Cleaner with bleach, and painted the seat pans with POR15. Rattle canned the pans with some semi gloss black to cover the POR15.
Did a slight "foamectomy" to both seat bottoms, before reassembling everything.
Reinstalled everything. From the first picture, you can see the difference in height between the NB1 and NB2 seats.
I went ahead and drove the car to work last week and after spending some time in the new seats, I had to make a few adjustments.
Removed a section of padding directly behind the Driver's Side seat. It interfered with reclining the seat enough for it to be comfortable.
Reinstalled the foam section I cut out for the "foamectomy" on the Driver's Side. The angle that I was sitting at with the foam cut out, just wasn't that comfortable on long drives. I might take it back out and cut some more foam out to try and get it perfect, but I think I'll see how I like it for right now.
Need to order some aftermarket upholstery to change out the blue cloth for tan leather.I thought I wouldn't mind it that much. I was wrong.
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