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Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch

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Charles_Barrett - Now with Variable-Valve Timing
05/04/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
So, after being fortunate enough to find seats in a t-boned Miata that weren't soaked in the previous owner's blood, you end up soaking them in YOUR blood during the extraction process...? Well, at least you can't give yourself blood-born viruses...
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TexanIdiot25- needs moar horse powah
05/03/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
My seats came out of this:

But, after getting the doors to open, one of the mexican helpers came out to unbolt the rest.
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AustinMiniMan
05/03/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
My seat recovery story? My '84 Landcruiser had crappy front seats and no back seat when I got it. I went to the junkyard, and found some REALLY nice blue cloth seats in a '91 Suburban. I'm a sucker for blue interiors. Well, the back seat was great, as was the passenger seat. But the driver seat... wasn't there. Well, being the ever-optimist, I thought "How hard could it be to find another seat?" So I got the two seats, paid my $50, and left. So I now had a passenger seat as a driver seat, a bucket as the passenger seat(An actual bucket, which I guess is still a bucket seat), but a great back seat(folds into a bed!)

So now I had to find another seat. Well, eBay wanted about $250. Other yards wanted closer to $150, but they were all haggered. Finally, damn you craigslist, I saw it... a 1991 Suburban. 2500. Only 50K on the engine and tranny. And blue cloth seats. For $500. So, now my Toyota has two passenger seats in the front, and I have a random ass suburban in my front yard that I've never driven, simply so I could have two matching seats in good condition. That was the easiest possible means to that end, right?
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MushyHeirloom
05/03/09

@AustinMiniMan: Yes. Yes it was.

Sell the Suburban for $500 with its passenger seat bolted to the driver's seat rails, see if anyone bites.
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Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet
05/03/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
I always go to the junkyard with more firepower in the trunk than I think I'll ever need. So a three pound hand sledge and my longest wrecking bar are an absolute minimum. Cordless tools can be a real timesaver, too.

But my new favorite tool(s) are the ratcheting, swivel-headed box end wrench sets I recently picked up. Assuming you can get the clearance to slip the wrench over the bolt, you're set. Especially helpful when you're working in blind conditions, with your hand and arm contorted unnaturally, and you aren't sure if that recent movement was the bolt loosening, or a bone snapping.
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MushyHeirloom
05/03/09

@Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet: Fun tip: short ratchet/pry-bar/etc. plus length of appropriately-sized iron pipe equals long ratchet/pry-bar/etc.!
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Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet
05/03/09

@ForgedyPistonshroom: You mean like the four foot piece of cyclone fence pipe I used to keep in my truck? Slipped over my 1/2" x 18" breaker bar pretty nicely. You could shear off bolt heads, or split standard sockets, all day with that rig.
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Mr.choppers - Delenda Carthago Est
05/03/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
I like Murilee's Civic hatchback. Did he ever tell us what his everyday driver was before?
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A strolling player
05/03/09

@dr.chophoppers coz mr. wont cut it: Yeah. I can't link it from my phone, but search "Civic vs. R8" and you should find a choice piece of Murilee's writing.
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Murilee Martin
05/03/09

@dr.chophoppers coz mr. wont cut it: That '92 Civic DX has been my daily driver for a couple years now, with a '97 P71 Crown Victoria as the gas-sucking alternate ride. Before that, I spent a few years in a mid-80s Tercel wagon phase.
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the good dr zero
05/04/09

@dr.chophoppers coz mr. wont cut it: Those are some funky headrests. My (long since departed) '94 Civic didn't have anything like that.
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Plecostomus [Tyrrell]
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Murilee, your piece of shit vintage british sportscar is coming along quite nicely!
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Plecostomus [Tyrrell]
05/02/09

@Plecostomus will never win COTD... but has a: FUCK YOU, HTML GODS. I HAD STRIKETHRUS IN THAT COMMENT.

damnit.
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Murilee Martin
05/03/09

@Plecostomus will never win COTD... but has a: Has anyone found a way to do strikethrough in comments? What messes me up is that I must use tags when putting italics in posts and tags when putting italics in comments. Hooray for the Hamsters!
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Murilee Martin
05/03/09

@Murilee Martin: Oh, cool, I can't even do pseudo-tags with extra spaces in a comment! I meant "I must use (less-than sign)em(greater-than sign) tags when putting italics in posts, and (less-than sign)i(greater-than sign) tags when putting italics in comments."
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A strolling player
05/03/09

@Murilee Martin: If you ever find out how to use <strike>strikethrough</strike> in comments, please let me know. So much of my humour is entirely dependent on formatting.
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MushyHeirloom
05/03/09

@Murilee Martin: Oh, you mean <em> and <i>, respectively?
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dohcspit
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
I highly recommend the cordless sawzall as an addition to your junkyard toolkit.
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Murilee Martin
05/02/09

@dohcspit: I just bought a cordless impact wrench, and I think the Vandal's Best Friend™ cordless reciprocating saw will be next.
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All_Thumbs
05/03/09

@Murilee Martin: Well, this comment will probably never be seen, but may I suggest adding some ratcheting wrenches to your kit as well?
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Murilee Martin
05/03/09

@All_Thumbs: Sadly, I own a set... but I have a backpacker-style minimalist approach to my junkyard toolbox, so I usually don't carry them. I think I'll start bringing the 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm ones (plus 7/16", 1/2", and 9/16") in the future.
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P161911 probably shoudn't have
05/03/09

