Seat thread part deux
Discussion
Folks,
I know this is a resurrection of an old thread, one of many perhaps, on replacement (or rebuilt) seats for the GTR. Having driven to Pebble Beach and back this past Friday for the Concourso Italiano, I've been motivated to re-activate my plan to improve the seating in my car.
As mentioned some time back, I purchased my car from the builder with just under 5K miles on it. It was raced, driven around town, and displayed in parades and the like. The interior is quite well done in all aspects, and the seats are bone stock, vintage 2005. The builder was perhaps a bit bigger than I, but we're both modest sized fellows. About 5'10" and 160 lbs. The padding in the drivers seat is absolutely flat, no cushioning, and you can even see a few spots where the structure of the seat has made marks in the leather from below. Not good for either the leather or my anatomy. I remember once asking the builder/owner what is the range of the car. He told me that his anatomy gives up at about 150 miles so he never found out. Too true, too true.
Couple of options:
1. If I could remove the seats from the car, and then remove the leather cover from the seat, I could lay in a layer of quality padding and just reassemble. The simplest/lowest cost technique, if readily possible. But I'd be left with the stock seat which isn't a winner to me. It's fit is reasonable but the wings catch my elbows and it's tough to find a steady position because of it;
2. I could take it to an auto interior re-upholsterer to rebuild the seats. Perhaps doing it asymmetrically so that the drivers seat would fit my narrow bottom while the passenger seat would be more forgiving for a broader range of human shapes (pun police on call). Has anyone in the U.S. ever had a seat or two rebuilt? Any idea of the estimated costs? How would I spec out such an endeavor - structure, leather, alcantara, et al?
3. I could buy new seats from a manufacturer. I have to admit that I have had an eye on the Tilton V4 (or others) seats for two years. The CF look beautiful and I suspect they would be a good fit (for me and the car) but I can't readily test-sit them and that is worrisome. There's also the challenge of linking them to the existing tracks, or installing a new set of tracks to the floor of the car (sold by Tilton). There are also seats from Reverie and one here in the U.S. (Tecno-something) who may make compatible CF seats. None are inexpensive but good seats tend to be costly. I am a bit target-fixated on CF seats but have a reasonably open mind to other designs/vendors too. I just don't know what fits the car as no vendor has the Ultima listed in their 'compatibility' section (what a surprise). Has anyone installed CF seats? Another brand of more 'conventional' race seats?
Anyway, I'm requesting your collective wisdom, experience and input here. Again, apologies if this is a repeating topic but it seemed to have stalled the last time and this time it is more pressing than ever.
Thanks in advance,
V
I know this is a resurrection of an old thread, one of many perhaps, on replacement (or rebuilt) seats for the GTR. Having driven to Pebble Beach and back this past Friday for the Concourso Italiano, I've been motivated to re-activate my plan to improve the seating in my car.
As mentioned some time back, I purchased my car from the builder with just under 5K miles on it. It was raced, driven around town, and displayed in parades and the like. The interior is quite well done in all aspects, and the seats are bone stock, vintage 2005. The builder was perhaps a bit bigger than I, but we're both modest sized fellows. About 5'10" and 160 lbs. The padding in the drivers seat is absolutely flat, no cushioning, and you can even see a few spots where the structure of the seat has made marks in the leather from below. Not good for either the leather or my anatomy. I remember once asking the builder/owner what is the range of the car. He told me that his anatomy gives up at about 150 miles so he never found out. Too true, too true.
Couple of options:
1. If I could remove the seats from the car, and then remove the leather cover from the seat, I could lay in a layer of quality padding and just reassemble. The simplest/lowest cost technique, if readily possible. But I'd be left with the stock seat which isn't a winner to me. It's fit is reasonable but the wings catch my elbows and it's tough to find a steady position because of it;
2. I could take it to an auto interior re-upholsterer to rebuild the seats. Perhaps doing it asymmetrically so that the drivers seat would fit my narrow bottom while the passenger seat would be more forgiving for a broader range of human shapes (pun police on call). Has anyone in the U.S. ever had a seat or two rebuilt? Any idea of the estimated costs? How would I spec out such an endeavor - structure, leather, alcantara, et al?
3. I could buy new seats from a manufacturer. I have to admit that I have had an eye on the Tilton V4 (or others) seats for two years. The CF look beautiful and I suspect they would be a good fit (for me and the car) but I can't readily test-sit them and that is worrisome. There's also the challenge of linking them to the existing tracks, or installing a new set of tracks to the floor of the car (sold by Tilton). There are also seats from Reverie and one here in the U.S. (Tecno-something) who may make compatible CF seats. None are inexpensive but good seats tend to be costly. I am a bit target-fixated on CF seats but have a reasonably open mind to other designs/vendors too. I just don't know what fits the car as no vendor has the Ultima listed in their 'compatibility' section (what a surprise). Has anyone installed CF seats? Another brand of more 'conventional' race seats?
Anyway, I'm requesting your collective wisdom, experience and input here. Again, apologies if this is a repeating topic but it seemed to have stalled the last time and this time it is more pressing than ever.
Thanks in advance,
V
Edited by Verde on Tuesday 20th August 05:45
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