Shorten Your Seat Base

7991LXnSHO · Jun 20, 2013

In the recent two seater thread, someone mentioned taking an inch height out of the seat track riser. Can they provide the low down on this before I take my car apart? Do the tracks bolt to the seat? Did you use a saw to cut the legs then slide the pieces up and weld them on both sides? Did the plastic feet covers still work? Anything special I should know?
I repadded the driver's seat and am short on headroom. The old padding was cardboard and carpet.

Gearbanger 101 · Jun 20, 2013

It was me who mentioned it. I actually chopped a little out of the legs to bring the seat height down. I actually nicked about 1" out of the front legs and tapered it down to about 1/2" by the rear as I wanted not only to lower it a little, but to gain a bit more of an upright seating position (not down with the stock gangster lean) than stock. I basically ran a couple of strips of masking tape spanning the length of both legs and made my cut marks. I had the use of a Plasma Cutter to chop mine, but you could use a hack saw if you needed to.

Now....I also have the set track extenders that CJ Pony Parts sells. This allowed me to bolt the legs down to them, so the stock bolt hole position wouldn't change after I cut them. Problems is, that the seat track extenders seem to add almost an inch of height to the stock seat, so even after all that effort, i'm back up to the stock seat height and only gained some leg room.

I'll take another crack at either modifying the extenders, or the floor pan area of the car the next attempt.

RangerJoe · Jun 20, 2013

I have the seat extenders too. My head actually hit the ceiling when I had a helmet on. Took them back off and modified the seat tracks to gain about 1" more leg extension. I have always wondered about lowering the seat, but never attempted it. I love the 99-04 leather seats, but they sit too high. This might be a feasible solution. Will stay tuned.

Joe

7991LXnSHO · Jun 20, 2013

So did you butt weld the pieces together after the cut? Did you need to reinforce the shortened legs? An inch or more would be helpful.

Gearbanger 101 · Jun 20, 2013

Just ran a couple of beads down each side with the Mig. No need to reinforce. The seats don't see a whole lot of lateral movement and most of what they do see is absorbed by the seat foam. I'm 6' 3" and about 265lbs and I have no problem with them.

If you don't mind the reclined position, go ahead and chop them a little more even at both ends. The lower you can make the back of the seat, the further your head will be from the roofline. I just prefer to be more upright when I drive. The stock seats have never really boasted that great of a seat position even when new.

7991LXnSHO · Jun 21, 2013

Thanks Hulk and Joe. I ordered a decent set of sliders from eBay to experiment with. The seat base angle has never been an issue for me. I just need some height with the new cushion. The old carpet and cardboard under the seat cover was short but not comfy. Do the sliders bolt onto the seat frame? I have not looked yet, on a trip.

Gearbanger 101 · Jun 21, 2013

7991LXnSHO said:
Thanks Hulk and Joe. I ordered a decent set of sliders from eBay to experiment with. The seat base angle has never been an issue for me. I just need some height with the new cushion. The old carpet and cardboard under the seat cover was short but not comfy. Do the sliders bolt onto the seat frame? I have not looked yet, on a trip.

If by "sliders" you mean the seat tracks, then yes they bolt to the bottm of the seat frame. The extenders sold through CJPony Parts, LMR, American Muscle, etc bolt to the bottom of the seat tracks and mimic the floor pan of your Mustang.

The extenders look like this....

....and the seat tracks bolt to it, then to the floor pan like so.

7991LXnSHO · Jun 22, 2013

The stock tracks slide, hence "sliders". This should be a good modification. Thanks again.

CarMichael Angelo · Jun 22, 2013

I'm late to this thread,....but I also cut the stock seat tracks down to eliminate the stock space shuttle attitude all Mustang seats have. As many stupid pictures of all of the things I have done,...this modification is not one I documented. Moved the seat down in front probably 1" so much so that the slider lever was against the carpet. Also extended the whole thing back 2-3" as well.

Shorten Your Seat Base

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7991LXnSHO

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7991LXnSHO

wanna catch the space herp

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my rearend will smell so minty fresh,

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