Another tall driver thread (4 Viewers)

[Pitch]

I picked up my ’69 FJ40 essentially without a front driver seat (yes, there was a cloth Corolla seat, but that doesn’t count). I do have the original passenger seat, but now I need to find a way to fit my 6‘9“ 240 pound-self in there. I have no stock fitment point to work from, but I’m looking for input from tall drivers (6’5” and up only please) who have found a suitable aftermarket or junkyard seat/slider set up.
I’m expecting to fab up some custom brackets, but how about the seat itself? Most threads that I have found on Mud are 10+ years, old, and I don’t really wanna spend the $5K plus that I spent on my 80 series Scheel-Mann seats.

Needs: low stack height, and a long seating surface. It’s going to be more of a cruiser than a wheeler… so a low to medium bolster height is desirable. I am willing to keep the stock passenger seat, or move to buckets on both sides. It will see some intense sun in the Mtns of Arizona, so vinyl is probably the best choice??
FWIW: Being a ‘69, I have the driver’s-side storage box… but it may go away due to rust anyway. I want a comfortable driver, not a perfect Resto-project. Any input is appreciated!

 

[charliemeyer007]

I got my 72 from a 6'6" 300# guy. Has the stock seats. He set the brake pedal down about 2" after he put a 76 hard top on it. With the rag top door he could bow it out enough to get his boot on the brake, not so with the hard top door, so he lowered the pedal. I'm only 6'2" 200# so my only issue is foot room my boots with no ankle on the right leg.

 

[1911]

I'm only 6'2" 200#

Same here; sorry @Pitch

 

[jimkyser]

I’m 6’5” 215# and I have a 76 40 with stock seats. I don’t have hard doors, only factory soft, metal-tech tube, or no doors. It’s mostly fine as is, I drove it all the way around lake Michigan in 4 days last summer. I do have some trouble seeing stop lights if i’m too close to the intersection, so i’m always slouching down to see them. I run with out sun visors because they sit below the top of the windshield glass and make things worse. Also, like with most vehicles for me, the windshield mount rearview mirror actually impedes my view of vehicles coming from the right. They get totally covered up by the mirror, so i have to always look around it. It would be better if it were mounted low to the top of the dash like some vintage corvettes.

 

[msapers]

My previous 72 had the wheelwell behind the drivers seat notched to allow the seat to move a little farther back. also the toolbox was removed.

 

[Devils Paw 80]

6'5" here, with 35" inseam. I had a 1976 FJ40 many years ago and there was an aftermarket seat bracket extension kit available at the time that gave maybe two extra inches? Not sure.

Anyway, the legroom was ridiculously cramped without the brackets and remained somewhat inadequate with them as I recall.

 

[troutbum4]

I'm 6'5" (might be shrinking now as I age) and about 230. I found some leather bucket seats from an 2008 subaru outback. Heated and driver side is electric. I like the electric as I can position the seat all the way back and then also up and down.

 

[559Fj40]

6'4" here and my 40 has PRP Daily Driver suspension seats in it. I can find pictures soon but I made new seat bases out of square tube and some angle iron reusing the factory mounting holes in the floor. I bought the fixed back seats so it took a few attempts to get the seats angled how I like but I am happy with them now. Only issue is due to the fuel tanks under the passenger seat I could not lower it enough to match the height of the driver side.

Another perk of the PRP seats if you are moving away from stock cruiser seats is you can choose materials and colors and you can get them with a taller seat back and extra widths as well..

 

[Pitch]

Great info above… thanks to all that have responded thus far.

 

[Pitch]

@559Fj40 , I have seen a few sets of the PRP and Beard suspension seats for sale recently… Likely takeoffs from a rock crawler or a side-by-side. The daily drivers make more sense as the low bolstered side will allow ingress/egress under the oversized steering wheel on the 40. My concern had been being able to limbo under the steering wheel, but with the low bolster on the driver seat seats that seems much more feasible.

 

[559Fj40]

My driver side seat base for the prp seats. Took a few trys to get height right but the legs are lower than stock. Still uses the stock mounting locations in the floor.

