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MG MGB Technical - Front Seat Head rests

Evening, Team!

I have been given some seat covers to tidy up the interior whilst I save up to do it properly. The covers are meant to go over the top of the seat and then can be cut to allow the headrest through. I cannot figure out how to remove the head rest on my 75 BGT. Any ideas?

Thanks muchly

James
JP Mutton

James

Not sure if the 75 is the same as a 74 for the seats but in my 74 BGT the head rest has a little spring clip on the bottom of the slide and all you need to do is give it a good pull and it will come out. Putting it back in is, as they say, a reversal of removal.

Let us know how you make out.

Brian
Brian Smith

James. Brian is correct. Spring loaded retainer on the bottom of the "pole" portion of the head rest. If the head rests are jerked upwards, they should come out of their engagement with the seat frame upright. If they do not, there is some rust in the mechanism. Bring the head rest up as far as possible and spray a little penetrating oil onto it, then, try and move it up and down to lubricate and loosen everything. This normally works to allow removal of the head rest.

Worst case is when you have to remove the seat cover on the upright portion of the seat to allow access to the lower end of the head rest. But, this is rare.

Les
Les Bengtson

James,

All above is correct....I'll just add to pull up carefully. Last summer I was pulling up on my drivers seat head rest and when it pulled free it flew right out of my hands. It did a slow motion double flip and landed point down on the deck just behind the seat. Created a not so nice about 1/16" deep dimple. Could have been a whole lot worse.....but you can imagine I taxed my vocabulary substantially!

BH
BH Davis

I had a devil of a time trying to pull an aftermarket (original spec) headrest from a seat when I realised it was the wrong shape for my year (1970). That little spring loaded clip was a real dog, wouldn't come, and in a GT you don't have a lot of room to 'jerk it up'.

Eventually reached up under the seat backing and after trying to push the clip in, whilst pulling the head rest out, eventually ended out wrenching the stupid bit of metal which forms the clip out with a pair of pliers.

WTF is that stupid clip there anyway?! As you can tell, the experience certainly taxed my vocab as well - but the proper, new headrests do make up for it!
Curtis Walker

Curtis,
The clips are there to prevent 'casual' removal of the headrests. Like many other things in life, people didn't like that addition. Headrests weren't 'proper' and therefore didn't belong on the car. If there were no clips to hold them in, I suspect that most cars today would be without them!
Tom
Tom Sotomayor

I had to use a jack and pieces of timber to remove one of my headrests. When I did get them out I removed the spring. The spring is there to hold them in a given position with friction, without it they will fall back down.
Paul Hunt 2

Yep I pulled the springs out from both sides - and luckily they're not so loose as to fall down. Even better, should I want to pull 'em for any reason, I know it'll be simple!
Curtis Walker

Thanks for all the help. Have managed to get them off (without having to resort to violence!) and the new covers make the interior look a lot less shabby!

Thanks again

James
JP Mutton

This thread was discussed between 08/11/2007 and 18/11/2007

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