A while back I purchased a pair of Scat racing seats w/ the sliders and brackets to fit my car. The brackets and sliders all bolted up to the seats and the car w/o any problems but the installed height of the seats was unbearable. I'm only about 6ft tall and no matter where I positioned the seat, my head would be touching the T-top glass. The seats were also very uncomfortable and did not seem very strong. Maybe that's what I get for going the "cheap" route on buying seats. I eventually sold the seats to a friend because I was unhappy overall with the seats. I'm looking to find out if anyone has had similar experiences with these or other seats and what the recommended fix is. I really like the comfort and position of the stock seats but I don't know if it is possible to acheave with aftermarket seats. I see a lot of people upgrading to the 4th gen seats but I'd like to have the availability to install 5 points in the future. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

When I ran a "racing" seat I first tried it with sliders and had the same height issue. What I did was bolt the seat to a steel plate and bolt the plate to the floor. Basically put the seat right on the floor as low as it could go. I had to figure out where I wanted it of course before fabbing the plate, since there was no adjustment.

 

LOL thats one way to keep the ol lady from driving your car.

So slow you go in reverse?

 

Back then I was the only driver so it did not matter. As part of the resurrection of the car it is going back to stock seats.

 

4th gen are the way to go.

If you want 5 point harnesses, you need a roll cage. If you are going to install a cage, get some real racing seats.

Otherwise, get some good 4th gens and be done with it.

You do NOT want to use 5 point harnesses in a car without a cage.

 

I'm not really sold on mounting the seats in one spot, although it would solve the height issue, I'd like to be able to move the seat if I had to. I'm trying to get a happy medium of comfort and function. I don't have much experience with racing seats and I am trying to figure out if there is a certain brand of seat that sits lower and is somewhat comfortable. I know I will have to sacrafice some comfort with a racing seat but the Scat seats felt like sitting on a cloth covered milk crate. The 4th gen seats seem like a good option but I know I can't run a 5 point set up with them. The future plan is for a cage and 5 points but I'm trying to find out if it's worth the time. I just really want a set of racing seats that will sit at or around the factory seat height so I don't have to worry about my head hitting the T-tops.

 

Corbeau feel better, but they all will sit high aa long as you have sliders.

 

So I basically have to do without the sliders no matter what seat I go with, if I want them to be around the factory height?

 

yep. Or aluminum or poly seats.

 

I recently ran into this problem with my racing seats. at 6'2" my head was hanging out of the t-top when they were off. I had the option to either buy a special bracket, custom build my own, or find another way. I ended up taking the stock brackets to a local metal shop and had them take off one inch on all the mounts and I fit like a glove in the Camaro. Not sure if it will be an option for you, but for $30 it couldn't hurt, plus you could buy an old junk seat bracket to test it first.

 

And FYI, I went the cheap route too with ebay seats for $130, so far no problems with them and are extremely comfortable!

 

Just out of curiosity, what are the special brackets you are talking about? Would you know where I could find them? If not, how did you do it? Did you have the factory sliders attached to the aftermarket floor bracket? I was considering that, but the seats I had were so uncomfortable I didn't want to be stuck with them if I ruined them. Are those Ebay seats flat on the bottom or are they recessed at all? That was also one of my concerns with the seats I had, they were flat on the bottom and the factory seat bottom is recessed so the sliders bolt up almost flush with the bottom of the seat. Sorry for the 20 questions but I really want to upgrade my seats and it would be nice to fit in the car when I'm done.

 

The special brackets are the ones made by the major racing seat companies like Sparco and Recaro. They usually cost at least $150 and bolt to the stock floor bolts and have a generic seat mount brackets ( they do not guarantee a fit to your seat, unless you buy one of their higher priced higher level seats).

I used the factory sliders attached to the seats using two 1/4" steel bars and case hardened class 10 bolts that adapted the old brackets to the new seat. There is a thread on here for how to do that, I will post a link if I can find it. If I remember right the factory seats were flat on the bottom too haha, but my new one is fairly flat bottomed. They mounted the exact same way as the stock seats except for being more padded which added around an inch, plus the 1/4'' for the steel added that little height.

It's fine to have all the questions, it would be terrible to make an investment as large as seats without knowing most of what you are getting into.

I spent the first 3-4 months with back problems after my new seat because I had to slouch whenever I drove, plus I got a nice neck kink after hitting an invisible dip and slammed into the roof.Then I decided to fix the seat height problem. So you might as well get it all handled at once.

 

Thank you for the input Dabesiv, I really appreciate it! I've owned this car for 6 years now and it still remains my most prized possession, even if it doesn't look that way to some people. I really enjoy all the time I put into it and the satisfaction it brings me to sit back and reflect on the things I've been able to do with the car so far. I will forever be upgrading this car.

 

Another option is to cut and weld the factory rails (get the slider almost right on the floor), you could get an inch or more lower with them if you really needed adjustable. Not sure if that is enough to solve the issue though.

 

No problem! This is year five for me with this car and it has been an adventure, the people here at thirdgen definitely make the adventure a whole lot easier sometimes too haha. good luck with the seats!

 

Thats what I'm suggesting, it's cheap, easy and should only take half an hour to do.

 

What brand were the seats you got?

 

I found some 2001 trans am seats in mint condition at a pick a part, best upgrade ive made to date (aside from my cupholder) stone

 

try DT Moto
http://myworld.ebay.com/dt_moto

They are all pretty much the same seat no matter the company just different shipping costs etc. bear in mind the seats I have do not have a quick release latch for reclining. It is a **** on either side that you have to turn one way or the other to slowly raise or lower the seat angle. It can be a pain but it's less likely to fail and is pretty easy to adjust to your perfect comfort level.