our seats are rusting!!
 

Hi All-
SA RX7 owner with new RX8 seats, so I thought you Lads might be interested in this discovery, seeing as how you have the market, er, cornered, on these cool chairs.

I had to dissassemble the seats to strip frame elements and mount adapters and made the rather horrifying discovery as titled.

BOTH my brand new (stripped from showroom -8 being prepped for racing) seats had RUST all over the bottom seat pans!! I was stunned. These seats sat in my house (not a wet basement, etc, but a spare bedroom) for 8 months prior to beginning mods. They were absolutely clean on disassembly. Pics included BUT I had already polished off the rust, so only some minor signs remain (see close up pic) - IT WAS BAD!!!!! These seats were on their way to failure!
:(
These seat bottom pans are just pressed TIN sheets with obviously NO protection at all!! Yike! ...and WHAT did you guys pay for your cars??

NOTE: these are the MANUAL seats - but I have NO reason not to expect the bottom pan to be the same design in the electrics (but frankly don't know)

Again- NO exposure to moisture. Live in interior Alaska (geographically a semi-arid climate).

It is ONLY the seat pans that suffer this - the rest of the seat metal is fine, but for you folks living in moist environments, this will be a real issue already in the making!.

My solution:
Seat bottoms actually come out very easily. - only 4 12mm bolts.
-seat must be removed to access the bolts, which is done after just flipping seat over.
-the SIDE COVERS do NOT have to be removed
-the seat BACK does NOT have to be removed
-I then released the outer cloth cover from its attachments to the metal pan where I could, and used a plastic garbage bag to wrap around the cloth/pad, masking where it still is attached to the metal pan. NOTE the bag extends BETWEEN the pad and the INside of the seat pan, so paint (next step) does not get on foam pad. SOME PAINTS DISSOLVE FOAM!!
-I used a standard metal polish to remove the rust (only surface rust - I caught it early) then
-Isopropyl alcohol to remove polish and any dirt
-rattle can clear coat BOTH sides of metal seat pan - I used clear Krylon spec'd for metal. Pic shows white plastic bag, w my hand holding pan away from covered pad to spray paint

Anyway - hope this saves a few of you some grief. I'd do some MAJOR bitching to Mazda USA Service about this - inexcusable. Now back to my 1980 RX7.... :)

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

No rust on mine, they are from 2004.

Must been a misstake in production on yours.

No rust on mine either, I just had my seats out couple weeks too.

none on mine either just switched a few weeks ago

Looks like a pretty minor problem.

-1.3L

lol wouldnt it be funny, if your 8 was one of the 8's that was involved with the ship that tipped over?

All of those cars were destroyed and none of the parts were made available to the used parts market.

Mod Edit: Removed Political Post

Apologies guys if I have everyone panicked and straining to see under their seats!

;)

I just figured, if mine, then who else??

If everyone is coming up clean then sorry for a red-herring. Can't figure why mine would be the only ones...

Cheers from the cheap seats-

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

silly question.

where did you get the seats? from this post they did not come in a rx8 that you own.. stripped from showroom in alaska for racing?

crazy idea, flood seats?

just guessing.

beers :beer:

no rust here!

Stu, that poses a worthwhile look. i do notice that i can see som paint flaking and oxidation occurring on the passenger seat rail on the rail closest to the trans tunnel. i am the second owner of the car and it looks to have been taken really well care of. its an 05 for reference. this leads me to believe that perhaps an inspection of the seats should be made to prevent possible issues in the future. good post my unobtanium parts collecting friend. i'll post a pic of that shabby seat rail.

ok, here is the pic of the rust that i'm talking about. car is not driven in the winter and hardly ever in the rain:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC08677.jpg

sand it off!!

i plan of removing the seat and the rails, sand blasting them and etching them and repainting before the rust is too deep.

thats a great idea. it looks likes its really minor, so it shouldn't be a prob

i like the 8 seats in your 80 RX7, they almost look too big in that little car, how far are they from the headliner? My best friend from HS had one of those 1st gens (class of 86) and I loved driving that thing, awesome car

No....YOUR seats are rusting.

i love the rx7! i think the most part of the rx7 that i love the most is the tail lights. i love how it stretches. they should have added that to the rx8

Am I the only one who thinks the 8 looks WAY better than the 7? :dunno:

no rust on mine

No worries Krazed - obviously a LOT of people love the RX8 - its a killer, stand-out sports sedan - and maybe I'll add one to my harem one day. To those who appreciate my unmolested Series 1 SA RX7, I say "thanks". Wanted one my whole life and I treasure it. Compared to todays wheels, it is laughably unrefined and at 100HP no match for most hot-dawg 4 dr Imprezas, let alone your -8s.
But also has a purity of lines that makes it a standout in the cookie-cutter crowd today and it is a blast to chuck about on the back roads. And I can take a wrench to any part of the car w/o worries - and I am NO mechanic!
Its an elegant, simple expression of what great sports cars should be - fun to drive, pleasure to look at (or be seen in).

-yah - RX8 seats fit beautifully once properly modded, which took some head scratching.
I'm 6'1" and no headroom issues, tho the pass. seat does sit a bit higher due to design of RX7 floor.

Dave - re your rusting rails - never a prob for me, but I had to repaint the frames once the mods were welded up. Looked 100% before the tear down tho.
PM me if you decide to start pulling the seats apart - learn from my mistakes :)

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

will do Stu. i still love the LS wheels on the sunrise red SA!!!

Sports Car. Anyway I really like the look of the SA/FB, especially with those seats.

Thanks for the pic of post-install. I'm sure they are better than the original seats.