@Murilee Martin: If you are going for the cordless saw make sure you get plenty o batteries. I go one as part of a 18V Craftsman set. IF you can get it to cut anything, it might go about 45 seconds before the battery is gone. I was all psyched when I first got it for a trip to the pull-a-part, but none of the ones around Atlanta allow power tools, or at least power saws. I usually try to take the RVers appoarch insted of the back-packers approach to junkyard tool sets. I need the wheel barrow just to get carry the tool bag around.
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MushyHeirloom
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Hmm... maybe it's time to find some nice blue seats that'll fit on the Volvo's stock rails. If such things exist.
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MushyHeirloom
05/02/09

@ForgedyPistonshroom: No offense to the headrests, but the seats themselves are shit.
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SulakshanaGrimlet
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Don't ever forget using a jack from another car and some well placed "shims" to help widen a gap. I heard it even works on door frames of a house. That how we roll yo in Philly.
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Murilee Martin
05/02/09

@SulakshanaGrimlet: Unfortunately, this particular junkyard chain harvests all the jacks and sells them out of a shipping container up front.
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Armand
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Murilee, if you have any trouble mounting the seats, I think Classic Motorsports Magazine put Miata buckets in their project Midget. Or maybe you'll just zip-tie them through the rust holes in the floor while you try to figure out the wiring situation.
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Murilee Martin
05/02/09

@Armand: There's no rust in the floor, for the simple reason that the transmission crossmember installation necessitated the removal/replacement of the floor panels. The Miata seat tracks have nice parallel-to-floor mounting brackets, so it shouldn't be a challenge to install them (famous last words).
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Armand
05/03/09

@Murilee Martin: Nice. I think you bought the only project-grade Spridget in the world with solid floors. Putting a patch panel in the floor of my Alpine (for which new sheet metal is no longer available) has given me a pathological aversion to corrosion of any kind.
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mzs
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
I once had a yellow jacket nest that I did not know about fall from under and behind the dash onto my arm when I was down in there head down in the foot well getting at a heater core. That was terrible, they even got under my sleeve and were stinging me under my shirt as I was running through the toxic mud slapping at my arm, chest, and face.

Yes I went back for that heater core later that day. You need to have a mentality that this is what you simply need and must press on in these sorts of situations regardless of the wounds.
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MushyHeirloom
05/02/09

@mzs: This is where you peel off your shirt and swing it against a car. Damn the torpedos!
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Murilee Martin
05/02/09

@mzs: When I lived in Georgia I heard so many horror stories about poisonous snakes in junkyards that I had nightmares about car trunks.
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Bad Juju
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Good call on the Miata seats. They're narrow & if you decide to make the Spriyota 'nice' you can get leather re-skins of those seats from Catzkins. That's the plan for my base NA.
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Murilee Martin
05/02/09

@Bad Juju: In fact, they're the only junkyard seats I could find that were narrow enough to fit the Sprite, thanks to the huge driveshaft tunnel and on-the-floor seating positions in both cars.
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Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face.
05/02/09

@Murilee Martin: Early Fiero seats are also quite narrow, fairly supportive and feature headrest speakers. Just in case these don't work out.
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Murilee Martin
05/02/09

@Mike the Dog will work for a Preview Button!: MR2 seats might work as well, but I couldn't find any nice ones.

However, even a half-inch in extra width matters in this application. My Sprite has a funkified transmission tunnel, thanks to the somewhat larger dimensions of the Toyota gearbox, and the Miata seat fits the passenger side with absolutely zero clearance. The clutch slave cylinder also goes where the passenger's left foot would normally rest, so I'll need to choose skinny, short-legged passengers.
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Elhigh
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
My secret junkyard weapon: my 17-y-o son. The kid's got fingers like tentacles with bones. I've dropped nuts into crevices whose bottoms can't even be seen, he can reach in, fetch out the nut, then ask if I want the quarter he's found down there too.
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Novaload
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Glad to know I'm not the only dangerously stubborn, tunnel visioned freak who believes that expletives are a standard part of the toolbox. My kindly, elderly, church-going neighbors have pretended not to hear entire clouds of profanity.

Way to tough it out, Murilee--Let no inanimate object defeat you.
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MushyHeirloom
05/02/09

@Novaload Misses Murilee: Goddammit, they definitely fuckin' are!

Piece of shit.
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Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face.
05/02/09

@Novaload Misses Murilee: My father taught me that there is no situation that the expletive "pig fucker" cannot overcome. As long as it is saved until all of the other expletives are used up.
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chollo9
05/03/09

@Mike the Dog will work for a Preview Button!: In which southern state do you reside?
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Mike the Dog is sitting by the door with a pair of cow slippers, and a very sad face.
05/03/09

@chollo9: Maine, at the time.
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Ben Wojdyla
05/02/09

In reply to Super-Clean Miata Seats At The Junkyard... But There's A Catch
Didorosi and I hit a Pick-n-Pull a few weeks ago on the hunt for replacement parts on the Lemons Celica and stumbled on a mechanically untouched NA Miata with all the baubles and bits. Dented panels and the sideglass was out, but perfect otherwise.

$1,000 would have taken the whole car home, and I'm still kicking myself over not having anywhere to keep it. Would have made a great se7en.
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