Help! OH NO!!! NEW SEAT HELL!!!!

[Bolisk]

So, when I put my 1970 coupe away for the winter. I took the old & tired 1976 seats out of the car. I took the skins and foam off the frames, and swaped the '76 seat back frames out for a pair of 1970 seat back frames that I got at Bloomington Gold. Then I sent them out to get reskinned.

I just got the seats back and they look fantastic!! And correct!!! I just mounted them in my car. . .and my car now looks correct and new! I could not have been happier. . .UNTILL.. . . .. I sat in the driver seat!!!!

I NO LONGER FIT IN THE CAR!!!!! ACK!!!!

My wife claims that it's the result of all the food I ate during the winter. From my perspective, the seat appears to be a full 1.5 inches thicker than before. I can barly get my legs between the steering wheel and the seat, and my head now hits the t-tops, so much so that I have to tilt my head. . .where I used to have at least 1/2" clearance before.

Did I mention that I'm 6'2"?

Anyway. . .has anyone else encountered this drastic of a problem before? How long before the seats returned to "normal". I currently have 200 lbs of salt bags (wrapped in garbage bags) sitting on the drivers seat in hopes that it helps compress the foam.

Dose anyone have any other suggestions to rectify my situation?

-Bolisk

 

[Bolisk]

BTW: I don't have a tilt / tele steering column. . .and I doubt my wife will let me spring for one on ebay at $875+

 

[minifridge1138]

I'm about 6'2 but my 82 has power seats and tilt column.

I've heard stories about the new foam causing issues.

Leaving weights in the seat is the only thing I can think of, and you're already doing that. You could add more weights.

Are there any washers or spacers between the seat mounts and the floor that you could remove?

I've heard of some people removing the linings in their t-tops to have more clearance.

hopefully someone else has some experience with this....

 

[73shark]

Might try putting some spacers under the front mounts to tip the seat back a little.

 

[Koop]

There is a guy that claims to have several sets of Saratoga tops here. Get a set of those and that'll fix the head room issue.

 

[Bolisk]

What are Saratoga tops?

 

[White75]

I hope I don't have that problem. I'm waiting for my seats to come back now. I'm 6'3" so it doesn't look promising for me
However, we never drive with the T-tops on unless it's raining so I'll just let my noggin pop out the top. On the brightside, maybe my wife (5'0") will be able to see over the dash now.

 

[Bill75]

I'm 6'2 and had sort of the same problem although tilting my wheel helps. The foam in the old seats was compressed over the years, the new stuff is much thicker. I would have never installed new foam if I knew they were so thick.

The good news is they do compress back to something more like they were after a while..............like a summer's worth of driving. My passenger seat is still too thick though because no one sits in it. I was going to set some bags of lead shot in them for a few weeks before the driving season starts and see how that works.

 

[Koop]

Saratoga Tops

What are Saratoga tops?

These were aftermarket in the early '70's before the all glass tops were out. My mom gave them to my dad as a gift in 1971. They get a ton of attention when I take the car to a show. I only have one on the car right now, a tongue broke on the other one so it's in the cabinet.

If you look at the (crappy) interior picture, you can see without the liner of stock top there is an inch or more extra head room, they make the interior brighter as well. The only downside is on a hot day they tend to cook you.

Either you love 'em or you hate 'em, I like them as a period correct mod.

The quality of these pics makes where the paint meets the glass look rough, it's not.

 

[Bolisk]

Well, the 240lbs of water softener salt bag had a chance to sit overnight in the driver seat. This morning, the distance betweent he seat and the steering wheel had increased by 1 inch. God I hope that stays. . .and doesn't just bounce right back.

Having said that, another thought occured to me on the way to work this morning. Figured I'd through it out there and see if anyone agrees or can confirm.

As I said, on the way to work, I was futzing with the reclining feature in my Mazda's seat. And it dawned on me that part of my problem with head clearince might be the result of how the seats were adjusted by the upoholstry shop. For instance, I know that on the back of the vette seats there are to rubber bumpers, which seat on two metal adjustment stops. Before I had the seats rebuilt, the rubber bumpers were really warn out. . .so the seat probably reclined ALOT further than it does now. Which would effectivly remove headroom. I'm going to attempt to seat the metal stops further down. Has anywone ever tried to shave the rubber stops down to increase the recline angle?

-Bolisk

 

[Bolisk]

NOW THOSE ARE COOL!! (Saratoga Tops) I have got to find me a set of those. Matching the paint in going to be a pain, as mine is not a GM blue. . .as far as I can tell. . .but what a solution.

 

[Koop]

NOW THOSE ARE COOL!! (Saratoga Tops) I have got to find me a set of those. Matching the paint in going to be a pain, as mine is not a GM blue. . .as far as I can tell. . .but what a solution.

They came with various colors of tint, I've seen regular, gold, green and orange. The edges were black, Dad had them painted to match.

I get a kick out of them, no one else ever has a set when I go where the Corvettes are. They were real expensive back in the day so I don't think they sold to many.

The extra head room was especially helpful in the "Big Hair" 1980's.

 

[LanceB]

I experienced this problem, luckily I have the glass tops so can live with it. But I am exactly 6 feet so any taller than that major issues.

 

[red70vette]

New foam can create the problem you spoke about. I am 6'1" and when I replaced the seat foam the top of my head hit the roof. It is now 4 years later and things are a little better. If I put a baseball cap on the little button on top hits the TTop liner every time I hit a bump. There is not that much room for error. Take the liners off until it settles a bit.

There are other solutions- adjust the bumpers, or put shims under the front of the seat tracks. Either will decrease the angle of the seat back and give you a little more headroom.

 

[Bolisk]

So I shaved down the bumpers. . .and that cured the head room. But I still don't have much room form my legs between the door panel and the steering wheel. My thighs are a lot higher on the front of the seat. . .then they were before.

Has anyone ever tried to cut some of the foam out of the seat from below?

 

[Peer81]

Have you looked for another way to fix the seat to the floor? Now you have a high mounting"rack" because it needs to slide to the front and back. Maybe they have solid mounting hardware somewhere that could save you 2" I think.
Or If you're really looking for a cool project, the 81 and 82 driverside floorpans are lower because of the electric seats. Should be alot of work but will give you 3 or 4 inches I think

Groeten Peter

 

[Bolisk]

So. . .alls well that ends well. . .

Figured I post my final outcome for anyone who reads the thread.

So. . .after a 200 miles of driving. . .my head room issue became slighly better. ..but I still had to schooch down and forward so that i had enough clearance. The problem with that. . .was I had even less leg room because of the non-tilt-tele steering column.

Ultimately I broke down and had a correct tilt-tele steering colum built for my car. That did it! just moving the sterring wheel up one notch. . .did it.

So my recomendations. If you are over 6 foot tall and you do NOT have a tilt-tele steering colum, if you are going to have your seats redone. . .try to reuse your existing seat bottom foam. . .if they are presentable. Otherwise be prepard to spend bucks to locate and rebuild a correct tilt-tele steering column.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Tilting the entire seat back by adding shims under the front (like red70vette suggested twice) cures the problem of low head room and also gives more support under the thighs. 50 cents worth of hardware and ten minutes time.

Worked for me.

 

[Bolisk]

True (I tried that suggestion), but for tall (biger) people without tilt-tele, doing so decreases the space between the seat and the bottom of the steering wheel. . .therfore reducing leg room even more. Hence tilting the seat back further does not help. Differnt solutions for differnt people.

 

[Rebelrob]

They sound like very nice seats. Do you have any before and after pics you can post?

Wow lots of tall Vette owners here....