Seats w/ head restraints?

I am not even a newbie yet -- a pre-newbie, so have MUCH to learn. I am having John Steele build me a Classic Speedster, and hope to have it by this spring. I am very much into deciding about the myriad choices to be made so I can tell John what to fit out. One thing I have been wondering w/ him about is including some sort of head restarint for the Speedster seats. While I am not going whole hog on the retro-replica-it's-gotta-look-exactly-like-a-real-one route, I am interested to have the real Speedster look, within reason. In the Safety thread on this Forum, there are a few items, e.g., the high brake light thing, which makes some sense to me. And so the idea of a head restraint, fitted somehow to the classic seat sounds good too. So the question is: anybody done that? If so, how? Comments, pix, etc. will be very welcome.

JOHN WONT LET U

If you're locked into wanting a headrest of some sort, have John put a turtle back hard-shell tonneau cover on. It has a built in headrest and looks period correct. Check out the gallery on his site.
If your doing it for safety, forget it.
As fun as these little cars are they are nothing more than a four wheeled motorcycle with an unusually large plastic faring.

Yeah the fiberglass seat shell will rip out before your head snaps back to the head rest. Plus it tends to limit rear vision even more.

Kelly, welcome aboard here my friend, but don't try to be a hero ..... Get it... Kelly's Hero's... ask Jimbo... anyways... safety and Speedie's do not share anything in common. remember these tubs were built and designed for performance and speed not crash tests... Good luck to you on this search...

Speedster "D" ... DUCK!

Kelly -

If you haven't already - click this link for the Classified section of this site and you'll see a car with high-back seats (I think from a Miata) that might answer some of your questions as far as options for head-restraints. Hope this steers you in the right direction. Good luck with your research!

https://www.speedsterowners.com/forum/readmsg.asp?t=10937

Miata seats do fit in a speedster

I had head restraints built into the roadster style seat. It doesn't have the correct look for a '57, but I don't think it looks too out of place either.

OK guys, I am getting there. Lots of input here and the requested pix of concpets. This is a GREAT BB; I am getting a lot of good poop in a hurry here. I am in contact w/ John S. just about daily, and while his shop motto is "There is no NO in this shop.", John is clearly not crazy about fitting up some sort of headrestraints into his classic FG seat shell. Johnny2bolts seats look very nice, I will admit. Not exactly THE look, of course, but sensible and nicely done. The Miata seats shown also would work, of course, but, frankly, they are gross. Can't see that as an option for me. I am not 6-4 and don't weigh 280 lbs (yet). Meanwhile, the rest of that car is truly amazing. I am looking seriously at that color. Very good looking car, sans those Mazda seats.

Again, I appreciate the spirited replies here, and the wealth of info on these remarkable cars held within the SOC. Honored to be member, and hope to meet and greet some of the similarly afflicted as time goes on. Having made the fateful decision to get one of these cars, I am having trouble going five minutes without imagining what the car is going to be like to own and drive. As that happens, I'll be in touch. I had an '56 A (normal) and a '61 B (S90) coupe many years ago, and had a friend in HS w/ a '57 Speedster that I spent many an hour on the passenger side of, so have been a 356 fanatic for a good long while. The best is yet to come.

HEY KELLY
WHERE DO U LIVE, IM 15 MILES FROM JOHN. WAS THERE SATURDAY
HAS HE STARTED YOUR TUB?

So Gerd,

What part of Arizona is 15 mi from North Hollywood? That's a little confusing. Meanwhile, John has started (just). He's waiting for the body to arrive, and I guess he's lining up various parts, etc. We are just getting going w/ this thing.

I like your car and pix. Believe you get a little distracted from your Speedy sometimes . . . A man cannot live by Speed alone, or can he?

Kelly

KELLY,
SIMI VALLEY ARIZONA

NOT SURE WHAT THE FOCK U MEAN BY GETTING DISTRACTED BUT YA CAN NEVER GO TO FAST

Kelly:

The seats from a Porsche 914 are the correct size, are high-backed for head/neck protection and if you get the slider tracks AND reclining mechanism with them when you buy them (they are still readily found in salvage yards) then they can be installed very easily. Not only that, but they look like an updated Speedster seat, and fit average-sized persons pretty well - nice bolsters on the sides and adequate padding all around. John might not have a conniption if you ask him to install [i]those[/i].

