Seats and slidining adjusters
 

I have come to a point where I think I just waisted a couple hundred dollars and several months. My wife helps me make the payments on the car. It fit me just great ,she's a little taller.I had the fiberglass buckets reappolstered in leather.The drivers seat was originaly tipped up in the front with a pair of wood blocks 12" long ,1 1/4" at the front and tapering to nothing at the other end.I made an alluminum a plate w/ bent and welded stiffining edges to cover enough of the bottom to cover the glued edges underneith the seat. I made a pair of alluminum tapered channels to replace the wood and make a place to attach sliders. I bought the thin sliders fron Summit Racing ,both sliders lock.I had to make a spacer with a void to allow for the interconnecting rod to the other slider without a handle .I planned ,bent the metal, made special peices , constantly fitting and adjusting ,welded,sand blasted ,painted, installed riv-nuts. It added about 1 1/2" to the heigth.I do not have the smallest nor the largest thighs and my clearence undr the steering wheel has disappeared.I twisted the seat to point at the pedals which makes the inside of the seat parrallel with the tunnel. The seat is leaned inward so the back will fit inside the wheel well for maximum travel. I thought I had anticapated everything. I may go back to the wood.
The Shelby tubular frame seats were a lot higher to begin with their sliders were thicker and more expensive and only one side locked.
Who has tried adjusters? Who still is using them ? Who went back to bolting directly to the floor? Who has a story?

Hi Mike:
Mine are bolted to the floor. I have the slider but it raised the seat up and I never used the slider at all. Bolted to the floor, I sit lower and being 6 feet, it just feels better being lower. I think if multiple folks drive the Cobra and they are of different heights and stature, then the adjustable seat is appropriate. Its not for me.

Mike I used slider tracks that are available at NAPA ($16). I turned them upside down and mounted tapered wood strips the full lenght. I drilled holes through the floor and attached them, I then screwed the seat bottom to the wood strips. I can send you a couple of pictures if you want.

Randy

I recently added adjustable seat rails in my Unique so that my daughter and I could both properly drive my car. For details of the seat rail installation go to http://www.uniquecobra.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=290 Unique trims the bottom of the dash on the driver’s side to give better leg/thigh clearance under the dash. I would guess that most kits could also use the bottom of the dash trimmed down. Like you, I added a 2" spacer under the front of the seat to angle it back. However, you may find that slightly less seat angle might be a good compromise for increased thigh clearance. Maybe it will take some experimentation of trimming the underside of the dash and the amount of front seat edge spacing. You might want to search "seat" on Uniquecobra.com for more seat modification. I have also been experimenting with improving lumbar support and the seat bottom cushioning.
Good luck and if you don't mind, report back how it is going.

CR equips their seats with adjustable sliders nearly identicle to the ones Summit sells, except there's no rod between them, and only one side locks. Sounds screwy, but it works. Initially, the sliders hung up on the carpet, the seats wouldn't move at all when bolted down, and that worked fine for me. To get the sliders to move, I had to melt and flatten the carpet with a soldering gun along the seat track line.

My wife loves riding in it, and wants to drive it. Like teaching a teenager how to drive, we've been out of a few back roads getting accustomed to how the car behaves. The seat all the way back is fine for me, but the seat all the way forward still isn't enough for her to push the clutch down far enough. I'm in the process of designing a clutch pedal footpad that can install easily when she drives, come off easy when I drive.

Any of you tried this?

As an aside, how many of you have burned yourself on a hot droplight? Or worse, burned and melted your carpet with a hot droplight laying on the carpet (like working under the dash)? There are spiral fluorescent bulbs now that replace incandescent bulbs and they don't get hot! No more burned arms, hands, faces, or melted carpet. About six bucks in Home Depot. They don't survive being dropped too well, so get a spare.

Jack,
I too had the problem of my daughter having enough forward seat travel. I latter maxed out the position of the seat rail mounts to my seat position. This maxed out the forward seat position. Thanks for the suggestion of the fluorescent drop light. I will be getting one.

My setup is solid.When I tried a Shelby their seat squirmed ( just operating the brake) with only one side locking.My adjuster is directly(parrallel) to the floor so as it is adjusted the heigth doesn't change.I have the fronts lifted 1 1/4" to replicate the original tapered chunks of 2x4. My butt is only raised the heigth of the actual adjuster and a spacer strip of alluminum that is machined to accomadate the mechanism total of about 1 1/4" +or-
The front edge of the plate and adjusters are as far forward as the snaps for seat cushion would allow. and the actual rear of the seat is at or below the top of the adjusters rails.Sturdy has never been a problem.Rremember that I'm a heavey equipment mechanic.Sometimes I have to say it's good enough ,it isn't a bulldozer.

I am 6'-2" and my wife is 5'-5". She has driven every car I have owned including 4 race cars.Seat tracks were a necessary evil for me. I had to find a way to install them without raising me in the car. The tracks are not centered on the seat base they are mounted as far forward as they could be without being visible. This way I could allow the back of the seat base to touch the floor when slid as far back as it would go. The tracks are 5/8 thick and my tapered spacer is 5/8 thinner than the passenger spacer. The end result is a seat that is no higher than the passenger seat .