Lowering Drivers seat height on Cav Coupe

[IanMc]

Dear All,

I'm quite tall and coupled with my advancing years and the need to sit more upright, I am finding that the top of my head just about touches the (slightly sagging) roof liner.

I will at some stage address the roof liner, but in the mean time I wanted to ask about ways to lower the seat height. Has anyone cut and re-welded the seat frame?

All ideas and suggestions appreciated 

[Jessopia74]

Cut an inch out of the the base frame uprights and weld them up?

[cam.in.head]

not sure you can do this with a cav seat (rather than later manta ones) because the seat base sits straight onto the rear support sliders. more or less.if you remember the design you may be able to modify or cut and re position slightly the rear pieces ? ?  and you could cut and weld the front bar but this may make the seat lean too far forward.

you could try drilling the seat foam in the centre .ive done this to all mine to soften the foam. to make it less dense and you sink into it a bit more . i used a hole cutter 22mm and honeycombed the centre section .

this made my seats ok until i sat in a mates 2001 cherokee. blimey the seats were very comfy and soft. ive ordered one to take apart and see what the design/ grade of foam is like to see if i can improve mine further!

thatl teach me !

[®evo03]

I have used an early b seats to mount a bucket seat in a manta.

Reason, i needed the recaro mount that was used for buckets to mount recaros, and the b seats where getting recomissioned, therefore metal work of early seat was redundant. 

Ian, to get the early seat frame lower, (trying to remember 12 months ago!) i think i removed the front round bar at the seat base, there are long flat edges, redrilled and mounted it higher, therefore leaving the seat base lower. It involves a reposition of seat adjustment bar.

For the rear, think it was a weld, inside bar, nearest to tunnel, outer adjustment was cut and welded higher.

Its alot of work, tricky to workout, and better if you have carpet out. 

As said above its the rear mounts that are affecting your issue as you ars trying to get your back and body position lower to allow your head lower.

Just look at it before you start, all this and you will get it lower by about 10 to 15mm, due to its design. 

You could get it lower if you designed a complete new fixing without adjustment, which isn't ideal.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[IanMc]

Thanks for all your feedback and information lads, much appreciated.

I am now in the process of stripping down the Drivers seat (to make a start on the eat covers of course), so I will let you know what I decide to do - if anything...

Thanks again.

[IanMc]

Small update for you all.

I have been thinking through some of the suggestions and think that I will go for the 'cut and shut' method.

Assuming my measurements and high school trigonometry are something like correct, I have calculated that by removing 25 mm length from the frame tube I can get the following:

- With the seat in its most forward position, I can gain an additional 20 mm of headroom.

- With the seat in its rear most position, I can gain an additional 25 mm of headroom.

As I usually have the seat in approx the mid to 2/3 back position, I should achieve around 22-23 mm of additional headroom. So i think that this is the way that I am going to go...

I will be updating my project thread with photos etc as I progress.