Just thought I'd start a thread about my project of making my Fiero tall-person friendly.

I recently bought Frizlefrak's '88 4.9L Coupe. Long story short (no pun intended), I don't fit very well, so I'm trying
various things. Here is the car with no driver seat:


Hey, who needs seats?! Sitting on the floor with back against the fire wall.
This gives me maybe 2 inches of leeway both headroom- and legroom-wise.


I was planning on removing the seat rails and making a bracket to basically bolt the seats directly to the floor (the bracket
was going to obviate the need to put holes in the floor...just use the studs that are already there).

However, it looks like my plan is a no go. I took the rails off the seat and put the seat directly on the floor to test things
out and the only gain is maybe a quarter inch (if that)...that's not good enough and certainly not worth the effort. You might
be asking, "How can that be?"

Glad you asked. See, in normal operation, when the seat is all the way back on the rails, the angle of the rails makes it so the
seat is already basically "on the floor". It might help to remove the rails for chop top cars with normal sized people because
the rails angle up as you go forward.

Just for kicks, I also tried removing the seat back and just sitting on the seat bottom (back against the firewall). That didn't work either.
That just pulled my head out of the sunroof zone and into the rear roof area which is lower. So, I'm going to have to either:

1) Construct a thin seat (without it looking too hokey)
2) Find a thinner seat to buy (racing seat?)
3) Sell the car.

I'm leaning toward option 1) right now, because all the racing seats I see look very narrow (Just like I can never be a
jockey, I guess I could ever be a race car driver either). I'd need to be able to sit in one to test it out, but doing that
risks me paying shipping to get the seat and then, most likely, paying to ship it back (plus any "restocking fees").
That could be pretty pricy. I really don't want to go option 3) yet because I've grown pretty fond of this car.
Anyway, stay tuned.

[This message has been edited by BigGuyTinyCar (edited 01-17-2011).]

Archie was dropping the rear of the floor pan a couple inches to gain more headroom on a couple choptops I do believe. Might be something to look into, if your serious about keeping the car.

How tall are you?

Option 4 - stretch the frame (cabin area!)
Option 5 - Buy the 4 seater Fiero and take out the Driver side rear seat and put the driver seat in its place (Or just use the rear seat AS the driver seat!)


Edit: Can you PM me some lottery numbers? Or PM me who wins the superbowl...?

[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 01-17-2011).]

Back in the mid 70's when I was building kit cars we would lower the floor pan under the seat to get head room.

quote Originally posted by FieroRumor: How tall are you?

Ya, what are we working with hear

I say bolt a racing seat to the floor and call it a day...
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G2100/
Maybe not that one, but you get the idea...

Or you could upholster some foam cushins yourself and velcro them to the floor and rear fire wall...

[This message has been edited by ALJR (edited 01-17-2011).]

I'm 6' 5", but with a long torso and semi-thick hair (see photo below). I'm also 245 lbs, so "bigness" factors in as well
based on what I've seen other tall guys say (they fit fine). Understand, I am able to drive the car with some degree of
comfort as long as I have the sunroof cover off. I would really like to be more comfortable and feel safer (when I'm all
scrunched up like that, I feel like a sitting duck, literally and figuratively).


My 'fro.


(If I try to "comb it down", I end up looking like Jerry Seinfeld on that episode where he couldn't
rince the shampoo out of his hair.)

[This message has been edited by BigGuyTinyCar (edited 01-17-2011).]

i'm 6' 7 and I fit in my wifes' 85 gt but there is no room to move at all.
BUT after seeing your picture you need to sell your fiero and get a black trans am and call it KITT. you look a lot like the Hoff

quote Originally posted by farmerstu: i'm 6' 7 and I fit in my wifes' 85 gt but there is no room to move at all. BUT after seeing your picture you need to sell your fiero and get a black trans am and call it KITT. you look a lot like the Hoff

That's actually a very favorable photo of me (which is why I chose it to post on the internet). In real life, I have a much more "Richie Cunningham" look.

[This message has been edited by BigGuyTinyCar (edited 01-17-2011).]

Archie also cut the ribs of the floor out to allow the seat rails to sit lower.

When I installed my new leather seats I lost over an inch of head room, new foam in the seat bottom and side bolsters. You could remove the seat skins and trim down the foam or replace it with a higher density foam and make the seat thiner. You would have to get someone to rework the skin so it wasn't loose.

