Elevate seats?

UnSafe · 03-05-2007, 03:21 AM

My wife (5', 5"), who just got a '78 911SC, cannot see well enough over the steering wheel & hood. She wants a better way to elevate the driver's seating position than a pillow. I'm sure that someone's figured out a way to do it without screwing with the mounting or other craziness.

Firm foam pad layers under the seat cover?

Growth Hormone?

Any experience or ideas appreciated.

tonythetarga · 03-05-2007, 03:52 AM

It is easy enough to remove the drivers seat and make a spacer bar to raise the seat on the rail. Some square tubing made of steel is available at Home Depot or any hardware store. You will need longer bolts to anchor the seat but they are also available commercially.

edit..you might also read the tech article on reversing the wipers so they rest on the passenger side. This gives you a bit more visibility.

pinto096 · 03-05-2007, 04:24 AM

performance sells a seat elevation kit 79.95 for each seat easy to instal suggest 2 to make them even. pelican may have this kit

tonythetarga · 03-05-2007, 04:59 AM

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/ksearch/PEL_search.cgi?command=show_part_page&please_wait=N&make=POR&model=911M&section=INTacc&page=39&bookmark=56&part_number=PEL-SA9000

Pelican does have it. By the way, the passenger side already has this spacer, so I would only buy one.

randywebb · 03-05-2007, 11:06 AM

PEP sells a nice strong seat elevation kit -- it isn't cheap tho

cbeers · 03-05-2007, 11:16 AM

An alternative is power seats. My old set was great for that, especially on AX/track days. They would raise quite a bit.

Might not be that much if you can find some suitable used seats and then sell yours.

Otherwise, the seat rails are an option as well as an aftermarket seat bracket set. I have such a set up on my newly installed SRDs and it has three settings for height that you could change in less than 5 minutes.

-Chris

mthomas58 · 03-05-2007, 11:19 AM

Tony, my 1987 was set up the same way with spacers on the passenger seat only. In my car, the pass seat is manual and the driver sear is 4-way power (up/down ft and rear).

I ordered the seat elevation kit from out host (Weltmeister as I recall). Interestingly, the bolts that came with the kit were smaller than the heavier gauge factory bolts. When I called Pelican, they checked with the supplier.....and the word I got back was they had not encountered that before??????

I ended up drilling out the elevation rails and using the heavier factory bolts. Between the spacer and seat hight controls.....the driver seat can be adjusted quite high. My wife is 5'4" and it definitely helps (although she refuses to drive the car as she is too scared something will happen to it on her watch).

nesslar · 03-05-2007, 11:46 AM

So the wife is having visibility problems, huh?
This sounds suspiciously like the ol' "...a friend of mine has a problem, Doctor...."

Just kidding, actually I'm thinking of hitting the hardware store for some metal and raising mine a bit, too!

Should be a simple enough project, even for me..................

randywebb · 03-05-2007, 12:07 PM

be sure to put spacers inside of any sq. tubing used in a homebrew install, so it won't collapse

group911@aol.co · 03-05-2007, 01:53 PM

Just use the factory parts. No guessing whether they are safe or not.

Rick V · 03-05-2007, 02:13 PM

I have nothing to add with the exception, that this thread is refreshing. I'm 6-4, most of my friends are 6+. we usually have discussions on how to lower the seats.

mtbguy · 04-02-2007, 06:35 PM

I just added the Pelican parts/Weltmeister kit- it is so nice to be able to see over the hood - wife and I are both vertically challenged. I have the sport seats which I believe are even lower than the normal ones.

I did the same procedure listed above (mthomas58) drilled out the rails and used larger and longer bolts. The bolts provided with the kit were worthless for my 1987 model.

Once installed its great.