What seats do I have in my Bugeye?

[decooney]

The seats that I have in my 58 Bugeye do not appear to be original. They are wider, more square, no headrests, folding, recovered in a an unfamiliar pattern to me. There are seat tracks and adjustment levers. They also have a metal stop hooked-bracket on the rear-lower-center. They are fairly compfortable and I could recover them, but I don't know if the car's value is hurt by using these later seats. They look similar to diagrams I've seen in catalogues for 62 & up MG/MGB seats.

Are there any distinguising seat rail or frame characteristics that would help me to identify and confirm if they are MG seats?

Is it common for Bugeyes to have later seats for any specific functional reason?

I'm considering recovering these, or replaceing them with originals, or going with an aftermarket Corbeau style seat, but I think I need folding seats and don't want to hurt the value of the car too much. Any ideas on what these might be or what to replace them with? Thanks.

 

[Bugeye58]

Without pictures, that is going to be nearly impossible to figure out. I've seen a lot of different seats installed over the years, so it was a common swap. I'm lucky in that the stock seats fit me fine, and all of my Bugeyes still have the original seats.
Jeff

 

[decooney]

Did all of the 58 Bugeye cars come with the curved back seats?

I just saw a picture of a restored concours 58 Bugeye that had square seats that look similar to what I have... now I'm really confused. Ugh.

 

[Bugeye58]

I honestly don't know. My '58 didn't have seats in it when I got it. Maybe someone has a copy of Terry Horlers book, "The Complete Original Sprite", and can shed some insight. My copy is unavailable right now.
Jeff

 

[sfovc2003]

Bugeyes all had a simple seat, curved at the top and around the upper body. They flip down with no latch. The driver's seat adjusts fore and aft, but not the passenger's.The seat part pulls off without any real latching mechanism as well. Remember, this car was intended to be quite low cost.