Lowering early seats

[Habitat.pat]

I ordered replacement foam & seat covers from Dean & had them installed. Look & feel great. When I installed the seats in the car I found that the seating position was significantly higher than it was on the old worn out seats I had in both my cars. The top of the windshield frame is at eye level & I can’t see the tach, speedometer & temperature gauge through my smaller steering wheel like I could before redoing the seats.

The trials & tribulations of being 6’ tall!

I’m trying to figure out how to lower the seating position by at least 2 inches. Is it possible to replace the Seat webbing to them to sag that much? If this doesn’t help, the only other options I can think of are to cut the seat frames to lower them or try some non-standard seats like Miata seats.

Peace,
Pat

[todd lorber]

Just adjust the steering column--whoops wrong car.
Yes the webbing can be adjusted, but you need to see if the seat is already bottoming out. I so, then that won't work. I have Miata seats in my 240Z and they are WAY better than stock for holding me in around corners. I was planning to put them into the roadster but ended up just having a guy beef up my side bolsters a little.

[theunz]

Well the easiest way would be to double your daily calorie intake, you’ll be sitting on the floor in no time. Barring that, you might try removing all or some of the straps to see if that will do any good. If it does than it’s not hard to re-web the seats.

[cbez]

Yikes I already have to 'drop' down into mine and I'm not tall!

[rwmann]

The replacement foam inserts must be significantly stouter and denser than 50-year old OEM, which are a comfortable seat on the floor pan.

[FergO2k]

In brief, the answer is Yes to cutting some of the cross straps.
What sounds like happened is the guy who installed them for you cross-strapped the seat on the bench and put no slack in them. (he also replaced the straps, so might have defaulted to what he has in-house, which has less stretch)

So let's try to do this without getting too anatomically gross or Politically Incorrect. (now that is a static-charged term these days!)
I think I would start by cutting the center strap that goes front to back. Our "suspension" seats are just the opposite of a bike seat, so this one gets stretched by those around it, but nothing actually is right above it. (tailbones are on each side, and are primary contact points, load introduction)

Not far enough down?
The side-side strap on the very front does nothing, really.
We all tend to sit on the very back of the seats, at least on driver side. (the reason for the "dead pedal" on left of clutch is to press you back into seat, between the bolsters, to hold solid during "spirited cornering")
So I think Cut #2 would be a Side-Side strap, either back one or the one right fwd of it.

Gone too far? (this might happen)
Long term: Time to re-strap, and this time build in some slack, like fastening the ends with 1/2 inch of slack in each strap.
Short term solution: put a bit of foam under the seat, keeping in mind the exhaust runs this side, so floorboard can get hot without us knowing it.
(I had my exhaust redone, and cooked a hole in a floormat pretty quick, had to go back and have them put in 1" spacers, reweld, then remove spacers)
Hope that helps get you started. Good luck Pat!

[C.Costine]

Before doing anything see how much space you have under the seats by sliding some spacers under the seat like a piece of 1/4 plywood with a sheet of paper on top, then sit on it and see if you can pull the sheet of paper out. There is not much space. Maybe 1/2 inch but certainly not two.

[fj20spl311]

Don't cut the straps, just unclip them on one side if you have roam. You will need someone to slip there hand under the seat with you sitting in it.

Otherwise you will need to cut the foam thinner and hog ring the covers tight.

[FergO2k]

Ahh, you are right Phil, good point.
I forgot about the C-clips on each end, they can be detached, though not while the seat is in the car (I think, that would be some contortions).

On the question of Miata seats, they will measure the same at rest (unloaded), but since they are not suspension seats, the foam is much firmer, so once in when you sit in them you will be elevated like 1-1.5 inches, much like you are finding now. I think the upholstery guy was unfamiliar with our "old tech", and is used to strapping everything up firm, so he made the straps intentionally like 3/8-1/2" short, then stretched them to clip them.
So now instead of a canvas chair, you are sitting on a trampoline.