RX8 Rear Seat REPLACEMENT?
 

Hey gang,

So I got a curveball for everyone. Now before I even post, I really don't wanna hear "OMG WHY YOU NO WANT REAR SEATS? LAWLZ" or crap. Or the whole "they made it 4 seater for a reason".. that's great. Don't care. The only thing I never liked about the RX8 in the first place...rear seats. That's all I don't care for. So... I'm searching for a way to cover up the metal when taking out the rear seats. Anyone know of anyone that sells cover up kits or suggestions from anyone that has done it before?

I dig the look that the old FC RX7's have where you look in the back..it looks like someone could sit there kind of..but it's just carpet. Anyways, Altspace suggested us being some strip of "automotive carpet" in black, some adheisive automotive spray by 3M, and just cutting them out and spraying them on.

Reason I'm asking you guys cause I've seen some insane interiors here so I wanted suggestions from everyone before choosing one way and going with it. Let me know gang. Thanks.

Finding the exact color match may be tough, but we have this website to work from so far.

http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....ctGroup_ID=826

Forgot to mention, if anyone wants to come and help out, I'm sure Altspace wouldn't mind an extra person or two comin down and helping us. Get the grill going or something. :P

But yeah, that carpet looks good I think.

I don't think you'd want to just put the carpet on bare. Even if you get it stretched good, it will eventually sag over any open spots under it. You might need to make some kind of stiff backing, attach the carpet to it, then have that fit in where the seats went.

Hmm.. Any ideas for the stiff backing? And what's bad about sagging over open spots? Just not sure what you mean is all man. Thanks for the tip. :x

Fiber glass with CF interlaid for frame support... Might as well strengthen the frame if your covering the seats anyways.

then possibly 2 L7 solobaric 12 " subs. Relocate the battery to the back seat like the 7 owners as well as a 5 farrat capacitor.

as for covering .... perhaps a combonation of carpet and what ever fabric / material is in your car

You could use fiberglass, plywood, you name it. Just something rigid cut to the correct shape. Plus you need something removable when something in the fuel tank needs repair.

As far as sagging, if you stretch carpet over an open area, it will eventually sag over that area. This would look really bad, not even amateur bad, but "I don't care what my car looks like" bad.

honestly I wouldn't use carpet on that area. Look around the rest of the car if the material isn't used at that height anywhere else it'll look off. If you want cloth use something like your seats.

Since I am doing this myself next year the 8 is retired to a weekend toy....


I am going to make fiberglass shapes and then stretch carpet over them. The shape will flow with the center console and the door skins and the rear speaker deck.

Damn...isn't that going to be expensive..? lol I just wanted this to be one of those $30 projects or something....But thanks for advise guys. Got some decent ideas. I might even just take them out and leave it open or something, and put a harness back there, don't know. we'll see I suppose. Altspace, get any ideas with all these suggestions? :P

Not too expensive. I'll need foam for molds, time to shape each foam block, then a fiberglass kit, time, and sandpaper. Then some cloth that matches the interior.

I am anticipating a cost of around $300 bucks max.

Yeah No thanks. lol Honestly, I'd rather just put carpet and cover up the metal decently. Again, I'm not trying to make it look pretty, just cover the metal, but even then..whats the point? Yeah my car is a daily driver, but i'll be getting into tons of autocross and eventually track days soon and definitely a lot more next season.