Has anybody changed the seats in their copen? I've found a set of bride seat rails but I'm not sure if it'd look good with different seats. Ideally I'd be going for either red or black seats to keep the interior colours the same and is it possible to mount harnesses as my seat belts barely retract anymore. Cheers
I'd be interested to know too Liam. Previously I have taken out my seats (easy to do, 4 bolts) and had a look, they are very low profile. Indeed if I recall correctly the seat base goes lower than the side rails, and any seat I looked at (at aftermarket stores) were not suitable. Might be difficult to find a compatible seat with low enough profile. Interested to hear input from someone who has replaced the seats successfully.
No one changed their seats then ? I've had a search and only a couple of threads before this one. My red leather seats are in reasonable condition with just the normal bit of wear on the drivers side and only travelled 25,000 kilometres. However, they are spotted with a lot of black marks which I can't identify and can't clean off. I've tried a leather stain remover and Vanish stain remover and took it to a car clean/valet shop but nothing has shifted these unsightly marks. Over here I can buy a pair of 'copy' seats, Recaro, Bride etc for around 6,000 Baht or 130 GBP, anyone know if they will fit in the Copen ? เบาะ Racing
The leather is painted red. You can just get the correct colour leather paint and fix the problem areas. Some people have even used boot polish.
I followed Randy here in Sydney when he installed Bride seats in his Copen. Randy made his own seat base adaptors. I purchased mine from Japan. The Bride seats fit, but the shoulder bolsters just clear the door/window. Photos are of Randy's install.
We both use shoe polish on our Copens - it works fine to stop any further wear. Red shoe polish is easy available on ebay and is a must if you are not having them professionally connolised or painted.
Doesn't shoe polish come off on your clothes ? Over here I nearly always drive it with the roof off but very often arrive at my destination with a shirt that's wet through and sticking to my back, I can imagine the sweat bringing the polish off! Painting them is certainly a cheaper option as my door panels are also stained so I need to fix them also. Off to search internet for leather paint now, thanks.
The other thing about paint vs polish seems to be the nature of the leather prep. I came upon an article while I was restoring my other half's seats which basically came up with three finishes one of which was "protected" which, in essence, is varnished and so if you polish it you get a residue which tends to polish up to a high gloss rather than the satin finish normally associated with car seats. Apparently all car seats are "protected" and thus don't need nourishment as we believe. A re-colour and re-varnish (water based) does the trick. I stress that I am no expert just a google warrior but it's worked for me
Bloody hell, I had Bride Low Max like that in my Evo, they look great and are fantastic in the corners - but I wouldn't dare put them in a Copen; I think the only thing that keeps my teeth in is the padding on the stock seats!
You might need better shocks & springs (?)... I've got a very smooth ride, even on unsealed gravel roads.
Haha, you're not joking; mine's got some aftermarket jobs which I'm sure were great on smooth Japanese roads but they're um, shocking, on the shite roads over here I have some C spanners so I can unwind them - a plan I've been thinking about for just over two years...
