CooBlueDAB

Ok.... for all of you Del Sol seat swappers (Maybe only the earlier seats, like 94 back), I have reciently realized that I am not the only one that get the side bars of the metal bucket on the bottom part of the seat stuck in my thys after a little driving. It is the only, ONLY problem I have with the seats.

I have tried several different ways of adjusting the foam bottom, and ended up putting in several layers of 1 inch foam in key areas to pad those metal edges without losing a lot of the headroom advantage of del sol seats. This worked for a few days... but still had hard sides depending on how I sat... It is 3 months later, and the foam I put in has compacted. It is time for a more perminant solution, if there is one.

I was thinking about cutting about half, or a little less, of that side ridge off, and then of course, folding the metal over as it is now, so it doesnt cut the fabric and my legs... It would only be cut in the middle, the front and back have to have full height because of mounting holes...

One problem that I thought of though, is the strength of the seat... Will it still be able to hold a person through bumps and a possible crash? or will this make the seat too weak, eventually bending down, or otherwise warping the metal?

Are there any other suggestions to fix this problem? Please don't say get a new seat, the purpose of this is to fix this small problem for everyone and myself.


Modified by CooBlueDAB at 5:14 PM 11/3/2004

PH3593A

Does the passenger's side and driver's side seat bottoms interchange with each other? I've seen about a million sets of sol seats that have a jacked up drivers seat and almost perfect passenger side seat. I'd try it but mine are already installed, and yes I am that lazy to experiment myself.

CooBlueDAB

as far as I know, It isnt interchangable

CooBlueDAB

Bump for an original idea a day later?

revvin9k

I have a 96 Sol and don't have that problem.....but i'm also 5'08" and 125 lbs.

CooBlueDAB

bump for someone to tell me if the metal will still be structurally sound if I lowered the middle of the side ridges say... 1 inch

Ricey McRicerton

Without pictures I don't think I understand what you are asking. I've got Sols and never had this problem. I am, however, intersted in helping solve this issue if more than one person has it.

CooBlueDAB

well actual pictures are going to be hard to get for a while... However ... The bottom of a del sol seat is like a Paint roller pan... it is a ressessed pan of metal, with the lower part being where your butt goes, and higher part where legs rest.. for padding obviously.

Anyways... The bolt holes that hold the bottom of the seat to the seat brackets are pretty close to the 4 corners of that pan, and are reinforced.

The area in between those holes on the sides, not front and back are the problem.
For taller guys, (it was not just me, in another thread about GSR seats a few other guys mentioned the same thing) since we do not have enough leg room to stretch out, our legs bed up and lay to the sides, like they do in indian style sitting on the floor..

The metal on the side edges of the seat bottom gets pressed into our legs, and after a little time, it hurts... Think of it as you sitting on two narrow bars of steel, that go perpendicular to your thys... cutting into them like knives.

Aside from this one thing, the seats are godly.
Ergo what I thought of... The seat brackets are lower than the edge of the pan/bucket of the bottom of the seat. If the seats were cut some, and then the sharp metal was bent into a smooth lip level to the seat bracket, (the smooth lip is basically an upside down U, it just makes it so the edge doesnt cut into the cushion and your leg like a real knife)... If this small customization was made, the discomfort would dissappear, completely, because the angle of our legs would not be putting that kind of pressure on a lower side of the seat.

I think you can get an idea of the problem that needs fixing...

For the real question about the solution... Would taking say a inch at most, of a 2-3 inch side, in the middle of the seat, make it too weak to hold a person's weight, not just light guys, heavier too, the thing has to stay strong.

I will try to find pics later online or draw a Paint image or something after I do this report, let me know if you understand the basics of this problem/solution

CooBlueDAB

bump for me going home to do stuff and rechecking this idea

Ricey McRicerton

I do understand the problem now. I just rode to Charlotte and back (6 hour round trip) in my Del Sol seats last night and had 0 problem with them.

Possibly you could try to roll the seat edges down, but that would re-angle the seat rails non paralell to the ground.

Bakeoff

I'm 6'3" and I've never had this problem. I have a sol, and I have sol seats in my hatch. What you should really be looking at doing is sliding the seat farther back, and adding an extension to the steering column. Then your legs aren't all bent up like a pretzel, and you can still reach the wheel comfortably....

CooBlueDAB

yeah, I know moving the seat back could and would solve this... However, like I said, I dont want that, I want to try to solve the problem without changing the car, only the seat.

Hrm, I dont know what you mean <TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ricey McRicerton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Possibly you could try to roll the seat edges down, but that would re-angle the seat rails non paralell to the ground. </TD></TR></TABLE>

If I cut the middle, so it is no longer attached to the mounting holes, then it would not move the rails, nor holes, just the middle of the pan edges. Hrm, I guess I will find out soon... Financial trouble in the family may have me looking for a cheaper car... like a hatch or something... I dont know if I like the idea, or dont like the idea...

Thanks