raising the sitting position...

[jekbrown]

I recently got a '91 for my wife... and I feel like I am sitting in a bathrub when I drive it, and she needs a pillow so she can. I guess Ford wanted there to be lots of headroom for 6'8" guys wearing cowboy hats. Anyway, We want to raise the sitting position 4-6". I did this in my wheelin' rig (1 ton blazer) but hers should actually look decent and maintain the original slider mechanism. lol! Anyone done this? how'd ya do it?

j

 

[have2goski]

as long as you are comfortable with your fabrication skills, it shouldn't be too difficult. I would suggest getting the seat out and looking it over to decide what you want to do.

I think the easiest thing would be to retain the factory mounting between the floor board and the seat track. If you unbolt the seat track from the seat frame (4 bolts) you can then fab a spacer to go in there. if you get the seat off it will be more clear to you what i am suggesting. If you have power lumbar in the seats you may need to extend the wiring harness dependent on how high you lift them. You are also going to want to be aware of where the stearing wheel will be in relation to the seats. The tilt will only go up so much and you definately don't want to be jammed up when trying to turn the wheel.

4-6" of lift seems like alot to me. I think you will end up in the 1-2" range but i could be wrong. With 4-6" you may also need to think about the seatbelt female end as it would be barried in between the seat and the console if you lift by spacing the seat frame up off the seat track as I suggested. I guess you would also want to make sure you aren't going to be stretching for the pedals if you go for 4-6" of lift. You could always modify the pedal assembly though to reflect the seat changes you make if necessary.

I understand you want to add comfort, just make sure you are not sacrificing safety to do it. Use appropriate materials and fabriaction methods and retain the functionailty of seatbelts and what not.

you may also want to consider replacing your seats with ones from a later model year. You will need to make adapter brackets to get them in though, as '91 is the year that has a different bolt pattern from most of the 1st and 2nd gen seats, 3rd gen is a whole other ball game. That being said the later seats that are 6 way power offer a ride height adjustment that can get you up an inch or 2

best of luck.

 

[jekbrown]

yeah, eventually we will prolly use aftermarket seats and a couple of pieces of DOM running horizontally across the cab to mount the seats too. I use corbeau baja SS seats in my K5 and love 'em. Right now we dont have the cash to be spending on cooler seats though, just wanna sit a bit higher. You may be right, 4-6" may not be required. I'd be surprised if it was 2 or less tho... my head is about 6" from the headliner in the car... which is crazy low considering I am 6'1" myself. The rear/side windows offer good visability, but my wife really can't take advantage of it cause she is so low relative to the windows. Anyway, guess I'll have to take things apart on the weekend and see what there is to see. Good to know that the '91 has "odd ball" seats compared to other explorers. thanks for the info,

j