Are all Germans Short??

pnzr911 · 02-26-2002, 07:32 PM

Ok before you get too upset hear me out. I have owned my 83 911SC for one week and I love 99% of it. The 1% I don't love is the lack of headroom. I'm only 5'11 and my hair(yes I still have hair on top) touches the headliner. It's most annoying. I have never had a car were my head touched the headliner. My 911 does have a sunroof and I was told this lowers the headliner by 2 inches or so. In that case I will NOT buy another one with a sunroof. Also I noticed that the headliner that covers the actual sunroof seems to sag a bit (1") not sure if this can be re-gluded but that would fix it. How are the 6' and above 911 owners getting bye? Am I missing something here? Please help!!

Tyson Schmidt · 02-26-2002, 07:48 PM

We are short tempered, yes. Next question. Quickly!

island911 · 08:10 PM

LOL Herr Schmidt!
so thats why your so experienced at "making it look like an accident"

APKhaos · 02-26-2002, 08:00 PM

I finally got it.......SCWDP = Short Chaps World Domination Project!

I'm 6'5", and theCarrera fits me fine, even with a helmet [which I will now strap on in case Doug Z gets wind of this post....

island911 · 02-26-2002, 08:05 PM

k'bong. . .Okay enough clowning.

A couple things you can do:
Get a different seat or get a spacer for the steering wheel, and recline the seat back a bit more.

Factory sport seats lend themselves well to lowering the center cushion and keep the original look.

There is also a factory spacer for the steering wheel.

Matt Holcomb · Matt Holcomb's Garage

I'm 6'2", but thanks to my rounded shoulders, my head never touches the headliner, even when I have a helmet on!

Matt Holcomb
1974 911 Carrera 2.7 Euro
1975 Mercedes-Benz 280SE
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john70t · 02-26-2002, 09:07 PM

6'1 tall- I bought some cheap high-backs for the 70t and find my head scraping the roof (still a good trade from sagging springs though). . Since newer seats are narrower (not implying anything of those short-hood types

), owners of early cars could probably make a stepped spacer plate to drop down the seat height. See pict below

DRV · 02-26-2002, 10:54 PM

I've done a lot of checking on the problem of finding more head room. One way is a racing seat, and the proper mounts. Or have a upholsterly shop remove some of the foam from the seat bottom. What I did was remove the brackets from the car and build new ones on the floor pan, just make sure your floor pan is solid. I don't believe this was as big of a problem on pre '73 cars, it was when they went to the high back seat that the mounts were changed. You can pick up about 1 1/2" this way, it does make a big difference. If you want more detail on how I did this let me know.
Dennis

02-27-2002, 12:08 AM

Exactly the reason why I got a car without sunroof.

If you think the 911 is bad try a DeTomaso Pantera

pnzr911 · 02-28-2002, 01:59 AM

Thanks for the input. Gaining 1 1/2 inches would be great. That would give me "Helmet" clearance. So how did you do it Dennis? Im curious.

DRV · 02-28-2002, 01:44 PM

This is a write up on my seat lowering project as posted to the rennlist last year.

"I finished the seat lowering job about a month ago, it was a bigger project than I though it would be, took 2 1/2 week ends. The seating position is similar to earlier cars, it know longer feels like the roof is on my head.

To do the project I used 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" square aluminum on the tunnel side and 1" x 2" square aluminum on the door side, the 1/2" is the difference in height of the floor. These were bolted to the floor. An access hole on top 19mm in diameter was drilled to bolt them to the floor. Then I used 1 1/2" washers with an inside hole of 5/16". These were used to shim the square aluminum up enough so the bottom of the upholstery would be just a hair above the tunnel (the seats are to wide at the upholstered part to go any lower). Some of the washers had to be cut to the edge of the hole (making them nearly in half) to rise above ridges in the floor, once above this spot you can use the whole washer, except where you are to close to the tunnel. The spot you bolt these to the floor should be inside the spot you will be bolting the seats as not to interfere with.

You need to completely remove the factory mounting brackets. To do this I used an spot weld remover, this is an small hole saw with a retractable center point, do be careful not to go through the tunnel for their is gas lines on the drivers side, either cables or wiring on the passenger side. This will cut the metal around the spot weld and leave the center spot in place, then use a chisel and they should pop off. I used a cutoff tool for the welds. Once removed use a grinder to level the area from high spots then paint.

The carpet needs to be modified to fit around the new mounts. A strip of carpet was removed behind the seats on the tunnel to allow movement of the sliders.

On my car there are some wires on the passenger side of tunnel, these are for the seat belt warning system. They were disconnected so I just stuffed them into the square aluminum mount. One wire for the defroster light was rerouted in front of the seat to the light.

Things to watch out for.

1) Seats I used were from a RS America. They had a mount welded to the slider on the tunnel side with a threaded hole, I assumed this was for a seat mounted belt, this was removed, I don't think they would have fit with it in place, it would have been at the least very tight. You have 18" from tunnel to the door side.

2) Seat will move about 1/2" towards the door but I don't notice this at all.

3) Floors should be solid, if floors are rusty this might not be a good idea.

4) Upholstery and carpet should be removed as not to contaminate with metal grindings.

I hope this gives an idea of how I went about the project, if some thing is unclear let me know. I also have some digital pictures, they are poor quality but should at least show the finished job."

Dennis

DRV · 02-28-2002, 10:54 PM

One other thing I forgot. You can also pick up about 3/4" by removing the sliders on manual seats and then use sheet metal (12" x 17"). Bolt the sheet metal to the mounts then bolt the seats to the sheet metal without the sliders. You will have to postion them for your proper leg room. I did this with my old manual seats, it made driving a little better but I still felt like I sat to high. When I bought the electric sport seats I used the lowering method in the above post, now seating postion is purfect.
Dennis