Stock seat mod for headroom - F-Body Road Racing and Autocross Forums

Well in the never ending quest for more headroom I bought a manual seat slider from a '97 Trans Am to replace my power slider (yes I have a cop car with power seats + bose). The manual bracket didn't seem to gain me anything.

The manual slider has rear mounts riveted to the rails that bolt to the floor-these are offset and raise it up some. I drilled the rivets out and took a 1.5"x.125" piece of aluminum flat stock and bolted this to the studs in the floor straight across. I then bolted the rails directly onto the flat stock with 1/4" bolts.

I gained about 1/2" of headroom which was well worth it.

I'll replace this with steel flat stock after sunday's autocross.

The main reason I have so many headroom issues is I have a hardtop and I have a long upper body. I also like to sit forward in order to hug the steering wheel-I have a lot more strength and control sitting up on the wheel. I think I'm going to get the adapater that allows me to bolt in a regular racing wheel. I could then move the wheel an inch or so closer to me with a regular spacer thus letting me sit back farther.

Of course losing the airbag means I'll probably switch to a closed face helmet.

robz71lm7 View Member Profile	Mar 15 2005, 11:03 PM Post #1
Veteran Member Group: Advanced Members Posts: 2,640 Joined: 25-December 03 From: Louisville, KY Member No.: 40	Well in the never ending quest for more headroom I bought a manual seat slider from a '97 Trans Am to replace my power slider (yes I have a cop car with power seats + bose). The manual bracket didn't seem to gain me anything. The manual slider has rear mounts riveted to the rails that bolt to the floor-these are offset and raise it up some. I drilled the rivets out and took a 1.5"x.125" piece of aluminum flat stock and bolted this to the studs in the floor straight across. I then bolted the rails directly onto the flat stock with 1/4" bolts. I gained about 1/2" of headroom which was well worth it. I'll replace this with steel flat stock after sunday's autocross. The main reason I have so many headroom issues is I have a hardtop and I have a long upper body. I also like to sit forward in order to hug the steering wheel-I have a lot more strength and control sitting up on the wheel. I think I'm going to get the adapater that allows me to bolt in a regular racing wheel. I could then move the wheel an inch or so closer to me with a regular spacer thus letting me sit back farther. Of course losing the airbag means I'll probably switch to a closed face helmet.

robz71lm7 View Member Profile	Mar 16 2005, 07:07 PM Post #2
Veteran Member Group: Advanced Members Posts: 2,640 Joined: 25-December 03 From: Louisville, KY Member No.: 40	I don't know for sure yet, but the eventual plan is to be able to switch back to power seats. I just didn't want to mess with my nice power seat brackets. I also hoped the manual slider would gain me headroom which it didn't. I'll take a look at my power slider sometime later today. I ended up having to change my steering wheel order this morning. I had to switch to the same wheel in 13.75" vs 13.5". But this is new wheel is going to be another 1/4" closer to me than the one that was backordered. I think the stocker was between 14.5-14.75". Anyways I have wheel # 1064 on order now. I did use some big fender washers to prevent the 1/4" bolts from pulling through the aluminum, but it really needs to be steel. I've given up on race seats for the time being. It's either a cheap race only seat or a seat that costs $500+ which I may end up not liking.