Hello Copen Wizards, First things first, I do not own a Copen. I will probably never own a Copen. I am here because I need some help. I have a classic Mini with some classic bucket seats. After an hour in the car I feel like I've borrowed my grandma's spine for the afternoon, so I want to get rid of them for something a little more comfortable and modern. After doing a bit of research, I learnt that Copens were offered with factory Recaro seats, and given the size of a Copen, I figure that these would be ideally suited to cramming in my car, were it not for the fact that they are impossible to find. Anyway, long story short, I would like to know if anybody can provide me with: a) Dimensions for the Recaro seats; I would like to know whether it is even possible to fit these seats or whether I am truly trying to shove 10 lbs of s**t in a 5 lb bag b) Dimensions for the standard seats; in lieu of being able to size the Recaros, I imagine the standard seats are pretty close size-wise c) A source for getting these seats in the UK; I have checked breakers, ebay, even Daihatsu service & parts centres with no joy. I am in contact with some JDM part importers that might be able to source me some from Japan, but I would be indebted to anybody who could help me find some closer to home. Cheers in advance, and sorry for invading your forums and leeching rare parts from your mad little kei cars, Phil.
Hi! I'm no expert on Recaro seats. However, couldn't you just buy Recaro cloth seats in the store? Most Copen were delivered with red or beige leather seats, Recaros are not as common.
Hi Salieri, I cannot buy these particular seats in store. Of course other Recaros are readily available but I believe they would be too big, and call me pernickety but I really like the look of these seats, they're not too racy, don't scream aftermarket (obviously they will in a classic Mini but they still look a bit more dignified than full bucket seats). If you have a minute to measure the seat base width and length, and height from rails to headrest of your seats, either standard or Recaro, would you mind letting me know? You will be rewarded with good karma (nothing essentially, sorry) Cheers for the reply!
As far as I can tell, from Recaro's own website, those seats were only available in Japan. edit:- measurements are for my standard seats It's about 92cm high, 51cm wide, 61cm long. Looking at pictures of them, apart from 'Recaro' branding they look almost identical to the standard seats, if you haven't considered them instead it might be a whole lot cheaper! Set on Ebay atm from a guy in the Copen Spares FB group Daihatsu copen red leather seats and door cards | eBay
They would take some modification to fit a Mini I'd think as the inboard rail bolts sideway into the tunnel not into the floor like the Mini would.
Is that 92cm from the seat base or the rails? I plan to fit standard seats to begin with since they are cheaper and more readily available and the mounting points for the rails will be the same (I assume) I can fabricate the brackets I will need to fit the seats, likely as not they will be too tall to tip forward so I will have to make some sort of locking slide rail to access the rear seats. Can anyone tell me what adjustments the seats have (recline, lumbar, etc)?
92cm from the base of the seat to the top of the headrest Recline and slide, fair bit of slide on them so you might be able to use standard rails and have room to get in the back if it's easier to adapt the rails than craft new ones. Standard seats (and probably the Copen Recaro) are heated too BTW which is nice on a cold morning.
Cheers Vin, they don't by any chance tip forward as well as recline do they? Edit: I've had a quote for a pair of standard seats from a scrap yard for £100, I'm going to use them initially to try them in and get any brackets/rails fabbed up, but they're at the other end of the country so I'm trying to find as much out about them as possible beforehand, sorry for the incessant questions
Fully forward and tilted:-(I reckon I could squeeze into the back seats of my Copen, if they existed) Fully forward tilted back until headrest touched rear:- Fully back and upright:-
