Aftermarket Bucket seats because of medical reasons..?

Knebel

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Hey all.

I'm hesitant to ask but does anyone know of some decent buckets/racing seats that will keep your lower half planted in the seat with minimal body twisting and such?
I had an accident and have arthritis in my lower back now at only 37 and I have a newly upholstered metallic red/maroon bench in my 68 fury that hurts my back when I slide around and such.

I want to make the car more enjoable for me to drive without being in pain and I would prefer something without headrests but a good firm sidehold is important. Also important is that it looks like it blends in with the rest of the interior a little.

Anyone got any Ideas? I already have a shoulder belts in the front...

Thank you!
 
Have you considered using a four-point harness or five point harness that has the straps bolted to the floor under the seat both in the front and rear of the seat. If you went to a car show and didn’t want the harness showing you could just talk the upper and lower belts under the seat. Just a thought.
 
I'm presuming you have looked in Summit and similar to see what might be available, then went to the various seat websites to look around? The Recaro higher-level seats have seemed to get very expensive for what they are, compared to other brands.

If there is a Summit near you, they normally have seats out on the floor for test-fits and such.

The key to any aftermarket seat is getting anchored to the floor pan and be level side-to-side, then angled front to rear to suit.

What about recent-model Challenger seats? Might need to get a trim shop to remove the side air bags, but those seats might be a bit more robust (and heavier, with the power bases, too) than the aftermarket seats tend to be?

Hope you can get better!

CBODY67
 
I feel your pain... Mostly in my neck, but I get it.

I've had racing seats. I had a Corbeau seat in the Neon my sons and I autocrossed. That was great side support, but really tough on the butt because the padding was minimal. I also had a Kirkey aluminum seat that had almost zero padding...

The other thing to think about is with the seat sides wrapping around you, it's hard to get in an out. The more support, the worse it is. I'm sure you probably swing both your legs out when you exit and you aren't going to be able to do that. Getting into it is more of a fall into the seat.

So... I'm thinking that maybe you could look at some sort of support that sits on your existing seat. Have to figure out how to keep that from sliding around though.
 
Maybe something like this... Get some firm foam and an old electric carving knife and try a few things.

This one has a hole to let the farts out.

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I havent even thought about the harness option! That would look a lot more correct either. I have looked around a little but haven't really fou d anything that wouldnt look like puke in the car hehe
 
I have an 87 Fifth Avenue. The leather seats are so plush with padding, and I sink so far into them that they do prevent a lot of side movement. They do a good job of keeping the hips and lower back in place. But not like a racing seat.
I wish they protruded farther out to the knees.
The early 90's front drive Chrysler is similar.
 
I thinknI am going to look into a better harness first, thats the least amount of interiour modification I would have to do. Maybe I have it in me to build a removeable harness bar or something...
 
Uh and they do custom work as well. I think those without the headrests would look decent. I gotta see if I can get some vinyl samples from them.
Without head restraint might look good, but I wouldn't forgo the option of a head restraint on new seats. Add some safety.
 
A custom made/fitted centre armrest/console would provide for storage and minimize side movement, standard armrests don't provide enough support. May not be factory correct, but neither will be any other mods.
 
Back problems here too, here’s what I did: I went to a used car lot that had dozens of different examples and sat in many cars until I found some thing that was a good fit. If it passed that test, then I went out and drove it for a little bit to put some time and see if it was comfortable and pain-free. Then I purchased a used pair from a wrecking yard, and removed the head rests had an upholsterer make some simple slip covers in the same material to match the backseat. They don’t really look ‘correct’ but it was close enough for me, and it put enjoyment back into experiencing and driving the car again. It was worth the compromise my book.

Steve weim55 Colorado
 
@Knebel
I remember some time ago you made a comment about a traumatic back injury and I wondered how you've been doing with it.

My idea on seats:
I've had 2 Lincoln Mark VII LSCs in the past and the front seats are VERY supportive. In fact, the way the front doorpanel molds in toward the driver, I actually felt a little cramped the first time I got in one. But I quickly learned to like it, and it really is a good driving enthusiast's car.
Unfortunately, getting 2 seats in usable condition will be a bit tough nowadays, recovering will be required. It was actually tough years ago, as the side bolsters wear just from getting in/out of the car.

You MUST get the seats from around 87-89, as the later '90-92 seats look similar but are NOT the same and won't hold you as well. Due to the heavy wear happening on the bolsters they redesigned the seats (I read that somewhere) but more likely the wear wasn't that fast, but likely there were complaints about them getting in the way for ingress/egress for the old dudes.. (my hunch)

Top 2 pics are the seats to look for, the steering wheel is a good 1st clue, although donor-car seats might not be original at this point.
So - look for the separate segment at the knees as a sure-fire clue (it is power adjustable, FWIW).

The 2nd pic compares to the later seats. The green circle bolster is noticeably bigger when comparing them. I don't know if the knee/thigh bolsters were 'diluted' also. Note the different steering wheel used on the later cars, and the obviously-non-adjustable knee bolster.


These seats have a lot of adjustment to them, the movement controls are in the doors, and the lumbar, etc, switches are on the seat itself.
Note the adjustment of the knee section in the tan seats.

The burgundy seats have perforated-leather inserts, but I have seen these seats in teh same color and velour inserts, in a slightly-brighter color. I don't know how well those colors would work for you, or if you'd even find a usable pair of seats in that combination.

Aside from that, I'd go prowling a JY and see what modern seats feel good to you and are usable as-is.
Be aware, though, that any modern car with a power seat with memory settings might be a hassle to retrofit as the memory might be wired into a body module. I found this out with these late-model Chrysler 300 buckets I got for my 300L. (bottom pic)
Modern seats will have a bunch of wires (mine have 2 connectors of 20+ wires each, circled) although most of the wires are NOT needed (airbags, occupant sensors, seatbelt buckeled, etc).
One benefit of modern seats is the catalysts are at the engine, and the floorboard can be relatively flat.
These 300 seats look like the mounting bolts are in a nice squarish pattern, and all on the same plane.
I don't know how supportive they'd be for you, though. there are probably better options (Camaro, Mustang, Lincoln, Cadillac, etc)
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I'm surviving day by day. The back is extremely weather sensitive so thats fun...

Those seats look like old "factory oem" recaro seats, that of course would be the best thing to find... I had something very similar in my '91 minicooper when I was 18 lol.
 
Yeah, you'd need to get them recovered to match, that's for sure.
Not sure how they'd accomplish that, other than maybe a small pattern of stitching/buttons to match the back seat.
The darker-red stripes might be hard to lay onto a curvy seat, too.
 
Yeah I got some color swatches and I think this would look like "tried but failed to match". I would probably be better iff doing an all out hardshell seat. The getting in and out is not so much my concern...yet lol.

I'm starting to look at a sparco QRT in alcantara/leather. Maybe one of those for the driver and something a little cheaper on the passenger side.
 
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