I have them, but mine are covered with sheepskin seat covers (personal preference) so a picture wouldn't show much, but others on here must have them, too, and can maybe offer good pictures.

gn

Here's what the 914 seats look like. I've already cut the headrest piece off (shell is all fiberglass) to get right period look. Have not recovered yet - but looking to add maybe 1/2" of padding. Believe VS does that in many of their cars.

Wolfgang,

First, I notice your Springfield VA addr., which is not too far: I'm up near Columbia MD. Some chance for meet/greet, perhaps? Anyway, I appreciate your pix of the 914 seats. Also notice your prediliction to trash the headrestraints, and just use the seats, so that look was not an option for you either, I guess. Meanwhile, the suggestion to have a close look at the turtleshell rear tonneau, w/ the teardrop profile might be interesting. I guess I have seen this in some pix of the cars, but now realize I was not really understanding what I was looking at. Will reconsider that one. Might be a decent "Period Look" way to do this. And I assume this fixture would be removable. Yet more to consider.

Kelly

Kelly,
What are you looking to get out of head restraints? If it's a safety thing then forget it, as already mentioned, these cars will never be safe unless you do something along the line of Cory's car and build a cage on a handmade frame, and even that is minimal safety. If it's for looks then I'm wondering what look you're going for? I love the look of those turtleback covers, those things look bad-ass on the right car!

Hey Kelly....
There is a car (with headrests) on Ebay right now' Check it out.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-356-speedster-Beck-porsche-speedster-1957_W0QQitemZ170086270612QQihZ007QQcategoryZ6428QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Ernie, Mickey,

The thing here is/was a safety issue. I am not trying to go for the Carrera/Spyder look necessarily. I understand that these are small, light cars, and safety (read: crashworthiness) is not a strong suit. On the other hand, all these cars come either w/ three point of five point belts, so some thought to what happens when the various coefficients of friction are insufficient to help you out is being given. Still, if one could do something aesthetically acceptable, and have a better/safer deal, then it might make sense. Also note that the belts are not optional -- It's the law, as they say. FWIW: J. Steele has related to me that he had a car rear-ended by a BMW of some sort, and the Speedster drove away w/ driver unhurt and the Beemer had to be towed. Also, he says a client drove into a tree, and was not hurt. {Question: did he drive into the tree backwards?? That is the only way the head cushion would have come into play. Anyway . . .} So, what to do? At this early stage of the project, I am really just pulling threads, tryin' to see what the implications are of these ideas and choices. Of course, money come to play too . . .

I put 4 point belts in my car, but that is only to save the paramedics time when it comes to looking for all the pieces, and besides, they look cool. I can see your point about being rear ended, headrests may prevent whiplash, etc.... as they say, you can never be too cautious.

Here is a picture of my seats with head rests. Head "restraints" imply a safety device, something that head rests only hint at. In a slow speed rear ender they might help a bit. In a damageing rear ender, probably not so much.

Dale, Txs for the picture. You have roadster seats, and I am going to go w/ the Speedster seats, rolled and pleated, like JPS likes to do. I think your head rests would offer you good benefit vs. a whiplash setting. Your photo gallery is awesome, and I am thinking your car has been through various mods wrt appearance over the years. It is a very good looking machine. I have also seen your info in the Safety section here at SOC on thrid brake light, and I see the pictures here again, and I confess for the life of me I cannot get oriented when I look at the close ups. I would like to integrate something like this in my car, and right now do not have a decent concept. Do you have another couple of pix that show a bit more of the car and this installation, so I can get grip on how this fixture fits under, into or whatever w/the rear grill? I'd be much obliged. Perhaps a shot of the whole back of the car w/ the lights lit would be good? The tag-on thing w/ the suit case: I get that.

Kelly,

I get a bit motion sick when I look at them too. I'll send some to you so you can see what is what.