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My "new" confortable seats!! Yippee!

Jack CrosbyJack CrosbyHot Springs, AR, VS RabyTypeIV
I have been fussing over my narrow seats since I joined the forum two years ago. They are the standard Vintage ones that some others use as well. The problem was that the sides of the seat's shell got me in both hips and were very uncomfortable on long trips like Carlisle from Hot Springs AR. Ot the Dragon Run. My wife even made some nice cushions to help out-but they weren't the solution.

I bought a set of Porsche 914 seats from a member here. When they arrived I thought I'd just try the Porsche seat bottoms in my Vintage shells and voila--that was the fix I had ben looking for! The Porsche shells were wider and a bit deeper and rode higher on the sides so that the sides were BENEATH the seating area of the cushions. And they felt great!

A nice upholstry guy simply removed the Vintage "covers" from the seats and expertly fit them to the Porsche cushions so the seats now look as they did before but now wider and sooo comfortable. There was plenty of material to go over the Porsche seat and it looks great.

If anyone is looking for a "fix" for the narrow (for me) VS seats this is an easy solution that yields a great result. You don't need to replace the whole seat---just recover the 914 cushions and drop em in. If you are considering a new Vintage Speedster you might want Kirk to make the seats like the 914 ones when you order your car.

I'll post some photos of this later.---Jack

2007 Vintage Speedster/ Jake Raby TYPE IV engine

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Jack CrosbyJack CrosbyHot Springs, AR, VS RabyTypeIV
I have been fussing over my narrow seats since I joined the forum two years ago. They are the standard Vintage ones that some others use as well. The problem was that the sides of the seat's shell got me in both hips and were very uncomfortable on long trips like Carlisle from Hot Springs AR. Ot the Dragon Run. My wife even made some nice cushions to help out-but they weren't the solution.

I bought a set of Porsche 914 seats from a member here. When they arrived I thought I'd just try the Porsche seat bottoms in my Vintage shells and voila--that was the fix I had ben looking for! The Porsche shells were wider and a bit deeper and rode higher on the sides so that the sides were BENEATH the seating area of the cushions. And they felt great!

A nice upholstry guy simply removed the Vintage "covers" from the seats and expertly fit them to the Porsche cushions so the seats now look as they did before but now wider and sooo comfortable. There was plenty of material to go over the Porsche seat and it looks great.

If anyone is looking for a "fix" for the narrow (for me) VS seats this is an easy solution that yields a great result. You don't need to replace the whole seat---just recover the 914 cushions and drop em in. If you are considering a new Vintage Speedster you might want Kirk to make the seats like the 914 ones when you order your car.

I'll post some photos of this later.---Jack
Jack CrosbyJack CrosbyHot Springs, AR, VS RabyTypeIV
OK--here are a couple of pictures. In the car the new seats don't look all that much different but there is a huge difference in comfort. Looking at the picture with the covered 914 seat cushion on the drivers side and the uncovered original Vintage seat on the passenger's sicde you can see that the shell sides is higher on the VS seat but the 914 seat cushion is above the lever of the sides of the shell.

Looking at the seat cushions out of the car you can see that the Porsche cushion is 4" thick at the rear vs. just 2 1/2 " for the Vintage seat. That is what makes the difference. You can try this out in your VS by placing a 4"-5" wide piece of 2x4 under the rear of your Vintage seat.

There is no difference I can see in the clearance of the top---mainly because it's taller at the bow and clears mY head as before with no difference that's noticible.

I have seen many posts on here about replacing the entire seat; shell, back and tracks with Miata seats or others but fortunately you can have a better seat just by swapping the cushions. My upholstry guy was able to re-use the original seat covers ---another big plus.

This was a very satisfying project.----Jack

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Jack CrosbyJack CrosbyHot Springs, AR, VS RabyTypeIV
Michael--Adding foam to reshape the VS seats might work---surely a good upholstry guy could do that. Worth a try, for sure.

The porsche seat cushions are 3"-4" wider and really are good with no modification at all. Just drop 'em in there and enjoy the ride.

O mine, the original Porsche seat cushions weren't 4" to start with and foam was added at the rear bottoms to get that height of 4".

Do the added foam and give us a report---that would be a very inexpensive fix it if it works. Anything to get the top of the seat above those VS seat shell sides!

The Porsche seat cushions are about 3" shorter at the front under your legs than the VS ones and that alsofeels better to me.

Sure beats a major project of taking the complete seats out--tracks and all, and substituting Miata ones.----Jack
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