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So I have a 1977 corvette that we have been doing a complete frame off restoration over the last 10 years. One of the things i did during the time the car spent at the body shop was have the floor pans cut dropped about two inches and welded in with reinforcements.This was done to make room for the 2003 Z06 seats I had bought years earlier. I had the seat recovered with new foam , leather, and custom red stitching. They look and feel incredible. The problem comes in that my 5 foot 10 build barely fits behind the wheel and I can not install the t-tops and still fit in the car. So I see two options. Either I remove the the c5 seat tracks that were appropriate for the Z06 seat and mount the seats in a fixed position in the car which would gain me another 2-3 inches of head clearance or I remove the seats altogether and find a pair of 77 seats and rebuild and install them. I know this is a common upgrade. My question is to anyone that has done this conversion. Since the Z06 seats are wider and taller than the originals how did you deal with these obstacles? I would have thought that dropping the floor pans 2 inches would have given us the clearance needed. Since the exhaust pipes are directly below the floor pans we were limited in how far down we could go.
Thanks in advance for any advise
OK. You can get to the seat tracks without disassembling the seat. You just need to work a wrench up between the padding and the seat frame.
I already drilled out the front mounts that angle the seats back and removed them. When I trial fit the seats, they were still way too high. There are four small nuts that hold the tracks to the seat. You can get a wrench in there and remove them without disassembling the seat bottom. I had already replaced the seat covers with my new seats. You can see the four small silver nuts threaded partially onto the seat track studs. While I would lose the powered functions, I wanted to retain the lumbar and bolster functions. I carefully traced the wires and removed all connectors and other components that supported the seat track motors. I then cleaned up all the wiring and secured the pumps in place. I used the original seat track mounting holes for four bolts. I used two thin nuts to retain the new rear bolts and two 1/4” spacers on the front bolts to recline the seat slightly and to provide a space for the wiring to pass under the seat frame.
OK. You can get to the seat tracks without disassembling the seat. You just need to work a wrench up between the padding and the seat frame.
I already drilled out the front mounts that angle the seats back and removed them. When I trial fit the seats, they were still way too high. There are four small nuts that hold the tracks to the seat. You can get a wrench in there and remove them without disassembling the seat bottom. I had already replaced the seat covers with my new seats. You can see the four small silver nuts threaded partially onto the seat track studs. While I would lose the powered functions, I wanted to retain the lumbar and bolster functions. I carefully traced the wires and removed all connectors and other components that supported the seat track motors. I then cleaned up all the wiring and secured the pumps in place. I used the original seat track mounting holes for four bolts. I used two thin nuts to retain the new rear bolts and two 1/4” spacers on the front bolts to recline the seat slightly and to provide a space for the wiring to pass under the seat frame.
thanks Factoid. It kind of sucks that I have to do this since I dropped the floor pans already AND I bought a manual seat track at $250 for the driver side. I will now be removing these tracks as you suggested and mounting directly to the floor. I hope that doesn’t put me to far down. Ugg always something to work on. Thanks for the encouragement and the pictures. I will now follow your suggestions
I know, I often feel like it’s two steps forward, one back with full cash funding of each step!
If I was you, I would drill out the eight rivets on the original tracks and remove the four mounting brackets, reinstall the original tracks and see how they fit. I needed about five inches and got two by removing the four mounting brackets. You will have four inches with your drop and you may be able to fit and preserve the power seat tracks.
I have already removed the eight rivets and mounting brackets and I don't have the motors mounted any longer (The ones that I got with the seats didn't work so I opted for the manual version.)
The original seats and tracks were sold years ago as I had planned on using the Z06 seats and didn't want to carry them across country when we moved. I think a hard mount will be my first stop since it doesn't require buying anything else. If its to low or I must have the adjustment capabilities I will find some c3 tracks.
They are at my NY lake house. I’ll be up there for the summer in three weeks. PM me your contact info and I’ll send you mine. I’ll get you the shipping information once I get up there.
C3 Seat Conversion
