DeTomaso Mailing List: December 98, Message #101

Landis,
When it comes to Corvette seats, there are a lot of options.  Before I
put my SVO seats in,  I seriously looked at vette seats.  Generally there
are 50+ pairs at the bigger Carlisle shows, and the vette shows.

In my experience, they range from $200/pr for the standard seats, all
manual, less than perfect upholstery, up to a $1,000 for a perfect
leather set, all electric, with the air bolsters and backs.  Last year I
had a guy who was going to reupholster in leather a set of the air/elec
seats for $1,000.
George
On Mon, 14 Dec 1998 16:01:38 -0500 MikeLDrew@aol.com writes:
>Landis wrote:
>
>[snip]  So
>are there comfortable seat options for the pantera? 
>
>>>>Well, you've already heard of the Fiero seat option.  Another 
>potential
>candidate is C-4 (83-96) Corvette seats.  There's a guy in SDP who's 
>got a set
>in his car and they're really slick.  They sit low on the floor, and 
>they're
>sufficiently bolstered to provide very good support.  I think they're 
>fairly
>expensive and hard to come by, even in the junkyard, but I'd give it 
>some
>serious consideration.
>
>Many people have their stock seats reupholstered.  I know Jack DeRyke 
>had his
>done by Mike Cook, the quality was top-notch and the price was 
>astounding
>(considered they were done in leather.)  Hall Pantera shows a photo in 
>their
>catalog of essentially the same treatment.  Basically, the stock foam 
>and
>seatcovers are trashed, and all-new foam is sculpted out to provide
>substantially better support.  It's all topped off with very nice 
>leather, and
>looks altogether better.
>
>I have driven in several Panteras so equipped, and while the seats ARE 
>an
>improvement over stock, I still didn't find them to be terribly 
>comfortable or
>well-designed.  I think there are some fundamental limitations to the 
>stock
>seat frame design that are very difficult to overcome.  However, you 
>should
>try out a set and decide for yourself--I know there's lots of very 
>happy
>owners out there!
>
>Assuming you want something civil and don't want a dedicated, 
>one-piece racing
>seat, you'll have your work cut out for you.  The problem with 
>Panteras is
>that the seat is fairly narrow, so aftermarket seats sometimes have a 
>hard
>time squeezing in between the center console and the inner rocker 
>panel.
>Probably the best seats you can buy are those made by Recaro, but they 
>have
>disadvantages besides their high price.
>
>Let's start there.  Mine were purchased in about 1992, and cost me 
>about
>$1400, covered in cloth.  I'm sure they're more now.  If you want 
>leather,
>that's a high-priced extra.  Recaros have a considerably thicker base 
>than the
>stock seats, so if you install them with all the tracks to enable them 
>to
>move, you're looking at losing about 1.5 inches of headroom, maybe 
>more.  If
>you're 5 foot 5, this isn't a problem.  But most of us will find that 
>Recaros
>conventionally mounted to stock floors is an unworkable plan.
>
>Options are:  Forget about adjustability, and bolt the seats directly 
>to the
>floor.  As long as you're the only person driving the car, once you've 
>found
>the ideal position for the seat, this can be a very viable plan.  
>Headroom
>will be just about the same as stock.
>
>Option two:  Zizz out the sheetmetal floors and either lower them (cut 
>along
>the sides and back, bend them down, then weld in triangular pieces 
>along the
>sides and a rectangle in back) or buy pre-formed lowered seat pans 
>from the
>vendors.
>
>I've driven Larry Stock's car with his lowered floor pans and Recaros, 
>and
>even though I'm about 6 feet tall, I found the seats to be TOO 
>low--you can
>get too much of a good thing!
>
>Another thing that most people forget about is that the BACK of an 
>aftermarket
>seat is thicker than stock too.  If the seatback is angled in a 
>reasonable
>fashion, and then you lower the seat, your butt is moving down but 
>also
>forward--monsters like Bo-Bo and Crash could find themselves squeezed
>uncomfortably close to the steering wheel.  The problem is even worse 
>on the
>passenger side; I can literally barely squeeze into my passenger seat 
>because
>it's so far forward (due to hitting the bulkhead.)  Of course, there's 
>several
>kits out there that enable you to partially get rid of the hump 
>between the
>seats and move the passenger seat back--that's #764 on my list of 
>things to
>do! :<(
>
>There's a third option that might prove workable, although it might 
>take some
>legwork.  Mustangs Plus in Stockton, CA sells some pretty decent seats 
>for
>vintage Mustangs, that have most of the desirable features of Recaros 
>at a
>fraction of the cost.  In terms of quality, they can't compare to 
>Recaros, but
>they also cost less than half as much.  While they only stock them 
>with
>mounting brackets for Mustang applications (which spaces the bottom of 
>the
>seat several inches off the floor of the car), I'm sure they could 
>work some
>deal whereby you could get these seats with zero spacing off the 
>floor.
>
>They've got an awesome website with all their parts pictured; to see 
>these
>seats, go to:
>
>http://www.mustangsplus.com/newpart/seats/index.htm
>
>If you call them, ask to talk to Bill Faull and tell him I sent you.  
>Ask him
>if they catalog a Pantera option, and if not, ask him to do some 
>homework and
>see what the lowest mounting system they can get consists of.  I'm 
>pretty sure
>they'll let you order and test-fit some seats, and if they don't fit, 
>you can
>return them.
>
>I think I'm going to get a set of these (in black) for my '66 GT-350 
>in the
>next few months.  Lots of guys in the Nor-Cal Shelby club are running 
>these
>seats in their Mustangs, and they all really like them!
>
>Mike
>
>

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