Adding Back Seats to Your MGB Roadster

We have all seen ads like the following: "MGB for sale - Family has outgrown car"! This does not have to happen to you. Upon the arrival of our second child, I started toying with the idea of a back seat for my MGB roadster, after all, the MGB GT has one. This conversion turned out to be much simpler than I had imagined.

I acquired a GT seat bottom from an Ohio ad in Hemmings and a GT seat upright from an MG mechanic in Maine, who also sold me the obligatory frame from a pack-away hood.

My hood fit fine on the new frame although I am told the pack-away hood is different from the fold down hood that is original on my MGB.

The seat bottom fits perfectly in place of the carpet over the battery compartment. The addition of two lift-the-dot studs to hold the seat down is all that is required. (The four screws for these studs are the only holes which I had to drill in the car.)

The upright required a little more thinking. Using two short pieces of 1" flat steel stock welded to one longer piece of 1" by 2" "square" stock, a bracket was made to fit securely between the two shoulder belt mounts which were already in my car. (Some model years do not have this seat belt mount and some drilling may be required to secure the seat bracket.)

In the center of the square stock, a hole should be drilled to accommodate a bolt with an eye for seat belts. The seat upright has three hinges at the bottom which are easily secured to the bracket with machine screws. Seat belt bolts are screwed in the flat stock, securing the upright in the car.

That's it! Battery access is simple because the seat bottom slides out after the lift-the-dot fasteners are released.

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