Jensen-Healey Restoration – Seat Rails baby!
Tearing out the floor pans gave me the chance to see how we could improve on the seat mounting. The stock Jensen Healey seats had a front seat rail that had completely rusted through (see below). Since I was replacing the floor, it made sense to look at a different seat mounting option that could accommodate some more current seat designs. Found some cheap seats on eBay from a 95 Mazda Miata for test fitting and found they would work quite nicely with some mount point modifications.
But this uncovered another spacing issue. How to keep the right angle for driving position and mount the seat slightly higher than the floor. Found some MGB seat rail adapters from Eclectic Motorworks for Miata seats! These are VERY sturdy brackets that you can either bolt down or weld – but they are all bored out specifically for the Mazda Miata seat mounting pattern. Perfect!
Props to Eclectic for the brackets – they are a nice fit for the Jensen Healey and provide just enough lift off the floor. Definitely a non-standard use, but it works and they are built very well.
Jensen Healey floor and subframe update!
One of several rust prone areas in the Jensen Healey is the floor area – the whole area. After I got the floors out, I wasn’t to keen on the subframe. The pieces were in okay shape – but I could see that the metal had been “stressed” by someone attempting to jack up the car (no doubt a very common occurrence in this car’s history).
Decided to redo the subframe components with thicker gauge steel and call it a day. Since the pieces were simple hat bends – it was worth having a stronger subframe to weld the floor pans to.
The rear of the car also has a subframe area that articulates, so the floor pans will be modified to fit – but should look pretty close to stock and then be ready to accept the new seat rails. I also went with some new metal on the mount bracket to keep everything sturdy. A weak chassis mounting point can ruin your day!
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