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Help! - Need headrest mod for wife

996 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  510rcr
I have recently bought an 83 Spider and my wife cannot ride in it b/c of neck injury problems. :( She needs a headrest to lean her head on. This car has beautiful brown seats but to touch headrest with your head you must tilt back your head back extremely far. I am just shy of 6'2" so I cannot replace with a higher seat from say another car. (have an old 325es parts car w/good seats but they sit too far off the floor).

Has anyone addressed this problem or any ideas? I don't have a new seat budget but maybe a salvage yard seat budget from another model.

Thanks in advance!!!

Matt
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Help! - Need Headrest Mod for Wife

I have recently bought an 83 Spider and my wife cannot ride in it b/c of neck injury problems. :( She needs a headrest to lean her head on. This car has beautiful brown seats but to touch headrest with your head you must tilt back your head back extremely far. I am just shy of 6'2" so I cannot replace with a higher seat from say another car. (have an old 325es parts car w/good seats but they sit too far off the floor).

Has anyone addressed this problem or any ideas? I don't have a new seat budget but maybe a salvage yard seat budget from another model.

Thanks in advance!!!

Matt
Not the answer you're looking for, but Alfas were designed for the straight-arm driving style therefore, the seat backs do not rake up enough for me either or offer the support necessary. However, it is easier for me to ride as a passenger with adequate support rather than the driver. I tire easily because of the seat configuration.

I used a pillow at my back to drive the spiders but that moves your head and neck area farther away from the seat back, so probably your easiest and most affordable solution to see if it works or helps would be a pillow or other insert of some type as shown by Silverspider in his post before investigating changing out seats.

This would totally ruin the Italian Alfa look, but 1970 forward MG-BGT seats are very adjustable and may be used at a 90 degree angle or farther forward, which is the way I drove my MG, which saved me from severe whiplash when I was rear-ended by a camper pick-up truck.
i stuffed a piar of maita seats in my car. i stand 6' tall. so i got 4 peices of t-6 alum, about 24 " long by 2" wide and 1/4 thick,( these are est. for i am at work now, i will come back in a day or so with correct mesu.) drilled 2 holes for the seats and 2 more to mount to the car, yes they do not move, but i only drive the the car. and i sit nice and low now with a nice backrest and headrest.
Well.........

Depending on how you feel about her, there's always this solution:

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Well.........

Depending on how you feel about her, there's always this solution:


I was waiting for that. Tifosi didn't disappoint me. He always suggests such simple solutions to such complex problems.

Besides homicide, I would suggest that maybe you take the (or a salvage) headrest and have a welding shop bend some steel rod stock to position the headrest as needed in place of the straight OEM rods. The kicker in that would be the safety aspects in the even of a rear end collision.
Re: improved headrest options

Homocide is not an option - even if I had OJ's money. ;)

Seriously, I wondered about extending & bending the headrest rods, that may be an option. For an immediate fix the inserts look interesting. I just want to be able to take the Alfa when we go places as it sure beats her new Civic in my opinion. The miata seats are interesting. I know some guys who have spec miatas, I may see if they have the stock seats still and look at how high they would sit. These stock seats are right on the floor & I sure would not want to sit any higher.

Thanks for the input - Matt
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