My hubby is 6'8" with lonnnnnng legs.
The xB was our favorite car choice, and luckily the best fit - we test drove like 50 cars.

His knees still touch right next to where the key ignition is. Not so comfy, and in a wreck, adiós to his knees.
Still, way better than the rest of the cars we tried. Some he couldn't even get in.

We talked to several Scion reps, and modding the seat doesn't void any warranty except for the seat itself (compared with Toyota's all or nothing BS). We're aware it makes the airbag/seatbelt slightly less effective, but it's worth it to us.

So PLEASE HELP US FIND A WAY to mod the seats. We just want a few more inches, either up or down.

The options seem to be:

1. There's room under the seat, so somehow find a railing system that is lower and/or extended back further than stock railing allows.
- Even if it means buying a new seat to fit on the rails.

2. Finding someone with skill and a soldering iron able to safely extend the rails.

3. Install a more widely adjustable seat/railing system, and install it further back. (??)

A few things that it would help to know are:

A. How the stock seats are bolted in? Underneath or from the side?
B. Has anyone successfully modded the seat down or back?
C. Does anyone have any ideas?

A Scion fanatic we know told us it would be easy to mod the seats how we need them, but we've encountered problems finding the best way to do it.

We're willing to pay well for a good job. But we need to know how to get it done.

I work in Tool & Die. I fabricate things all the time.

A quick look at my seats tells me this wouldn’t be too hard to do.

Look in your phone book under "Metal Fabricators" (it's listed like that in my Yellow Pages) and call a few places and make appointments. Talk to a FEW people to get an opinion of the person you will trust your life to and how they would go about it.

If it were brought to me I would want to put some thought to it rather than just spout off my 1st idea.

Try to get an idea how much you want it lowered before contacting businesses.

As a quick thought solder would never hold, it would be similar to super gluing it!

Good Luck!

Wish someone would come up with a mod to move the seat back. At 6'5" I'd pay some bucks for a few more inches.


John

This is what i have been trying to figure out. First of all it looks like xA (and may be Echo) seat will fit just right. It is the same car as xB and i had a chance to visually compare the two. I'm 99% shure it is a direct drop in installation. The brackets that attach the slider rails to the floor are about 1 inch shorter, so by installing xA seat you will get 1in drop. Few issues though: it is the same cheapo seat with no more adjustments that xB. You will not gain any distance away from the sterring wheel and it is not too easy to find. I posted "want to buy"about a week ago for this very project and got no responses. Calling wrecking yards brought 1 result at $200. The seat cradle assembly sells for something like $400 from the dealer and you will have to transfer your foam and backrest to it.
So the best way is to have your seat brackets surgically removed (rivet and a spotweld at each corner), bolt in straight metal bars to the floor and attach the seat to them. By making the bars extend farther back you can retract the seat all the way to the rear seat if you want to.

You can contact any decent fabricator to do this. My grandfather had the seat rails in his old Toronado extended because of his bad hips. I believe he went to a place that specializes in adapting cars to people's different handicaps. I would suggest starting there. Basically they just made a new set of rails for the seats. You'll need to talk to them about how far you want it back because past a certain point there may be too much leverage against the stock mounting holes which may or may not cause problems.

And don't forget that there are sensors inside of the seat cushion to let the airbag computer know what kind of person is sitting in it (heavy or light). You want to be careful not to damage that sensor and the wiring.

It would probably be easier to get a shorter husband.

Seriously, good luck. I often thought about doing this as well. At least lowering the back of the seat so I don't feel like I'm gonna fall off the front of it when I have to slam on the brakes.

I've contemplated the same thing, but haven't done anything because for me, moving the seat back would mean I'd have to move the steering wheel back, too, and that's not easy, at all. My arms are almost straight with my hands on the wheel, and I'm a relatively short-limbed 6'3".

It'll definitely require a skilled fabricator, simply because the seats are completely riveted, the only bolts being used to attach them to the floor... and other issues can come up, like seat belt geometry, if you try to move it too far back... The more I look at it the trickier it seems...

I am 6'4 and I just want the steering wheel to come out a little more, its just a little bit of a stretch. when I have the seat in the most comfortable position.

well i know if you install racing seats it will lower the seat a lot. just use the normal racing seat rails. we did this in my friends xb and it gave alot of room. now for the airbag sensor, not really sure what to do about that. just my .02

I work in Tool & Die. I fabricate things all the time.

A quick look at my seats tells me this wouldn’t be too hard to do.

Look in your phone book under "Metal Fabricators" (it's listed like that in my Yellow Pages) and call a few places and make appointments. Talk to a FEW people to get an opinion of the person you will trust your life to and how they would go about it.

If it were brought to me I would want to put some thought to it rather than just spout off my 1st idea.

Try to get an idea how much you want it lowered before contacting businesses.

As a quick thought solder would never hold, it would be similar to super gluing it!

Good Luck!metal fabricators will rape you blind.


get a racing seat and then use the weapon r brackets. they sit like 3 inches too low in comparison to stock. that might remedy it for im. and you can mount the racing seat about one or two inches.

HMMM...
before you go to all that expense of fabrication.... try longer bolts with half or 3/4 inch spacers on the front seat bolts..ie; tip the seat back a bit and see if that helps.. :ponder: :ponder:

tipping the seat back isn't at all noticeable to me .

The easy way to do it is... Get longer bolts and spacers for the rear mounting points and a piece of flat stock (1/8 thick and 1 inch wide) up front with 2 holes drilled in each to extend the front hole rearward the same amount of the rear spacers. Should be able to get an inch or so of extra room for him and still be able to move it far enough forward for you.
I also want to see if there is any slack room to bring the column back a bit by loosening the mounting points.