Waferboy

Hey all,

I'm not going to ask if a seat or track fits in this or that car, but what I will ask if anyone knows or has used/modified a fox body track to shorten it and in turn lowering the seat down.

My problem is that I just installed TMI's 03-04 Cobra Seat Foam/Upholstery on my Fox Frames/Tracks. And I didn't understand or even think about the seat height changing. I expected it to be close... but they aren't. I didn't set the old/new seats together to see the height difference but I'm convinced these new seats are at least 2" higher than the original seats.

I'm 5'8" and when I look to the right all I see is my mirror. I have to duck under it to see past it. I've hit my head more than once already on the door frame and wearing a baseball cap in the car is just about out of the question.

So I'm looking for ways to shorten the seats tracks. I haven't pulled the seats back out yet, but maybe this weekend.

Thanks for any help!

Waferboy

wydopnthrtl

I was a seating engineer for close to 10yrs. (oem automotive)

You can't "shorten" the tracks and have them still function as intended.

I've not seen the foam in that kit but it sounds like the only thing you changed was the foam and upholstery. Right?

Did you by chance do anything to the flex-mat? (the wires w/springs on them that the foam sits on)

If the flex-mat is still original, and the the seat frame / tracks are still original then the foam is either too thick or maybe your old foam was so compressed that you just got used to sitting low and never thought about it.

When I rebuilt my seat I put in new foam, made the flex mat tighter, and added 3/8" worth of spacers to the seat frame / tracks. All in an effort to raise my 5'9" height. (I like to sit high). As is I'd say I'm about 1"-1.5" higher than before. And if sitting upright I too have to look under the rear view. But with my 4" cowl hood I like it that way.

Just post any Qs you have and I'll try to help. Pics are always good too.

Waferboy

wydopnthrtl: Thanks for the response. You are correct, foam and upholstery are the only two items changed. The flex-mat was unchanged and all those parts are original. I really wish now that I would have paid a lot more attention when I had all the parts out.

The old foam was surely softer. But the areas where I sat didn't have any cuts/breaks in it. The only cuts/breaks that I found are where the leg bolsters met up with the seat foam. It's thinnest there anyway so I didn't think much of it. While the foam was original, this car has under 110K miles on it so it hasn't had a lot of sitting on it. In fact the cloth didn't have any cuts or any real problems, I just felt like new seats were what I wanted.

If you saw the pictures online you can see the bolsters on these new seats are "huge" compared to the stock seats. I guess I expected the seats to be a little wider but they ended up taking up my cup holder between the handbrake and the seat cushion

All the decent pictures I could get of the seats are here. Let me know if these help. From the pictures, I think I've got everything seated down properly and it looks right to me, but I'd be interested to see if you notice anything.

Again, thanks for your feedback.

Waferboy

wydopnthrtl

Foam (like rubber) degrades more because of time than loading. Time + loading for 20yrs and its very common for these to get soft. Mine were soft and I could feel the flex-mat when I bought the car. It was one of the first things I did.

WOW those are huge bolsters!

Sounds to me like the "designer" of these matching foam and seat covers simply didn't take into account the foxbody platform. Or if they did.. they intended for them to be this way. Who knows?

In automotive seating we have a target point called the H point. It's the center of the person (cross-car measurement) and the hip rotation axis. Basically the the point where your torso and legs would pivot.

This point drives everything in the interior of the car. Seat height, belt location, steering wheel, gauges, mirrors, pedals, shifter, ect... Line of sight and reach being the goals.

If you want to keep the seats you can either.. get used to it. Or lower the seat assembly by making new "feet" that mount to the floor.
If you want to make new feet just post back and I can give some pointers (using my 89gt as a reference). (Your gonna need to make some metal parts)

Waferboy

For as little drive this car it's going to take me 20 years to soften this foam up :-(

So the goal is going to be fix the feet. In measuring things it looks like if everything is perfect I can drop the seat 1.25" before running into interference from the floor pan. I'd be happy to take that 1.25" and I think I have a relatively easy way to do it. I don't have a welder but am pretty decent with tools so see the couple drawings I put up on the web and let me know what you think. In short I'm planning on cutting the existing legs, then overlapping them and finally drilling holes and bolting them together. If I can find a person over the weekend to weld these I will, but I think some nice strong bolts will do the trick as well.

Let me know what you think.

Waferboy

wydopnthrtl

I'll have my mustang out today. I'll look it over and post back tonight

wydopnthrtl

Judging by my 89, I don't think the seat could go much lower w/o moving it towards the door. The inner seat track is almost sitting on the tranny tunnel as is. And moving it outward makes it closer to the door.

I donno.. maybe shifting it outward would gain 1/2" - 1" or so?

ALMOST STOCK

I'm 6' 6" and don't have that problems of hitting my head on the door frame and what I did was raise the rear view mirror on the front shield so that I could see under it instead of trying to lower the seats.

Waferboy

Interesting choice...Never would have thought about moving the mirror. I did start cutting the tracks today. I did the passenger seat first just in case I really screw things up. I need to find a local welder to weld things back up. I believe I'll get 1 to 1.25" drop in the seat IF it all goes as I hope.

I'll assume you tilt the seat back some? I haven't been able to do to comfort and if I sit back too far my lower back begins to hurt. Plus if I tilt back my reach to the wheel and stick is just odd feeling and I feel like I'm stretching to them at all times.

Thanks for the idea though. A mirror move may be up next.

Waferboy

rmodel65

im 6 ft and never hit my head on the mirror either..i wonder if your mirror has been moved by someone who was short before you got the car lol