Tim.....if all else fails, check with some good welding shops in your area. Show them the car and lay out the problem. A good welder can remove that section of the floor, box it in and drop it a couple of inches. When he's done, it will be stronger than it was from the factory.

If you remove the carpet and anything he needs to get to the job it will be easier for him to see what he's looking at. There may be a custom body shop in your area that would be willing to take it on as well. Check with the local hot-rodders and see who's doing the custom work.

There is one other option.....there is a T-Top car in the junkard in El Paso. Grab the whole roof section.

I'm 6' 5", 253 give or take and I fit fine. Well, more or less. you mentioned a sun roof cover. I've never had one in any of my cars and they've all been sun roof cars. I suspect I'd have issues in a non sun roof car but in mine my hair will touch the roof if I let it grow but only just and I keep it short anyway.

There's not a lot of room to move once you are in. If you want anything outa your pockets (like phone) take it out before closing door! but otherwise I really don't have a problem. Seat is all the way back though. Takes a bit of leg twisting to get in on the manual car (foot goes behind pedal while I get in then move in front once I am in to give me the leg room). and I have to get my butt on the front of the seat as I sit down otherwise my head hits the top of the door frame as I get in (giving me a sore neck) but once I am in I am like an egg in an egg crate, not going anywhere (which saved my hide when I rolled my first Fiero since I literally did not move in the car!).

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Dave

www.ltlfrari.com

quote Originally posted by Frizlefrak: Tim.....if all else fails, check with some good welding shops in your area. Show them the car and lay out the problem. A good welder can remove that section of the floor, box it in and drop it a couple of inches. When he's done, it will be stronger than it was from the factory. If you remove the carpet and anything he needs to get to the job it will be easier for him to see what he's looking at. There may be a custom body shop in your area that would be willing to take it on as well. Check with the local hot-rodders and see who's doing the custom work.

I may yet resort to that, but it sounds expensive, so I'm going to exhaust my other options first.

quote There is one other option.....there is a T-Top car in the junkard in El Paso. Grab the whole roof section.

I'm not familiar with the extent of the glass section of the t-bar. Is it larger than the sunroof? The sunroof is definitely my
saving grace for now. If, on the t-bar roof, the glass section extends back farther than the sunroof, that may be very helpful.

I fit with a full sized helmet on and I am 6'4". I will sorta bump the ceiling if I try moving around alot, but I think the trick I use to make it work is the fact that I move the seat up a click or 2, and lay the back of the seat on the firewall.

You could also find about an inch or maybe even a bit more by modifying the headliner. There may also be some room if you modded the firewall fiberboard stuff.

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10.5@134 3800 turbo 88 coupe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5li6oojNCIM

Ultimate 3800 swap thread

quote Originally posted by darkhorizon: I fit with a full sized helmet on and I am 6'4". I will sorta bump the ceiling if I try moving around alot, but I think the trick I use to make it work is the fact that I move the seat up a click or 2, and lay the back of the seat on the firewall.

I tried that, no dice. I've used that method on a few other cars I've owned (2003 Pontiac Grand Am was one) and it worked in those cases, but not this time.

quote You could also find about an inch or maybe even a bit more by modifying the headliner. There may also be some room if you modded the firewall fiberboard stuff.

Yeah, I noticed the firewall has about an inch of insulation. That's definitely a possibility...just hope it doesn't make the cabin too much noisier.
The headliner may not be because in the ideal position, my head ends up being right below the frame of the sunroof. I think the first thing I'm going to try is
a racing seat. Jegs has them on ebay for $55 shipped.

Try to find some seats and sit in them before you buy. I have racing seats in my Corvette and they are ok for short drives but anything more than a couple of hours and they get uncomfortable. They are also narrow, you probably will be ok as most of your issues are how tall you are but my racing seats are a snug fit.

I have no seat rails in my Vette, the seats are just sitting on the floor board. My seat belts keep me in place.

No friends with a welder? Altering the floor pan, without destroying the Fiero structure does not seem to be too bad an option. Some carpet removal...a little cutting...fabbing...and welding, and you would be right where you wanted to be. I wished that I lived closer? I have followed your excitement for a year now, and would hate to see you sell.

