I recently picked up a set of seats from a Honda Del Sol locally for a great price! For their age, they're in great shape- no tears, no real stains, the bolsters are in fairly good condition- someone took care of these seats.




The reason I wanted them: they sit lower than OEM DC2 Integra seats- a good bit lower. With the OEM Integra seats, my head/hair brushes against the roof of the car. I previously had a set of Corbeau A4 seats bolted to the ground/a bracket, which gave me the headroom I needed to fit in the car with a helmet, but I never really got comfortable in them and no one could drive my car if they aren't roughly the same size as me (I'm 6'2", my wife is 5'4"- she couldn't drive the car).

You can see the difference between the Del Sol seats vs OEM Integra leather seats:





The Del Sol seats sit lower because of the lower seat pan:





I heard a plethora of false rumors about swapping Del Sol seats all over the Internet-many of which were untrue, so I figured I would share what I learned:

-I heard the Del Sol seat rails are lower than the Integra seat rails... completely false. I didn't break out the measuring calipers to see if there's a 1-2mm difference, but my eyeballs say the height of the rails is identical:





-I also heard that the Del Sol shares the same seat rails as the DC2 Integra and EG Civic... once again, completely false. On the Integra, one of the rear mounts is pointed downward, while the Del Sol mount is flat... on the front side, the Del Sol rail mounting hole(s) are pointed inward, while the DC2 rail mounting hole(s) are pointed outward. Unless you want to spend some time modifying the Del Sol rails, they won't work. Much easier to just swap your DC2 rails onto the Del Sol seats:







Now, because my DC2 has a tan interior, these seats stick out like a sore thumb. If I find I really love driving around in them over time, I might consider getting them reupholstered to match the interior:





^^^With that said, they are noticeably lower. I've read all kinds of rumors about how much lower the Del Sol seats are- I've seen 1 inch, 2 inches, 3 inches, you name it... the actual measurement? According to my tape measure, taken before and after, with the seat all the way back and tilted at the same angle: roughly 1.75" inches. Which, that's actually pretty substantial. Low enough for a guy my size to fit in the car with a helmet.

There are a couple more added benefits:

-The Del Sol seats seem to be just a tad bit thinner (the seat back portion). Translation? Just a tad bit more legroom, as I sit slightly further back from the steering wheel with the seat all the way back.

-The cloth Del Sol seats are roughly ~2.4 lbs lighter than the leather Integra seats (each). So around ~5 lbs of weight savings total.

My impressions after driving the car around a bit:

-Yes, the seats are notably lower.

-The Del Sol's bolstering is a bit more aggressive than the Integra seats, holding you in place better going around corners.

-They're not uncomfortable per se, but the stock Integra seats definitely felt a bit more "cushy". The stock Integra seats appeared to be suspended/sprung, which seemed to isolate you from the road slightly more- not a big deal, but something to note nonetheless.

-The Del Sol seats have just a bit of lumber support built into them that is non-adjustable... I'm not a big fan of lumbar support, so I usually just adjust it to where the seat is more flat... my stock Integra driver seat also has (adjustable) lumbar support, but I usually kept it fully turned down. More on solving this problem down below...

Overall, this is a very worthwhile mod. These seats are tough to find, but I would recommend them to anyone in a DC2 that is trying to find a bit of extra headroom. Keep in mind, if you have cloth seats, you likely won't gain as much headroom as I gained as the cloth seats seem to sink in just a bit more. I have also read that the later DC2 seats (the height adjustable ones) sit a bit higher than the earlier cars (mine is a 1996 GSR coupe)- I can't confirm that, but if you have the taller Integra seats, you might actually get more headroom than I did.

Modifying lumbar:
After driving around in these seats for a bit, I decided I was going to modify the Del Sol seats. The extra lumbar drove me absolutely nuts- it pushes my hips forward while driving and I couldn't get comfortable. So, taking a lesson from my Miata days, I pulled the seat covers up a bit, grabbed a flat razorblade and started shaving until they got comfortable.

In order to pull up the seat cover, you'll have to unzip the seat covers from the back. Once they're unzipped, there are a total of 5 hog-rings. You can probably try bending them, but I've played this game before (with Miata seats) and have no patience; so, I just grabbed some cutters and snipped the hog-rings.

When I finished, instead of using hog-rings to pull the seat cover back together, I just used small black zip-ties, which work just fine:





Once you have the hog-rings cut off, you can just pull the seat cover up, take a flat razorblade (or cutting/shaving tool of your choice) and start cutting or shaving the seat down:





Take your time. I wouldn't recommend going crazy with a turkey carving knife (admittedly I've done that in the past on Miata seats). Shave the places where you find the seat to be uncomfortable, then pull the cover back over it, sit in the seat and move around until its more comfortable. I went thru about 3-4 rounds of shaving and testing before I finally got rid of the excessive lumbar and the seat became very comfortable to sit in.

I kept going back and forth between this seat and the driver's seat in my S2000- I've always loved the S2000's seats/seating position, so I tried to imitate the shape/feel as best as I could.

Overall, this was 100% worth the 1 hour of my time it took to shave them down. Very easy, just take your time and make them comfortable.

I forgot to take a before photo from the same angle and distance, but here's what the driver's seat looked like when I was done carving it:





By comparison, here's what the passenger seat looks like (I did not shave down the passenger seat):





^^^You can see how the unshaved passenger seat pushes your back/hips forward to a far more substantial degree.

There's a bonus to this mod as well: there's now just a bit more legroom as well! Since the seat is no longer pushing my back/hips forward, I would estimate I probably have close to an extra 1/2 inch of legroom! It's not much, but every little bit helps in these cars!

Happy modding!