I believe that the Bulletproof rails keep the seat back in the same position so you don't have to cut up the side of the seat backs to get the proper support.

 

I just finished lowering the seat. The only thing I can add is to make sure you don't drill the hole for the front bolt until after you have hammered or lowerd the back part. Below is a pic showing moving the mark pryor to hammering and after hammering. The blue hole is before and the red hole is after hammering. (edit: I actually drilled the hole just a little higher than the blue mark shown in the pic. It was basically the same height as the red mark, but further forward)

There are two other observations I made.
1. When cutting the seat cushion remove the entire section that goes into the seat pan dimple and cut about 3" in front of the dimple and cut progressively deeper as you get closer to the dimple so that you are removing about 1" of cushion when you get to the dimple.
2. If the top of the rear bolt is lined up with the plane of the front and rear hog ring mounts it is about right. That mays sound confusing. Just imagine that you are sighting a gun and using the hog ring mounts as the sight. The rear bolt head should be lined up with them if they were flat on the seat pan.



I am very happy with the results. I am guessing that I am about 1" lower and it is easier to see traffic lights, heal and toe shift, and I can also read the tach.
Zack

 

Hi,

I have a question for all those that have done this mod.

Can it be done off-line (away from the car)?

My car is in storage, and while I think I can yank the seat out, I don't really have the room to work on it there.

Further, I am considering to cut up the rear part of the seat pan and install a more permanent/adjustable arrangement as some others have done (rather than just hammering upon the rear pan attachment bolts).

I'd hate to cut up (or hammer) the rear and drill the front, and then find out that the seat pan is too low, and interferes with the floor of the car.

So the question is: Can I do so without the car for "fittment testing"? That is, would I be albe to judge -off site, away from the car- how much lowering is right (and not too much)?

Is the process one of trial and error (has to be done with the car near by for testing) or can it be done off line? If it can be done off line how do I know how much lowering is the right amount? (Or, will it be obvious to me once I have the seat out?)

Another question: "Hog rings" vs heavy duty tie wraps? I know some users have tried the tie wrap method, and it sounds like the advantage is primarily speed: Just cut old hog rings, and no fussing with new ones. How have tie wraps held up over time?

Thanks so much in advance for any help or other suggestions/tips!

Best Wishes,
Eric

 

I would read this entire thread if you have not already. Don't skip any pages.

I went for the simple method and hammered the back of the seat and drilled the front hole as the first poster way back did. I also took out an inch of the foam in the bottom of the seat pan for extra room at I am 6 foot 4. I was very thrilled with the extra room.
what i did not like was that the back of the seat does remains higher because this mod only modifies the seat pan so the lumbar support is way off and I found it uncomfortable. As for the hog rings. I took mine apart and put them back on at least 3 times. heavy duty ty-raps should do just fine. experiment with them if you wish and then put back the hog rings when you are happy.

I think for all of the effort involved and the misalignment of the seat back lumbar support it is better to just by the bulletproof bracket and drop the seat properly or the other Taitec bracket adn recaro seat combo that will give you an extra 3 inches.

That is unless you have access to a metal shop and you can do what an earlier poster did and lower the seat and seatback as well. It was a very nice mod.
Once I hammered my seat pan the rails were out of alignment and I had to really wrestle with them (literally) to get them lined up and bolted in.

If I still had the car I wouldn't mess around with it anymore. I would just spend the 300 bucks for the bulletproof seat rails and be done with it Properly.
Good luck.

 

[QUOTE=SeaDoXPL,Feb 4 2009, 07:16 PM] I would read this entire thread if you have not already.

 

Sure, you can do the mod away from the car and then bring it back to the car to measure the benefit of being able to see better.
For me I wanted the seat as low as possible . The way the seat rails were misaligned was a pain and having to take it apart several times was a pain. In retrospect as I mentioned I would just get the bulletproof brackets and be done and also not have a misaligned lumbar support as a result of lowering only the seat pan..
Go for it and try it to see if it works for you.
I shared with you my experience so If you have time to burn then go ahead and have fun.

 

Has anyone used the TAITEC seat rails? Do they do the same as the Bulletproof/Backyard Specials rail?

TAITEC rails

 

^I don't think they work with OEM seats

 

I'm thinking I might try this. I'm wondering if pushing the back of the pan using a press (but also using the impact socket to spread the impact) makes more sense then hammering? It might be easier to do the reshaping more consistently this way.

 

Sounds like I may have to leave it be. I don't want to throw off the lumbar support since it's comfortable the way it is.

I'm sure it's not cheap to manufacturer low production items, but $295 is just too much for a seat rail that lowers it 20mm. I'd want to do both sides, too. Partially because I want them even, but mainly because I like to laugh at people trying to get out of the car. It would be that much funnier if the passenger seat was 1"-2" lower.