Breeze Tech Tip #2 Roadster Seat Comfort Improvement

[Mark Reynolds]

Breeze Tech Tip #2 Roadster Seat Comfort Improvement

Late in 2016 I was having a conversation with David Pohli of New Holland, OH, about the FFR Roadster seats. He mentioned that on a recent long drive back from the west coast, after extended time behind the wheel, the seat base cushion would crush enough that the steel seat frame crossbars could be felt underneath.
In early 2017 while revising our seat installation kit for easier installation I decided to address this comfort issue by adding a hardboard panel to cover the seat base frame to present a firm flat surface to support the seat base cushion. In addition, roadster seat comfort is improved by installing them slightly reclined, which has always been a feature Breeze seat mounting kits. When roadster seats are reclined however, the front third of the base cushion, which is cantilevered out in front of the frame, loses its floor support. The cushion tends to bend down under the weight of the driver’s legs, thereby reducing the support. Luckily a simple extension of the hardboard panel extends some flexible support to the front of the seat base cushion.
So a simple and inexpensive improvement that anyone can make is to install some hardboard panels under the seat base cushions. The size is 10” wide by 15” front to rear. Either 1/8” thick or 3/16” thick works great (the thicker being stiffer and the thinner more flexible). They are easily attached to the seat frame using some of the left-over self-drilling screws that were used in the FFR kit to attach the aluminum panels to the frame for shipping.

Fort those of you who have not installed your seats yet, these panels are now included in the Breeze Seat Installation Kit:
Breeze Automotive Factory Five Racing

Hope that helps!

[cgundermann]

Great tip - thanks Mark!

[Papa]

I just received my kit this week. Very nice parts!

[carlewms]

Mark,

Thanks for the tip ... I have to remove my seats one more time before final installation and I will add the hardboard panel.

I suspect that my tall and thin seats will feel a lot better with this modification.

Carl

[frankb]

I did this mod to my seats some time ago because I didn't like the way that the seat bottoms looked after a drive...kind of "old"...because the cushion tended to slide forward making the upholstery look like it didn't fit. The bonus of doing it to improve the looks was that it vastly improved comfort! ;)

[CVOBill]

I did this to my seats also and it makes a huge difference. But I was lucky enough to find someone on the forum selling the original style seats and I have them in my car now.

[GoDadGo]

Mark,

I love your the seat brackets and they work very well and your backer boards do improve the seat comfort significantly so I decided to take it to the next level.
With that said, I did add some padding and a piece of plywood to the seat bottoms so now they fit the back of my front like my old baseball glove fits my hand.
Had my kit not included the backer boards, I probably wouldn't have even considered reworking the seat bottoms so your idea sparked a little upholstery project.
Finally, please know that I've got the "Big & Tall Leather Seats" so adding padding to the very rear section of the cushion was really needed.

Steve

[Race Ratz]

Just purchased leather big n tall seats to replace my original version vinyl seats. Going to purchase the install kit from Breeze. My original seats had Breeze angle bracket mounts and adjustable tracks. I want to sit lower.

[Race Ratz]

Thank you Mark for updating my original Breeze angled seat mounting brackets to the new version with rivnuts for ease of installation. It was great sharing stories while I was there. Mark is a true design Engineer, passionate for what he designs and provides us to make our builds better and easier. Thanks, Bill

[Frank Messina]

For even a bit more comfort I added a piece of high density foam to the front of the hardboard panel Mark describes above. This gives a little more thigh support and when using Mark's inclined seat mounts makes a noticeable improvement in seat comfort.

Frank

[RoadRacer]

Mark, I just ordered my 33 stage 2 kit, normal seats but with leather upgrade, FFR item #16213.

I had this thread bookmarked from long ago - does your kit work with these seats? You say Factory Five Steel Framed "classic" seats - but I wasn't sure what the classic part meant.

[RoadRacer]

Mark, I just ordered my 33 stage 2 kit, normal seats but with leather upgrade, FFR item #16213.

I had this thread bookmarked from long ago - does your kit work with these seats? You say Factory Five Steel Framed "classic" seats - but I wasn't sure what the classic part meant.

For anyone finding this thread later, I spoke to Mark and he explained that 'classic' here just means the normal default seats that have shipped with kits for the last 10 years or so :D

I just placed my order, since seat fitting is getting close..

[Sdonnel]

I have Mark’s seat bases in my car with the hardboard under the base. A question I’d like to ask the group is whether anyone has found a firmer type of foam for the seat base? Even with the hardboard, it’s doesn’t have much cushion to it.

Scott