Fiat 850 seat in Giulia Spider

[kinou]

Hello,

After finaly fitting the top correctly and after the first rally around Bordeaux last week-end; I will be concentrating on more improvement on my Spider.

Actualy my car is fitted with Triumph Spitfire seats ... They are OK as seats but 1- Do not look right - 2 the backrest do not recline forward in order to raise or lower the top; this is realy unpractical!

I know that remanufactured seats are available at a price i do not want to pay for.

Fiat 850 seats seem to be an acceptable alternative as they are about the same size and shape. I have found a pair of decent 850 coupe seats for 40 euros; I will pick them up next week.

Has any one here done this modification ? What were the modifications involved? if possible pictures would be apreciated.

[Andrew Schank]

I used to have some small aftermarket seats in my Spider before i got the reproduction seat frames and upholstery kit from Re-orignials a while back. You'll likely have to make up some custom brackets. try to keep them as low profile as possible or you'll be hitting your head on the top frame! The original seats are right on the floor. There isn't much room on those cars for fooling around. i had a set of 850 low back Spider seats in my hand last year as I restored a 67 covered headlight car for a customer. I was thinking they'd be a possible fit on a Gulia. Are the 850 Coupe seats really similar to the Spider ones?

[kinou]

Thank-you Andrew for your answer;

the Fiat 850 seats are very similar in size and design, depending on model and year only the design of the "ribs" in the middle of bottom & backrest differs; they are Horizontal on 850 coupe and vertical on 850 spiders 1st series.

Upholstery kits are available from ELVEZIO in Italy for less than 300 euros

On B&W picture (sorry small picture) you can see the design of the trim.

[Brad750f]

I drove a 101 Spider that had FIAT 850 seats for two weeks on holiday three years ago. I believe they were from an 850 Spider, and found them to give the same driving position I'm used to with stock seats. I also feel those seats had the same headroom as stock Giulietta's. The thing I noticed most was the release button to fold forward is in the center of the back, which I had to find before lowering the top!
The white Spider rented by the family business Zepherus, near Sienna is the car I drove.
Brad Baum
Escondido, Ca

[kinou]

I have finaly sourced a pair of Fiat 850 coupe seats for 40 euros and only 1 hour away!

They are in my garage now and i have ordered a Fiat 850 trim kit from ELVEZIO in italy. As I told them it was for a Guilia Spider, they even proposed to manufacture the seat covers in original vinyl ...For 330 Euros (against 285 eros for fiat original material) wich sounds reasonable.

More news and pictures when i recieve the trim and start installation.