Tony

I don't know if I'd straight out modify the floor pan in the Fiero, especially in a lowered one. The pan is pretty close to the road already. Another option might be custom seat racks, so the front of the seat can be raised a bit. Don't know if it will help you, but I find raising the front of the seat, and lowering the back, adjusting the seatback to compensate, helps a lot with comfort in modern cars that have that capability.

Putting those seats in a Fiero probably won't help though, as they'll actually add some height to the bottom, but might give you some ideas to help with it. Or you could literally do a reverse chop top and raise the roofline a couple inches.

quote Originally posted by Tony Kania: No friends with a welder? Altering the floor pan, without destroying the Fiero structure does not seem to be too bad an option. Some carpet removal...a little cutting...fabbing...and welding, and you would be right where you wanted to be. I wished that I lived closer? I have followed your excitement for a year now, and would hate to see you sell. Tony

Option 3) "Sell the car", above should really have been labeled about option 6 or 7, because I'm enjoying the car enough that I'll try a few more things first. Heck, even if I have to rig lawn chair webbing for the seat bottom and lean back on the fire wall, I'll keep the car. .

If you do a lawn chair, we better see a build thread. Thanks fo the chuckle.

Tony

As you start to lower the seat, the seat back mechanism will hit the raised portion of the chassis (where the coolant tubes run) before the seat is fully lowered. So you end up needing to trim the bracket to clear. Also, the seat foam protrudes from the bottom quite a bit and will keep your seated position higher, so it needs to be trimmed as well.

I am 6-2, but wanted to setup my seats to accomodate a 3" chop and make sure I was comfortable with the driving postion before committing to the chop. Here are a couple of pics of the seat modifications I tried (and notice the bolts/nuts I used to adjust the elevations.



I ended up using the C4 vette seats. They can be mounted much lower and the seat cushion (and I use that term loosely) is very thin. Since the bottom seat pad is removable, you could make some simple sheet metal brackets to bolt to the existing studs and then bolt the seats to the brackets. For mine, I just bolted the seats through the floor with some 3/8 " bolts and some large fender washers on both sides.



Lay a ruler accross the center console and measure down to the cushion (these seat bottoms have much less foam and will compress even further)

Thanks, fieroguru. So if I'm seeing the tape measure picture correctly, it looks like a little over 11 inches from the top of the center console to the
seat bottom. Is that right?

I noticed the seat cushioning was pretty thick in the Fiero seats. I don't know how much I can gain by trimming it (and if that would make it
uncomfortable to sit in)

[This message has been edited by BigGuyTinyCar (edited 01-18-2011).]

I haven't done anything with the seat stuff, but I did get the GT rims mounted to some tires and thought I'd post a pic:



The tires are 215/60/15 in front and 215/65/15 in back. The rear tires are 26.0" diameter and I like the way they fill the
wheel wells. They come closer to the stock 4.9L Deville tires (215/70/15... 26.85" diam), so my speedometer/odometer
is only fast by ~3% which is liveable. (E.g, when speedo says 75 mph, I'm really going 72.6 mph).

The front needs to be lowered about an inch to look best, but from what I've read here on Pennock's, it sounds like a big,
scary deal to lower the front. Maybe moving the battery to the front will weigh it down a bit...

88 Front lowering ball joints, drop it an inch without touching the springs. Fairly easy and quick swap, compared to installing lowering springs.

http://rodneydickman.com/ca...ndex.php?cPath=26_43

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85GT Soon to be 87GT,93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything Capt Fiero --- My Over View Cadero Pics Yellow 88GT 5spd Full Poly Suspension, Lowered 1/2" in front, Corner Carver.

This guy's Father-in-Law makes custom seats...

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum6/HTML/082117.html

quote Originally posted by Capt Fiero: 88 Front lowering ball joints, drop it an inch without touching the springs. Fairly easy and quick swap, compared to installing lowering springs. http://rodneydickman.com/ca...ndex.php?cPath=26_43

Thanks. I'll look into it. I've never changed ball joints, though.

[This message has been edited by BigGuyTinyCar (edited 01-30-2011).]

quote Originally posted by BigGuyTinyCar:

She looks great Tim. That was the look I always wanted with the car.....and I was just getting around to refinishing the rims when she changed hands. Glad to hear you're having fun with her. You'll get the seat issue ironed out, don't give up.