Fitting an RX8 passenger seat into a defender 110

Ok,passenger side fitted in and it looks brilliant and feels more solid than the original. Here's how I did it for any newbs like me. It took me ages but because I took my time and thought about each step over a fag, a coffee and a pot shot with my new air rifle at the pigeon family that keeps crapping on my Truck!
Passenger Seat fitting;1. All of the existing brackets and fittings must go.Either grind or drill the rivers out. If you drill, start with a small diameter bit and drill right through the rivet. Then switch to a 13mm bit and the remainder of the rivets will pop out and so will the bracket. If you grind use a wet tea towel to protect the seats, otherwise you can set the foam alight (Voopsy).If you want access to the battery after the seat is installed remove the 2 rear gold bolts and leave the front 2 hand tight. The seat base easily comes out. Bolts clear in the pic below.

1.Seat with brackets.



2. Grinding with Laura and Ashley's tea towel, whoever they are, friends of the missus I think that left it for me to grind with. Dunno why she got so annoyed about it!.
3.Drilling option.

4.All stripped.


Next step is to install Mud or any other seat extension rails, the secret ingredient in all of this, otherwise the seat will merely rest upon the bulkhead lip and won't smoothly travel back and forth for different seat positions. You might have some steel box section instead that you can drill and cut to suit but because these extension rails are tailor made they offer a gold plated and very simple option.
Now offer up the seat. Use the third hole from the front on the Mazda rail and open it out using a drill to fit the Alan bolt that comes with the seat rail.
5.(ignore the fact I'm pointing a first hole but open out all three if you want to fit more securing bolts but the third hole gives the optimum position.)


Next secure the front with Alan bolts provided with extended seat rail . Now slide the seat forward and it will be apparent why the thid hole selection is best. If the seat is fitted too far back i.e if you used the first or second rivet holes, the Mazda seat rails will sit covering the extended seat rail alan bolt. The other reason this is the best position is that the base of the seat catches on the bulk head lip and will start to degrade over time and repeated movements back and forth.. Use the third hole and it is perfect. Plenty of leg room and great height too because of the extensions raising the seat high enough to avoid scraping the battery box lid.
6. Use self tappers to secure the rear although I intend to get more substantial fixings before anybody points this out!



Now have a fag, a coffee and shoot a creature. Preferably a Pidgeon.
Next, remove Mazda female seat belt receiver that is attached to the seat and use the existing Landy version because it bolts to the bulkhead. If you crash, the Mazda seat may "peel" and if you haven't used the Landy belt receiver you'll go rocketing through the windscreen minus an arm!
Very crucial you do this!
All finished and looks amazing, super comfy and more solid feeling than the originals.
Just electrics to plumb in.
I'll post my drivers side installation next week and go through the electrics.
This mod cost me nothing as I sold my existing seats which covered all of the costs including Mud set rails.
A better seat than the Exmoor trim and more functional, not to mention 90% cheaper. Brilliant!
7.Fitted

If anything isn't clear please ask. I'm a total newb at this so I can appreciate that things aren't always that transparent!

That all looks very neat. Do the seat rails line up with the existing bolt holes and captive nuts in the Land Rover seat box?

Brown said:

That all looks very neat. Do the seat rails line up with the existing bolt holes and captive nuts in the Land Rover seat box?

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Hi Mate,
The distance part on the front two rails and their holes is almost perfect although you do have to do a bit of tugging but I reasoned that putting them in under tension makes for a firmer fit. If you look at the pic of the rear of the rails with the self tappers in you can see that the rails aren't quite perfectly aligned on top of the extended seat rails but good enough.
It's all very solid.

That's handy then. Seeing all the brackets on the bottom of the Mazda seats it looks like an impossible task, but fortunately all the surplus metalwork can be cut off to leave a flat surface and the rails are almost exactly the right distance apart. Excellent.

Yup they are almost tailor made. Too good to be true in fact!

Hi, did you manage to fit the drivers side and do you have any pictures?

markhill79 said:

Hi, did you manage to fit the drivers side and do you have any pictures?

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Lol you found it then

Haha, I did Thank you