How to reduce seat height to fit a tall guy
Discussion
Evening everyone 
I'm looking for some advice on how to get more head room in the front passenger seat to fit my 6'8 mate. We are planning to drive to mongolia and back next summer and have already acquired the car for it. We are both out of the UK for a while from October onwards and are trying to come up with a solution for the seat height issue beforehand. Otherwise we'll probably have to change car.
We're doing the trip for charity and the car is likely to only last for this trip then we'll probably scrap it so we're looking to find the cheapest fix possible.
Bit of info
Car: 2003 Toyota Corolla 1.4 Hatchback
Driver's seat has a seat height adjustment function as well as move forward/back and tilt. The passenger seat unfortunately doesn't have the seat height adjustment.
My friend can just about fit in the driver's seat with it dropped as low as possible, for the passenger seat he has to tilt it way back to avoid tilting his head off the roof.
If anyone isn't familiar with the layout of the Corolla seats, they are mounted onto rails which are bolted onto a crossbeam at the front and mounted onto the sides at the back (from what I can remember). This crossbeam appears to be structural so no luck with cutting them down really. The car isn't with me at the moment so I can't put up any photos.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with solving this problem and has any insights I've not thought about?
Potential solutions to try out?
- source a bucket seat that will fit in the car and is lower than current seat and still somewhat comfortable
- source a left hand drive toyota corolla driver's seat (that has the seat height function): would this work?
- current seat could maybe be moved off the crossbeam and moved back and bolted to floor behind the beam. guessing it would be a much weaker fit and possibly more limited adjustments, i.e. can't move along the rails anymore
- ripping off the seat cushion (for sitting on) and putting on a much thinner padding, probably not make much difference and be much more uncomfortable
- cutting a big hole in the roof and installing a perspex dome
- putting a dent up into the roof
Bit of a long shot here, you guys will probably tell me to sell the car and look for one that actually fits my mate! Any suggestions at all would be very welcome!
I'm looking for some advice on how to get more head room in the front passenger seat to fit my 6'8 mate. We are planning to drive to mongolia and back next summer and have already acquired the car for it. We are both out of the UK for a while from October onwards and are trying to come up with a solution for the seat height issue beforehand. Otherwise we'll probably have to change car.
We're doing the trip for charity and the car is likely to only last for this trip then we'll probably scrap it so we're looking to find the cheapest fix possible.
Bit of info
Car: 2003 Toyota Corolla 1.4 Hatchback
Driver's seat has a seat height adjustment function as well as move forward/back and tilt. The passenger seat unfortunately doesn't have the seat height adjustment.
My friend can just about fit in the driver's seat with it dropped as low as possible, for the passenger seat he has to tilt it way back to avoid tilting his head off the roof.
If anyone isn't familiar with the layout of the Corolla seats, they are mounted onto rails which are bolted onto a crossbeam at the front and mounted onto the sides at the back (from what I can remember). This crossbeam appears to be structural so no luck with cutting them down really. The car isn't with me at the moment so I can't put up any photos.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with solving this problem and has any insights I've not thought about?
Potential solutions to try out?
- source a bucket seat that will fit in the car and is lower than current seat and still somewhat comfortable
- source a left hand drive toyota corolla driver's seat (that has the seat height function): would this work?
- current seat could maybe be moved off the crossbeam and moved back and bolted to floor behind the beam. guessing it would be a much weaker fit and possibly more limited adjustments, i.e. can't move along the rails anymore
- ripping off the seat cushion (for sitting on) and putting on a much thinner padding, probably not make much difference and be much more uncomfortable
- cutting a big hole in the roof and installing a perspex dome
- putting a dent up into the roof
Bit of a long shot here, you guys will probably tell me to sell the car and look for one that actually fits my mate! Any suggestions at all would be very welcome!
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