I need to have a lower seating position in my car. I'm long-waisted so I can't see the top of the tachometer (blocked by steering wheel) or traffic lights (a problem for many of us), and I'd like to not stick up quite so high above the roll hoops. In a previous thread (long gone) the use of different seat rails was discussed, but there is very little room under the seat (1 cm) for this to have a meaningful effect. I know that others have the same need, and I'm hoping that we can design a lower seat cushion and cover that can acheive this goal. The stock cushion is about 7-8 cm thick and it seems that we could reduce the pad thickness and not lose too much comfort. I called the dealer yesterday, and Honda wants $220 for the cushion and ... are you sitting down ... $720 for the cover . I know that we can do better than that with Townsend Leather, eh Rick?

Yikes! Look at that rust on the pan!

In case you're interested, here's a link to some more photos of my partially disassembled seat. http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?...67442&a=9965297

So, please post here if you're interested in this project, and I'll see what I can do to move it forward.

 

Cool pics. Takes big brass you know what to pull a seat apart on a brand new car. Those Honda cows must be special to command those prices.

 

Shame they don't have a telescoping steering wheel. I fit perfectly in my car, but I wish the seat back would come up one more click so when I sit up straight my head would touch the headrest. Good luck with your seat.

 

I know on the miataforum.com this topic comes up frequently. One solution is to remove padding in the seat, both the back and the bottom parts, so you can sit lower and furthur back. Is that possible in our case? I, too, would like to sit a little lower.

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What about putting an entirely new type of seat in there?

I've heard a couple people talking about Recaro racing seats. I'll bet that those could be easily set up to sit lower.

 

must be from them Kobe beef cows

jokes aside, i was thinking of fabing a different set of rails from scratch so that you can sit the stock seat down lower, but from what i hear by coraldoc, not much can be done, eh?

i'll look into the seats. not necessarily recaros, but how about from the factory that makes them for recaro without the recaro name? good enough for you? give me some time.

 

Another option is to eliminate the rails altogether and have a fixed-position seat. This may only be practical if you are the sole driver. Seems like a person could swap in a fixed-position seat pretty easily for autocrossing, etc.

Thanks for providing these pictures. I agree that it was a gutsy move to take the seats apart! The rust in the seat pan is kinda disgusting. It almost looks like holes are bored in the pan for weight savings.

Would you mind describing the deconstruction process a little more? I notice some clips or staples on the floor to the side of the seat in two photos--what are they from?

 

The NSX owners who have the same problem normally go with the Recaro SPG's - which is used (though in carbon fiber form instead of the fiberglass that the SPG's come in) in the Type S and Type R JDM NSX's. They normally gain about 2-3" of headroom that way.

 

I would also think that a lower seat would improve rollover safety, by lowering your head a bit in relation to the rollbar. So, if someone figures something out in this respect, please let me know! (-:

 

It's actually very simple to remove and dissect the seat. First, lower the top . Next, unbolt the seat from the floor. There are 2 12mm bolts in front and 2 14mm bolts to the rear. Slide the seat all the way back to access the front bolts and forward to get access to the rear ones. Remove the seatbelt from it's holder on the seatback and tip the seat forward in order to unclip a plastic connector under the seat (driver's side only). Carefully lift the seat up and out of the car and rest it on some padded material. I used old carpeting.

The bottom seat cushion assembly is held in place with 2 12mm nuts underneath the rear of the seat and two large 14mm bolts that screw into the front sides. Undo these and wiggle the assembly out of the frame.

The cover and foam padding can be removed from the pan by unclipping all of the round brass rings afixing the cover to the pan. There are about 13 or 14 of these. I didn't remove the cover from the foam cushion as it is held in place by straight wires in the foam.

Reconstruction and reinstallation is the reverse. I used plastic cable ties to reattach the bottom cover to the pan, but the brass rings could be re-used.

WARNING - When reinstalling the seats, make sure that the two seat rails are correctly aligned. If they are not, the seat may only be locked in place (fore-aft) by one set of the release mechanism. Just loosely bolt all four mounting points into place and make sure that the fingers of the fore-aft adjusting lever release mechanism is secured in BOTH seat rails before firmly bolting the seat in place.