Passenger side I could not drop any lower due to fuel tanks. Reused the factory legs to match the bend around the tank but still built a new frame for the seat. The angle Iron pieces are what the seat itself bolts to now. Allows them to drop a little lower.

Seats installed showing clearance to the steering wheel

The installed pic is pretty old. Since then I have got the passenger seat angled back a bit more but this hopefully paints a better picture of what I was talking about in my first post.

 

[pb4ugo]

6'8" 240. In all my cars I need power seats. Positioned all the way back, front of the seat all the way up & the back down, and the back upright tilted back. This has been decades ago. On my 72 I think I added 1 1/2"x1/4 flat stk on top of the drivers frame to mount the seat further back. I hated the stk 60/40 bench. The pass side was too close and too upright for my liking. Later I adapted Camaro buckets. The pass side wasn't even close to the same position as the modified driver seat frame. Later I swapped to a later tub with stk buckets. Added flat stk to the drivers seat frame and moved the seat back for more room, I also found if I raised the frt of the frame and try to lower the back to rotate the seat back, it created more room without getting to far from the steering wheel. Later I opted to cheap aftermarket seats with higher side bolsters. That's when I realized how much I was using the steering wheel to keep my butt in the seat during competitive events. High bolsters made me a better driver. Later I made a seat subframe to adjust and tie my seats into the full cage roll bar.

 

[sogncab]

I won't bitch. I'm 6'2". I have a 34" inseam and the torso of a 12 year old Dutch girl.

Scheelmann seats on a Corbeau bracket. Driver's side all the way back is almost touching the rear wheel well. Passenger side runs into the cover for the emissions BS by the fuel filler and doesn't go as far

I need to put a little lift under the driver's seat and angle the seat pan a little bit by lifting the front more. Seating position is dogsh#t in a 40.

 

[ryanwk628]

6'6 with a 1970, I deleted the tool box due to rust and made a bracket with 30 series BMW leather seats. I pulled the sliders and hard mounted them to get them as low as possible. The hardest part is getting under the wheel.

Long term I am going with an Aqualu 3/4 tub and moving the gas tank to behind the rear axle. This will allow me to get seats down as low as I want them. TBD if I stay with the BMW seats or go with a low back seat that looks more correct. Definitely want to keep the Tuffy console for locking items when the top is off

 

[FJBen]

. Seating position is dogsh#t in a 40.

Every time I think I want a 40, this pops up in my head.

This is me 6’5” 200 driving @treerootCO 40 after I flipped my fj55 in 2006 . Seat brackets flipped and seat all the way back.

It was -18f below hence all the extra clothes.

I moved my seats back 3” in my BJ74 and it has waaay more room and comfort with more room to go. Threads like these always make me rethink a 40.

 

[Devils Paw 80]

View attachment 3931301
...Threads like these always make me rethink a 40.

Yup. Never again!

 

[sogncab]

Every time I think I want a 40, this pops up in my head.

This is me 6’5” 200 driving @treerootCO 40 after I flipped my fj55 in 2006 . Seat brackets flipped and seat all the way back.

It was -18f below hence all the extra clothes.

View attachment 3931301


I moved my seats back 3” in my BJ74 and it has waaay more room and comfort with more room to go. Threads like these always make me rethink a 40.

I had my seat in a pretty decent spot before paint with the super safe and smart stacking washers method.

I just need to get it back to where it was and it'll be mucho better. But not great.

The 80 is dogsh#t too, but at least the pedals are in a reasonable spot.

 

[FJBen]

I had my seat in a pretty decent spot before paint with the super safe and smart stacking washers method.

I just need to get it back to where it was and it'll be mucho better. But not great.

The 80 is dogsh#t too, but at least the pedals are in a reasonable spot.

I remember the 80 as well wasn’t great. Heck the 100 is better but not great.

We gave my 16yr old son our 2006 double cab tundra to drive. He’s 6’8” and can fit in there. Quite a lot of room in that tundra.