JCON

You're an idiot lol. I mean that in the best way possible

F350-6

Interesting mod. I've thought about taking the headrest apart and straightening those posts a bit. Just not sure about driving up on the headrest instead of using a vice. Is the cover and padding too hard to remove? I haven't looked.

Matt's 95 Stang

OP is serious? This isnt a joke?....I think Ill pass on this mod.

Matthew

Weather Man

I think altering a safety device that is supposed to keep you alive when an idiot hits you from behind at 55 MPH at a stop sign is troubling. Will it work or will it snap? I've been rearended at 15 MPH and was surprised how hard my head hit the headrest at that speed.

Norm Peterson

I'm thinking more in terms of a shop press.


Norm

Norm Peterson

Human bodies do not all come in just one size, shape, weight, or with the same preferred seating position. Once you accept that as your premise, it becomes impossible to find a single headrest design and positioning that will fit everybody equally well. Nor will other peoples' adjustment solutions necessarily fit you individually. Ergonomics is by definition a rather individual thing.

Is there any more risk in the event of being rear-ended? Probably, but what you really need to do is assess the overall risk picture, which also includes consequential effects to your safe driving. Discomfort = subconscious distraction at best. Actively annoyed seems to fit OP's evaluation better. Sometimes it might really be better overall to give up a little in one area to gain more in another, which comes back to that individual thing again. Choices.

Locally cold-working the posts just a little just once is not likely to compromise their required performance to the point where it snaps, though it might be a good idea to dress the front edges of the height adjustment notches first to reduce their stress concentration effect (a small radius being much better in this respect than a sharp-cornered notch). One half of one fatigue cycle does not result in poorer performance on the next half cycle unless the material is flat-out brittle with essentially zero ductility. Sometimes, cold-working actually improves the strength of metal . . .


Norm

02GTowner

You guys must be pretty short to be having issues. I am 6'1 and I am totally fine. My wife is 5'3 and they don't bother her either. It must be an individual thing.

Norm Peterson

My wife is 5'-1". Maybe.

A 6-footer who's "all legs" could easily have the same problem. You can't use your own body proportions to predict those of other people accurately enough here.


Norm

F350-6

You'll have to pardon my ignorance, but how is something that pokes you in the back of the head if you sit upright going to save your life? I get the safety angle, but I don't see it being a big difference maker when it comes to fatalities, even if it were completely removed.

As for the strength of the metal posts and their ability to be bent, that's something each will have to determine for them self. I doubt the rods being that small a diameter are hollow, otherwise they would snap or crack during a rear end collision at 55 mph or when some 225 lb guy started jumping up and down on them.

I think the bottom line is, if the headrest doesn't bother you, don't mess with it. I'm actually a little surprised at how many members on a forum like this seem to be against making modifications to something.

Norm Peterson

You'd have to make the seatback taller, otherwise taller people would get their necks bent backward over the top of the seat.


Hollow tubes tend to buckle when you try to bend them. Not as bad as the crush-bent exhaust elbows that you find in the parts stores, but along that idea.

This . . . ↑↑↑ . If it's not broke (for you), don't bother fixing it. OP was only trying to provide an easy fix for the people that it does bother.

If anything, it shows how extensively the safety culture has burrowed its way into peoples' thinking. Whether it's out of fear of being "less safe" or fear of getting caught tinkering with it, I couldn't tell you. But there is a lot less willingness to think for yourself as far as anything that gets a "safety feature" tag hung on it.

Maybe because there is so much less need to DIY other relatively simple mods you might make that there isn't even as much willingness to truly DIY anything any more - somebody somewhere makes what 20 or 30 or 45 years ago you'd have had to DIY-fab, and today you've got the whole internet to help you find it.

How many people just in this thread think of doing a mod entirely themselves as an alternative to buying whatever it is pre-fabbed and maybe even paying somebody else to install it? First things that come to mind are exhaust, cold air intake, fuel delivery systems, and poly-bushed LCAs, so maybe just those are enough for purposes of making my point. Anybody ever fab their own (kits don't count here)?


Norm