[snowblind]

I did some more work on the driver's seat last night.

I'm a medium/large guy (6'1/215) so priorities for mounting the seats are decent leg room and a fairly low seat bottom so that my head doesn't stick above the windshield when the top is off. The leg room is determined by how far the seat will go back and the seat bottom height by how close to the floor you get the seat. Unfortunately when mounting these seats to a 72 Jimmy the two requirements are at odds with each other.

To get the seats lower you either need to modify the floor or modify the seat brackets. My seats currently have 1.5" of extra height below the rails courtesy of some mounting feet/brackets that I think I can get rid of. I'll need to check the seat operation first but hopefully they will work with a smaller/no mounting foot. I think that dropping the seats a bit is key to a decent look when the top is off.

For legroom... as the seat nears the end of it's rearward travel it extends past the back of the seat mounting brackets and bangs into the bottom of the rear bulkead. This problem is compounded by the shape of the seat rails, the little bulge at the bottom of the bulkhead and the fact that the side of the seat with the least room sticks out 4-6" further than the other due to the power tilt motors. To fix this you need to either raise the seat mounting (giving the rail more room to travel) or trim the seat rails. Since I don't want to go any higher I'll be trimming the rails.

I plan on making my own little brackets to adapt the new seat rails to the existing mounting holes in the floor and the take some steps to reinforce the floor for the added weight of the seats and lack of additional seat belt anchors.

FYI - the seats weigh roughly 80-100lbs each.


Matt