Adjusting seat position on first gen Riviera

[SurfGreen64]

I am a member of ROA and have a 64 Riv.  I am wondering if the seats could be adjusted slightly back to give more leg room. I have the 4 way seat on drivers side.

I have looked through the body manual but can't find anything.  I looked through this forum and find others wishing they could do this, but no solution.

Is there a way to do this without modifying the track or brackets?

 

Thanks!

[XframeFX]

For the Driver's seat only, the front U-Brackets can be mounted backwards. Doing this, will position the seat rearwards only an inch. However, no irreversible holes need to be drilled except for the seat's rear feet. On the rear feet, there is another smaller hole that lines-up perfectly only it is too small. I drilled them both out to 7/16". Good enough for me!

The image is of the inboard track before I drilled, blasted and painted it. It is a front view but you can still see the rear foot with the 7/16"  and smaller hole.

A warning on the inboard track and 4 Delrin slides. The track falls out and the slides fall off into the gravel lost forever! It is the reason I took the image with only 1 remaining slide out of 4 in the foreground.

John B.

[SurfGreen64]

Thanks John for your response!

I did see that I could reverse the front u-brackets and also noticed the small hole on the rear but did not notice it lines up perfectly with the hole in the floor.  Thanks for confirming that it does. If you drill the hole to 7/16" I assume that will be big enough to use the original bolts?

 

Thanks.

Walt T.

[XframeFX]

Walt, drilling out to 7/16" will allow for original bolts. However, when you get into it, you'll notice the rear foot for the outboard track is elongated along the width. Obviously when you drill out the small hole, you're not going to have this. So, be prepared with a rat-tail file or drill further to 1/2".

I bought new 'Flange Bolts' from Lowes. There were 2 types almost identical. It pays to take time, I chose the bolts with a nub at the tip like original. Not expensive but it adds-up!

Tilting the seat uses up leg length as well. To achieve a little more tilt, I wanted to 'shim up' the front mounts but GM had Rosie-The-Riveter attach those hook brackets to the seat tracks.

I'm happy with the 'tweak'!

John B.

[dr914]

I was wondering that as well.  My drivers seat does not go back that far, but I have it in the back of my mind that years ago it did.  I am only 5 11 and seat is just not far back enough to be comfortable.  Could anything else keep it from going back to its original rearward postition?  The motor works until it stops on its own, but just not back far enough

 

[RivNut]

If the seat has never been run back to the farthest position possible, the OE grease used on the screw drive can harden and prevent the seat from moving back.  Chipping off the old grease from everything and re-greasing  might allow for some extra movement.

[Jim Cannon]

Make 6 flat metal plates with 2 holes in each, as many inches apart as you want to move the seat. I moved mine 2 inches.

 

Mount the plate to the car with one set of holes into original mounting points. Mount the seat to the plate with the other holes.

 

Use some strong steel plates, thick steel, and strong bolts/nuts.

[Riviera63]

I just did the front U-bracket reversal on my driver's seat yesterday. It turned out to be a very easy and simple conversion. Being able to raise and lower the seat in the front and the rear really makes taking out and installing the bolts very easy. The outboard rear foot on my seat had 4 identical oval holes so no drilling was needed there. The inboard rear foot had 2 circular holes with the front one being smaller as was mentioned above. That front hole was big enough for the bolt to go through. I did drill it out larger so that I had some room to shift that foot slightly when reinstalling the seat. This made it easier when aligning the other rear foot. Everything lined up easily and as it should. I like having the extra room even though it is not a huge amount. It also now allows my OEM style rubber mats to lie flat now and stay in place better. Before there wasn't quite enough room and the back edge had to curl up against the brackets and the mat had a tendency to creep forward. 

 

Bill

[XframeFX]

Bill, it appears we are in lock-step with our projects. My bucket seats are still at the upholsterer and I learned a few lessons there. Why is it there's bad resources out there and I end up doing or re-doing it myself? This time, there's a 45 year upholsterer telling me there was a better path than the one I chose. Doing things the hard way - again!

The seat frames were so rusty, I had to remove the PS track for media blasting. Along with that 1" re-position, I can now see that the front mount can be shimmed-up slightly to give it a little more tilt. Use up some leg length.

Good thing I installed the rear seat as original and not make the same mistake as on the front. The rear frames might be rusty too. But they look good and if it ain't broke . . . .

 

John B.