Hi All,
I'm looking into upgrading the pilot and copilot seats in my IV-P. I'd prefer to have headrests on both seats, and my wife would prefer that her seat could recline for some shuteye on our cross countries. See below for photos of my current seats. In one of the photos you can see one of two bolts that restricts recline, which I'm not comfortable modifying as I believe it could be important for seat integrity during high impact situations. So I am thinking of just replacing the seats with the features we want--anyone have a good recommendation here?
Seats Upgrade
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DavidMandel
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2024 12:13 am
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Ryan Riley
- Posts: 156
- Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:59 am
- Location: Phoenix
David, there are several routes you can take here. It just all depends on how much $$ you're willing to spend. From priciest to cheapest, here are the main ones.
1) Buy Evo seats. From what I hear, they are super nice but I think two of them will run you around $20k. Someone more knowledgeable can correct me on the price. You could also look at Columbia or TTx used seats, if you can find them.
2) Source auto seats that you will have to modify. My ES has Mustang II seats from the mid 90's. We do use the recline function quite a bit. Other small car seats will fit, but you will have to measure. I recommend just going to a junkyard or Pick-a-Part with a tape measure and find a suitable donor. Be prepared to have to fabricate the bottom mount/track as most car seats will sit too high to fit. My guess is this will cost you around $500-1500 to recover, and another couple hundred getting the seat tracks fabricated if you can't do that yourself.
3) Find a great interior shop near you and see if they can fabricate seat rest support and integrate it to your current seat frame, then have them recover. Unknown $$, but could be expensive if you're paying for the fabrication time.
1) Buy Evo seats. From what I hear, they are super nice but I think two of them will run you around $20k. Someone more knowledgeable can correct me on the price. You could also look at Columbia or TTx used seats, if you can find them.
2) Source auto seats that you will have to modify. My ES has Mustang II seats from the mid 90's. We do use the recline function quite a bit. Other small car seats will fit, but you will have to measure. I recommend just going to a junkyard or Pick-a-Part with a tape measure and find a suitable donor. Be prepared to have to fabricate the bottom mount/track as most car seats will sit too high to fit. My guess is this will cost you around $500-1500 to recover, and another couple hundred getting the seat tracks fabricated if you can't do that yourself.
3) Find a great interior shop near you and see if they can fabricate seat rest support and integrate it to your current seat frame, then have them recover. Unknown $$, but could be expensive if you're paying for the fabrication time.
-Ryan
Lancair LNC2/Legacy/ES/ES-P Instructor
LOBO Webmaster
2007 Lancair ES
Lancair LNC2/Legacy/ES/ES-P Instructor
LOBO Webmaster
2007 Lancair ES
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Tom Sullivan
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2022 2:33 pm
I fabbed up and installed a cam system that can flip the seat stops out of the way and my wife’s seat reclines nicely for snoozing. She has one of those airline horseshoe type pillows that wraps around her neck so sleeps fine without a headrest.
I thought I posted it here but can’t find it. Let me know if you desire pictures. I’ve sent them to several other builders but with 5k pictures on my phone, it will take a bit to find them.
Tom
I thought I posted it here but can’t find it. Let me know if you desire pictures. I’ve sent them to several other builders but with 5k pictures on my phone, it will take a bit to find them.
Tom