My new car!

[chickenwafer]

And this train just keeps on rollin...

New seats, courtesy of Ryan95 (thanks again bud!). They are from a JDM FD, so they are a little different. Mostly the US driver side (JDM Passenger side) has a level near the top of the seat so the JDM driver could flip it forward. It's rather pointless for US cars put I found it nice to use it instead of the standard lever on the side to adjust the recline of the seat. Anyways, on to pics:



Threw 'em in the car today:



I LOVE LOVE LOVE cloth seats over leather in a car without air conditioning!! I felt so much cooler when I took the FD for a spin...no more "peeling" myself off the leather. The cloth seats were a great addition, plus they are black so my interior is now 99.9% converted to black, only missing black seat belts, which I plan to pick some up soon.

Took the car for a spin with a new fuel and timing map setup. I made a slightly more aggressive timing map (still with somewhat conservative split timing) and leaned out the AFRs. I got the AFR's about 95% where I want them, pretty close to perfect. I think the rest will require chasing down some stray cells on the dyno. Cruising is 14.4-14.9, tip-in/spool up is around 12.5-13, and boost starts at 11.6 and tappers to 11.2-11.0 towards redline.

Speaking on boost, I also cranked up the manual boost controller to get a solid 15psi to redline. After driving today and quite a few boosted pulls to ensure everything was good, I was headed home and did a quick 2nd gear spurt and I heard on odd noise and power dropped off dramatically. GREEEEEEAAAAT. I clutch in and it idles perfectly at 1000rpm pulling 14" of vacuum, so it's not blown. I drive the rest of the way home, car refuses to boost anymore...



And yup! Blown coupler. Apparently this connection wasn't 15psi ready. Damn I need to get some t-bolt clamps!

[speedjunkie]

With the lip on the pipe I'm really surprised its popping off.

[chickenwafer]

Yeah, I was too. The pipe is beaded, I must of not had the clamp tight enough.

[Ryan95]

Another thing about those seats, the jdm ones don't go back very far, so I had to modify the rails, now they go back further than the US spec seats, which is solid if you're an ogre like me.

[chickenwafer]

I'm more ogre than you, Ryan, so they worked well! Thanks again!

[chickenwafer]

So, with my stock tan leather seats out of the car, I decided to cannibalize/modify the drivers seat to see if I can eek some more headroom out of it. My first thought was to see if I could lower the rails any...um, nope. The bottom of the seat already sits on the floor. Literally zero room to lower the seat.

Next option is to remove foam off the chair bottom...I measured it and there is plenty. For reference here is what I'm starting with:

Stock chair:



And measuring the foam:



You can see just a little over 7 inches of foam up front. Then, I sat in the chair and measured from the floor to the top of my dome. 40.5 inches for a starting head height.

Okay, time to get to work. I first removed the side plastic piece:



Next are four bolts, two per side (those two gold colored bolts in the picture above). The outside are 14mm and the inside bolts are 12mm. I also removed the seat belt clip bolt, which for some reason is a 5/8" or some weird metric size I don't have haha.

What you end up with is this:





Then flipped the seat over to remove the hog rings that hold the leather skin in place:





I first tried cut them with some dykes, but this didn't work well. They are quite tough. I found out using a pair of needle nose pliers and rocking them under the hog ring and pulling up removes the rings apart and out, like so:





Then there are also some black plastic rivets in the back of the seat securing the rear of the leather skin. I used the needle nose and rocked them under and up to remove these as well:





There are also two hidden rivets under the seat rails, which are impossible to remove without removing the rails, so I cut the fabric that secured them with my razor:



Then start peeling the leather off the foam:



And the bottom of the seat:

[chickenwafer]

The leather is then secured to the foam with more hog rings;



These are much more tricky to remove since you can push against anything, so I just ripped the piece off at the seam since I no longer need the foam:



And separated:



This is the foam piece that gets removed, hellllloooo headroom!



And the bottom of the chair you're left with:



Now this isn't too comfortable to sit on just by itself (yes I tried it) so I elected to put the leather skin back on:



I didn't have any hog rings, so I used, what else? Zip ties!





