Not Love Hate… 2

I hate to love the stock AE86 seats.  But I do.  Particularly red zenkei seats.  I’m not entirely sure where this love came from, but it is definitely a recent thing.  There was definitely a time when I thought the red interior that came in early AE86’s was gross and weird.  I remember when I wanted to look for a later black interior.  Not a chance now.  Black is too generic… I want something that is ALL AE86, nothing but AE86.  And that is red, burgandy and brown.  Not grey, not black… not even kouki blue.  Lots of other 80’s Toyota’s had red or blue interiors… but none of them got the colors right like the AE86 does.

When I’m blasting S2000’s, RX-8’s and GDB I want them all to be 100% sure that what is ravaging them is an AE86… and the stock red, brown and burgandy says that emphatically.  It doesn’t say, “This is a hard tune engine swapped race car.”  It doesn’t even say, “I’m a real driving machine.” It just says, “I’m some quirky 80’s econo sports that has survived until now just to kick your ass through the pylons!”

Am I too excitable?

I should just buy aftermarket buckets.  The stock seats, are really inferior in many ways… but that wouldn’t leave the same impression.  Beyond that though… a modded interior implies that other things need to be modded just as well.  That’s not really what I want.  I’m going for the boring resto-mods remember…

…Even if the stock seats are so flimsy that I can deflect the seat back about an inch side to side… with my pinky finger.  Other than that though, they are not too bad.  They are bolstered relatively well, and offer a good amount of adjustment… for most people.  But a tall guy like me finds a few problems.  First, they are not low enough.  Second, they are not tall enough.  At it’s highest position, the headrest comes only up to the base of my neck, and at it’s lowest, it is square in the middle of my shoulders.

And so… I’m examining modding my seats to accomodate.  Buying aftermarket buckets would be MUCH easier.  Probably cheaper too.  Upholstery stuff is not as cheap as you would think, even when doing it yourself.  Getting someone else to do it is down right STUPID… at least on my lack of salary.

And so… armed with my welder, and my seamstress wife I’m going to lower the seat (at least at the back point) about two inches, and then I’m going to try and lengthen the seat back by about three.  It will be pretty crazy.