Changing this from a question to a guide. Huzzah!!

Ok, so this is/was my problem, a knackered outside bolster on my drivers seat:



And thought, if I can swap over the driver and passenger seat-back covers, then the damaged area will be on the inside and subject to less wear, and the decent inside bolster will in effect replace it. Couple of hours fiddling later....

Start by leaning the seat back fully forwards. Then, at the base of the seat-back you should see, under a small flap, a serious of metal clips holding together 2 metal rods running along the bottom of the front and back of the cover:



These are twisted in to a triangular shape with a slight overlap. I used a pair of long nose plyers to twist them open and remove them:



There were 5 in total each side on mine. You can then pull the front of the seat-back out a bit.

Then, remove the headrests. This is done by pulling it upwards until it hits the final stop/click. Then push in the tab on one of the plastic guides and wiggle the headrest out. It may be stiff but it will come. Leaning the seat back helps stop the headrest hitting the headliner



Next work the top of the material around and over the caps (as you'll see later these things wont come out so you have to do it this way, pulling them will break them!!). I levered one side over, as below, then wiggled the material around until it all popped over. The one with the clip has a curved, slightly narrower side, start there not the clip side (much easier)



You should end up like this:



Obviously this is with leather, I presume cloth would be the same, just be careful not to rip anything!

Now, you can remove the seat-back! Start by leaning the seat quite far back, then from the front seat side, hold the front of the seat-back out (it curves under) and start to lift and wiggle. You may find the top of the foam inside catches on the head rest guides, but a quick wiggle had it over. It should come off pretty easily:



One bare seat frame:



You can see the plastic clips/guides, these won't come out easily I imagine!

Repeat the same for the other seat. Now you can carry out any repairs you need to, I had to re-stitch a small section on the passenger seat. You can't easily remove the material cover itself from the foam as there are further clips inside, between the foam and front side of the cover, and weren't easy to get at.

So, once ready, refit is kind of the reverse really. Couple of things to bear in mind though. The foam is shaped to wrap around the metal frame so has to be guided in a bit. You can see here that the foam at the bottom of the image is the seat front and that there is a channel running around the middle of the image; this goes over the metal frame.



Start by again having the seat leant back and begin to pull the cover on to the frame, taking care to get the metal frame inside that channel in the foam (first picture you can see the foam isn't on properly ) :





Get it on enough for it to stay there on its own. Then lean the seat forwards and get in the back again. I found that you can get your hand up the back of the seat and manipulate the foam so it goes over the frame correctly whilst pulling down with the other hand.

Please be careful, there is bare metal in there and I don't want someone slicing their hand up. I didn't find anything sharp, but just in case!!!

After a bit of wiggling it should be mostly back on. You then need to get the foam back over the head rest guides, and then again the material. It should work back on quite easily.

Then lean the seat back and tuck in the front at the bottom, and make sure the fabric tabs are poked down the side between the seat and mechanism. You should now be able to put the clips back in at the base, and as Bob is thine Uncle, you've swapped over your seat-backs:





Now you revel in your own glory

Will look at the seat bases one day, can't imagine them being that different tbh. Oh, and yes I know my carpet is missing, pulled it out as part of sorting out my sunroof drain leak

Oh, had a another thought, anyone know if these seat-back frames are the same as in other Mazda's? If you could just swap them out from another car on to this frame you wouldn't have the issue of getting the seat rails to match up, maybe?!

Jon

From memory when i took my seat out Jon i dont think the covers are switchable. I'm pretty sure that they are integral which sucks!

You could fit some aftermarket seat covers?

EDIT: I know absolutely nothing about standard BA seats

Been a fiddling, so updated to a how-to

Dude, I stand completely corrected! Top work

WOW nice work Darkest Jon Awesome

And moved to Guides - well worthy

When I took my seat back rest cover off I reattached it with small cable ties rather than the wire clip things...easier. I wanted to recon the squab as well by replacing the shaped foam with an old passenger side one, they are the same. However I could not see how to get the adjustment mechanisim off, what with all those springs and levers, so I poked bits of foam down from the back to plump up the raised bit on the side.

That's a good idea as they're not the easiest things to get at without some kind of contortion!!