Power Seat?

You could always find some out of an old Lincoln Continental...

 

Yeah, but aren't power seats so not what these cars are all about?

I'm not tall at 5ft 8.5 but Sandy is 5ft 2  and my oldest son about 5ft 4.  The power seat would  allow them to drive too.  Would be nice on long trips or If got sick when we are far from home.

Power seats?  What next: heat, AC, radio, wind up windows, radio, top that doesn't leak?  Sounds like a Miata.

I love you Greg, but my car is the furthest thing away from a Miata (I know because we own one of those too).  It's not about Comfort, it's about reaching the pedals and seeing over the dashboard. It's called safety for a shorter person.  If they can enjoy the car too,  then why not?

One (or two) of these would be A LOT cheaper than power seats.

 

 

I get nervous that  those things are going to slide around but maybe I'm reading too much into it.

It would be something that someone could use in a pinch-i.e. you can't drive so your wife has to drive.

I wouldn't want to drive around on something like this on a daily basis.

Marty, notice that there is a strap that wraps around the seat back?

John Estes, down in Westerly, RI (actually, Matunuck, but I'm not sure that's on the map) has an earlier IM that he installed Volvo power seats in.  Don't know what car they came from, but he could tell you.  I've seen them, all the power stuff works (they are 8-way with power recline) and they seem to fit well.  He's at profjve at verizon.net

 

I've never sat in them, but John says they are way more comfy than his old IM roadster seats.

Power seats in an IM...very cool, Gordon.

I wonder if Henry has ever installed power seats for a customer?

Problem with power seats is that the bases are quite thick to accommodate the mechanism and motors. It may put your seating position too high. You can get some pretty thin manual seat sliders that could work. Mount them so they angle up towards the front, that way when the seat is slid forward, it also moves up.

 

To keep the seat bottom level, you'd have to extend the rear seat mounts from the bottom of the seat to the slider. This will naturally raise the seating position, but it should still be less than what you'd need with a power seat.

I installed a power seat mechanism in my Speedster a few months after I bought it because my 5' tall wife wasn't able to drive it. She tried stacking a couple folded towels under her booty to get her up high enough but just wasn't comfortable driving it and since we bought the car for both of us to enjoy, the only thing to do was to make it easy for her to drive.

 

I bought a 6 way power mechanism with the control switch from an older model car though I can't remember the model. When folded (all the way down), it was about 1.5" tall and sat just as low as the passenger seat that had the mechanical slider. It would raise the seat a good 3+ inches and would also move fore and aft and also tilt. I mounted the switch assembly to a small bracket on the front of the seat so it was out of sight but easy to reach.

 

The entire setup was actually very easy to install and we both used it for more than 10 years. I sold the car last September and I'm sure that the new owner appreciates having the ability to easily adjust the seat to his liking.

Jimmy...