Custom Tech: How to get more head...room

Chopped cars and a long torso are not a good combination. I am not a tall guy, but at 5-11 with a 27 inch inseam, I am taller sitting down, than my 6-3 buddy. My ride is a chopped '63 Chrysler Newport

that offered little head room with the stock seat. ( even with no headliner )

The car only has 52,000 miles, and the stock upholstery was still in pretty good condition, so it was staying in the car, just needed to be lowered by 2.5 inches. I started by putting the seat where it was comfortable, with me behind the wheel, and took a few measurements of where the bracket bolts were located in relation to the holes in the floor and seat. I drilled and bent up a piece of 10ga sheet metal to make a pair of new mounting brackets 2.5 inches shorter.
Bolting the brackets to the seat for a test fit I found the seat now hits the trans tunnel in the front and back. I took the seat apart and removed the upholstery on the bottom frame. The rear only needed about a half inch for clearance, so a wedge section was to be taken out of it and tack welded in place.

 

The front of the seat was a different story I needed 2 + inches of clearance for the hump. During a quick trip to the local home improvement depot, I found these wall brackets that had the correct contour I wanted.

a little cutting and grinding and it was fitting pretty good( the drivers side needed to be about 3/8 of an inch higher than the passenger side due to an uneven hump), so it was tacked in place.
The seat was then test fitted in the car , removed again and welded up solid. I took the seat to a local upholstery shop where he could cut, sew, and stretch the old vinyl to the new shape.

Here is the new old seat ready to be bolted back into the car

 

hey man,

thats a cool tech!

danny

 

Nice Job!

 

Another way to get more head room is to cut off the bottom of your stering wheel.

 

Im sorry that was in bad taste.

 

or get a tilt column....

 

Cool! I dig the use of the wall hangers for the "tunnel relief".

Another issue that doesn't get brought up a whole lot is the aspect of how it looks from outside the car with a driver (and passenger, if applicable) in the seat. Even if a car's not chopped, many older cars can benefit from a seat lowering job. It places the driver's head & shoulders in a better spot so the lines of the car look better even when you're behind the wheel.

Let's not even get started talking about roadsters that look more like the dude is sitting ON the car instead of IN the car.