sunbeamtiger.co.uk

I would like to update our seating to include headrests, whilst still keeping to the original look as much as possible. I have seen some Tigers with these seats and would like some ideas, please, as to where I can obtain some from. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks - Hugh

Hi Hugh,

The only seats I can think of are the Cobra brand seats. Their historic range matches in very well with the classic cars. Here is a link to their website: http://www.cobraseats.com/Historic

Hope this helps.

Regards, Robin.

Hugh,

Unless you are very short the cobra seats with headrests will not even make your neck, they are a small low back bucket.

If you want seats with effective headrests you have to go to a much taller seat which will raise up from the body line by quite a distance, this makes it hard to fit a Tonneau cover and changes the look.

People fit miata/MX5 seats and you could trim them to look more period, or use the current series of clubman (as in westerfield chateram etc.. )highback seats

The other option is to have a look around at some similar aged (or slightly later) cars to see if they offer what you want. In my opinion, the late model seats don't offer the classic look, but they are far more practical (support and adjustment). You don't want something that looks out of place.

Regards, Robin.

Yes, I'm trying to keep the original looks and can see that some of the newer seats could be too high.
It gives me something to think about!
Thanks
Hugh

Another thing one might think about is what is the headrest intended to do. If it's for safety, whiplash support, then the head rest must be an integral part of the seat or designed into the structure/frame of the seat.

Headrests that have two chrome extensions from the seat to the headrest are useless in an accident. IMHO

michael-king wrote:If you want seats with effective headrests you have to go to a much taller seat which will raise up from the body line by quite a distance, this makes it hard to fit a Tonneau cover and changes the look.

Agree Michael, it certainly would prove a challenge to fit a tonneau on the car, there was an excellent piece done by a member and pic below from the full article in CATS Whiskers 74. Must say, it was a very professional fit and purposeful



I have a neighbour with the original seats in his 1986 Autokraft Cobra and you can see the problems with functionality and presence;



Beautiful car though, I'm not jealous



Or you could run with our "BigBob" conversion

The reason this cropped up is that my wife had bad whiplash from an accident some years ago. Now on long journeys she is starting to feel that she needs some support for her neck. She knows that I am loathe to change the seating and has offered to use her neck support!!!! However, we're travelling from the South Coast to Scotland shortly and I might be pushing my luck!
cheers
Hugh

H, Sunny 65 wrote:Bob's seat backs on the red tiger MAE 475F in pic's, come from a scimitar and bolt on to the tiger seat frame, not quite how to reply to your seat question, but the only way i could find to show you the pic.

Hi Harry, well remembered - have pasted over your post over from the Brooklands thread - cheers, Tony

good support for the wifes neck ,a few things spring to mind ,rope ,knife

What i should mention is that microcell made headrests for the alpine/tiger seats for the series 3 onwards.. the works rally cars had them, but again.. the tiger seats have such a low back that for most the headrest will just provide something for your neck to bnd over as they dont reach your "head"

I will post a link to a picture once my webmaster unblocks webshots!

OK.. we're back.. pics: click on them for larger image

Thanks for all of the suggestions - I like the look of the Scimitar ones on MAE.
I think I might have to follow Gary's adivce - divorce would be easier as a knife would be too messy!!! It would save spoiling the looks of the car
Cheers Hugh

I use a seat from http://www.wwclassics.com/ when I'm racing. They were based in Surrey and were amenable to trying various seats out, but this new website is a bit devoid of contact info. Mine is similar to the Safari Rally G, but didn't have an adjustable headrest, looks like it does now.

You would need to make an adaptor to fit on the Tiger seat subframe as the mounting stud holes are wider.

Wouldn't a solution to the headrest / tonneau situation be to recline the seats when you fit it?

I'm probably missing something obvious as usual lol.