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Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 11:44
by Iceworx
Afternoon all!

I recently bought some Saab 9-3 seats as they were a bargain, but after offering them upto the van, seems they will be a bit too tall on the base for someone of my size. (6' 4")

I was wondering if anyone had attempted modifying the mechanism under the seats to reduce the base height on them?

Or of there was an alternative seat out there that had a lower heigh base cushion?

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 11:49
by Cruz
when I fit my saab 9000 seats (the easier ones to fit) I removed the height adjuster assembly on the drivers seat

Still sat too high for me in the end as my thighs were close to the steering wheel. Replaced them with captains seat after 4 years

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 11:58
by Iceworx
Captains chairs are treally expensive though.

I may take these ones apart and see if there is a way of making a new bracket to lower them down

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 12:10
by jamesc76
Chris, what steering wheel do you have? Sounds silly, but I fitted a golf gti wheel to mine gives you more room for ya legs!

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 12:23
by Iceworx
Still on the stock 19" steering wheel James..

Have you got power steering on yours? Also what year golf did it come off?

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 12:48
by jamesc76
Same as this un bud, no power steering but dont find it to bad!http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-Golf-Mk1-GTI-S ... 45f8f91ff0

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 13:18
by Cruz
Iceworx wrote:Captains chairs are treally expensive though.
Depends on timing. I got a great pair by posting a wanted on brickyard and here for only £120.

I mounted the saabs with the original runners in left place just in case Iever wanted to go back to T3 seats

I tried a smaller steering wheel too. But I have to do a lot of tight parallel parking and it's bad enough with a standard 45cm wheel when you are having to do stationary full locks on 16" alloys.

Maybe you could post up some pictures of the seats and peeps can see what you could remove.

Are they anything like the saab seats in the wiki? If so I may have some more U bar that I could make into mounts like in the wiki fitting guide

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 13:27
by Fin
Has anyone rigged up a set of the heated Leather Saab seats?
That would be awesome on a cold morning

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 15 Mar 2011, 13:34
by Cruz
Fin wrote:Has anyone rigged up a set of the heated Leather Saab seats?
That would be awesome on a cold morning
http://www.sthwark.demon.co.uk/syncro/s ... .html#Saab

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 17 Mar 2011, 07:29
by brickinit
Hi

I'm 6'1" with longish legs and I have SAAB 9-5 leather seats in at the moment with no issues but I removed the original runners to drop the height a bit

Link to the fitting thread if it helps viewtopic.php?f=38&t=78009

Mr B

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 17 Mar 2011, 09:37
by Iceworx
Thanks Mr B - I'll take a look now.

Could I ask a favour, could you measure the height of the front of the seat from the top of the seat box please? as I'd be interested to see if the 9-5 seats are any taller / less tall

Also what diameter steering wheel do you have?

Regards

Chris

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 17 Mar 2011, 09:55
by Iceworx
Also does the passenger one swivel ok, or does it foul the door?

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 18 Mar 2011, 18:50
by brickinit
Hi again Chris

The seats measure around 9 inches to the battery box from the top of the seat squab in my driving position but, using the tilt, this will drop to just under 8 inches

Steering wheel is standard bus (17 inch?) and the passenger seat still swivels but we need to spin it in a certain direction or it catches the seat belt mounting bolt on the arch (can't remember which but Mrs B has it down to a fine art as you need to turn it and slide it forward on the runners a some point!)

Hope this helps in some way

Mr B

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 18 Mar 2011, 19:27
by skankyunderpants
had a pair af leather heated seats fitted a few weeks ago, and the pasenger seat is on a swivel base, it turns fine in the normal seated position, no need for putting the seat down or moving it forward, the drivers seat sits a little high, but mine have a setting to tilt it up or sit it right down, so as soon as i realised this, and with the golf three spoke steering wheel, loads of room for me, 5"11...... and the heated seats are as toasty as you like, they warm up real quick, along with the power steering, by far my finest addition so far, love em and i would recomend ball warmers to anybody...............


skanky..........

Re: Saab Seats for taller/bigger people

Posted: 18 Mar 2011, 19:44
by 16vmini
skankyunderpants wrote:had a pair af leather heated seats fitted a few weeks ago, and the pasenger seat is on a swivel base, it turns fine in the normal seated position, no need for putting the seat down or moving it forward, the drivers seat sits a little high, but mine have a setting to tilt it up or sit it right down, so as soon as i realised this, and with the golf three spoke steering wheel, loads of room for me, 5"11...... and the heated seats are as toasty as you like, they warm up real quick, along with the power steering, by far my finest addition so far, love em and i would recomend ball warmers to anybody...............


skanky..........


what model/seats where they ?

Matt