All the zips on ready to be cut:



Then it's time to but it all back together. Don't forget the seat belt clip bolt:



Done:



Side by side:





Now, for the proof. I sat in the modified chair and my pretty head sits at only 37 inches off the floor...a reduction of 3.5 inches!! This should be PLENTY for a helmet.

Plus, it isn't even that uncomfortable. Would I want to drive across the country in it? Hell no! I wouldn't even drive it out of the State! But will it work beautifully for a track only event/situation? I do believe so.

The other added benefit is the side bolsters are much taller now...so the seat really hugs me, much more than before. I sit "in" the seat as opposed to on top of it. Side to side movement is reduced considerably, it almost feels like a racing seat.

Tomorrow when I get home from work I'll remove my new driver seat and throw in the track seat and see how it works with a helmet. As of now, I'm pretty optimistic it will work well.

[Operator]

American ingenuity, I like it!!!!!

[chickenwafer]

Haha thanks Dave! It has to be American ingenuity because we're so damn tall!

[Ryan95]

I still might add an inch of high density foam to the bottom or so.

[speedjunkie]

^I was thinking the same thing. That plastic does not look comfortable at all lol.

[chickenwafer]

I still might add an inch of high density foam to the bottom or so.

I thought about it, but I would obviously loose another inch of headroom, and its going to be tight as it is with a helmet. It's really not that uncomfortable, honestly.

^I was thinking the same thing. That plastic does not look comfortable at all lol.

It's not bad, plus I don't want to give up the headroom. Like I said guys, this is a track only solution. It's not like I'm going to be cruising the streets with this seat. I might even see if for track events I'll put this seat in the car somehow (maybe remove the passenger seat) and at the track swap out to this chair and put the normal chair back in for the drive home.

But, like I said, its not terribly uncomfortable. When you're 6'6" and want to track an FD with a helmet, you have to make some sacrifices lol.

[speedjunkie]

I'm curious to hear about the first track day about comfort, then I may do this with a spare seat if it's not too bad after a whole day lol. The part that makes me worry is how it sinks down so far in the middle of the plastic and then part of it comes up, then you have the bolsters coming up farther. I think it's awesome how the bolsters hold you in, but it's that sink in the plastic that gets me lol. I just don't see how half your butt cheek isn't falling down in there.

[chickenwafer]

LOL, trust me Eric, it isn't terrible. If you have narrower hips/butt than I do (chances are real good you do) then it will be even more comfortable. I'm really held in by the side foam bolsters tho, very little hip movement.

Got home a little early today so I tossed the seat in:



First impression; getting in and out of the car is real difficult now haha. But I sit very noticeably lower. I can actually see the entire tach and speedo without moving my head around (normally the 4-6k rpm and 80-130mph part of the speedo I can't see due to the steering wheel blockage). I had about the width of my hand in-between my head and the headliner...roughly 4 to 4.5 inches. MUCH more than ever before.

So, do I fit with a helmet? YES!! Just barely, but I do, and more importantly, I am sitting in a more optimal driving position with a clear view of the gauges and not leaned way back and/or hunched over.

I will say, without a doubt, the seat is uncomfortable compared to the stock seat, but for a track only solution, I think it will work. My backside may be a little sore after an hour + on the track, but it's either this or don't track the car. Small sacrifice IMO.

I think swapping seats at the track would be a PITA even though I can get the seats in and out in under 5 minutes now, it still won't be fun to lug around an extra seat and risk potential damage to my minty condition new cloth seats, and I'd have to leave them in the pits. So I came up with this super easy idea to give the modified seat stock comfort, on the fly:



Duh! I just put the piece of foam I removed back on top of the seat. When I sit on it, it's comfortable like a stock seat, then I just simply pull the foam out and boom! Helmet clearance! I'm happy with this solution. So I can swap in this modified seat at my house before I head out to the track, throw the foam in the seat, roll out comfortably to the track, remove the foam when it's helmet time, and throw the foam back in for the drive home. I think it will work out well.

[speedjunkie]

You are so ghetto. LOL jk This seems like a good and inexpensive solution. I might try this with mine. Although I don't even want to have to swap the seats out at home either lol.