Finished Seat Height on 33 Hot Rod

[Murph]

Can anyone tell me what the finished height of the seats are on the 33?

[Silent T]

What part of the seat? The top?
Also depends on how they are mounted.
The manual says to bolt them directly to the floor. I actually mounted mine to modified sliders and have them slightly reclined. I'm only 5'5". Taller folks may not have that option.
I can check the seat height from bottom to top if you want?

[wallace18]

I mounted them to the floor. I am 6'3" tall though.

[TigerBill]

Mounted on floor as well - 6'1" and wouldn't want it any higher.

[Murph]

I guess I was not specific enough. My concern is for my disabled wife and her ability to enter/exit the passenger side of the car. I was looking for the finished height, ground to top of seat. October 3 is the completion date of my 33, don't expect delivery for another week since I live so far south, Sebastian Fl. The pics of your car look great. I too plan to use orange paint, but not the same as yours. Thanks for the reply!

[bbksv]

Mine is about 16" from the ground (the front part of the seat)..back if probably 14-15"..but this is all dependent on the ride height that you set for the car too..

[myjones]

I guess I was not specific enough. My concern is for my disabled wife and her ability to enter/exit the passenger side of the car. I was looking for the finished height, ground to top of seat. October 3 is the completion date of my 33, don't expect delivery for another week since I live so far south, Sebastian Fl. The pics of your car look great. I too plan to use orange paint, but not the same as yours. Thanks for the reply!

The bigger problem is the suicide door doesn't open very wide along with the chop top to duck under and if it's a running board car it's a stretch of almost 16" in to the seat area and over the raised rockers.
I don't recall if the rocker is higher than the seat or not. If your wife is not tall raising the seat to just above the rocker might help the entry/exit.
Expecting your car to arrive just one week after production is a long shot. They schedule regional trips with a full load in mind so you could easily wait 3-4 more weeks for them to get the right route and be full.
HTH
Dale Hemi33

[Murph]

Again, thanks for the info! I am not using running boards, so that will not be a problem. My wife is not that tall, 5'6" so I might get away with raising the seat above the rocker. On the other hand, I'm 6'2". I see that most tall guys bolt the driver's side seat to the floor . I guess I'll have to wait and see.

As far as the delivery date, it is what it is. I did not expect a completion date so soon. Whenever it gets here I'll still be ahead of what I originally thought it would be. With all the rain they are getting up there, I expect delays any way.

[kraftee]

Hi Murph,

My 33 is about 90% complete and I am not too far away from you in Gainesville, FL. Although I pretty much got the car to this point in three months, an out of town job commitment put a hold on completion for the last two years. I have recently started work on it again and expect to be back in town on Friday, November 20th for the weekend to work a bit more on the car. In fact, I expect to do the "first drive with body on" while I am there! See my build thread (http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...s-33-Build-583) as I have done a few things that might make your wife more comfortable, like retractor 3-point belts, raised slides on the seats, convertible top instead of coupe, etc. If you feel like driving to Gainesville that weekend, I'd be happy to show you the car.

Best regards, ERIC

[myjones]

I have done a few things that might make your wife more comfortable, like retractor 3-point belts, raised slides on the seats,
Best regards, ERIC

Eric
Tell us more about those 3 point belts, I plan to do the same so any brand, pictures, and your impressions would be appreciated.
Dale Berry
Hemi33

[kraftee]

My feeling is that there is no place in a street car for full race harnesses - and it is beyond me why FF supplies the cars that way. If you are going to autocross and/or race your car - okay. But I'm pretty sure that most of these cars are primarily street-driven. I believe that FF really should engineer in some way to easily mount 3-point retracting belts - and then give you a choice of what belt system you want when you order your kit. Have you ever used race harnesses in a street car? They really suck. If they are cinched down properly, you can't reach any of the controls on your dash - and if you leave them loose, then you might as well not wear them! Of course, the biggest problem is that they are SUCH a pain to buckle that many people are tempted to just leave them off for short trips - or to leave the shoulder harness portions tucked behind the seat.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox. Here are some pictures of the way I did my 3-point installation. The belt kits came from Wesco Performance (http://wescoperformance.stores.yahoo...cket-help.html.) It's their Roadster kit with the chrome aircraft-style buckles and I also purchased the extra long (14") buckle end. I used part of the included hardware along with some heavy steel I had laying around to weld up the retractor mounts. The mounts actually wrap under the 1" bar and then through bolt with a mil-spec bolt. Then the retractor simply bolts to the upper tab. Everything is in shear - some of it in double shear. I am no engineer, but if I hit something hard enough to fail these mounts? Well, let's just say that is going to be the least of my problems...

If you install the belt retractors where I did, keep in mind that you must make sure that your fiberglass body will fit down over them - that determines how far down the bar you drill holes for your retractor mount. The underside of mine actually touches the plastic retractor housing - but doesn't seem to cause any interference problems. The belts are VERY comfortable to wear - and easy to buckle. When you get out of the car, they do not retract quite as easily as the ones in a production car - due to the angles involved. But once you sit in the seat, with normal shoulder height, they retract in and out easily as you lean forward and back. I am VERY happy with the installation!

One more thing - if you haven't ordered your kit yet: FF gave me a credit on the race harness they usually supply. Someone told me that they no longer do this - but if you're going with retractors, it's sure worth asking.

Hope that helps! ERIC

[myjones]

My feeling is that there is no place in a street car for full race harnesses - and it is beyond me why FF supplies the cars that way. ! Of course, the biggest problem is that they are SUCH a pain to buckle that many people are tempted to just leave them off for short trips Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.
One more thing - if you haven't ordered your kit yet: FF gave me a credit on the race harness they usually supply. Someone told me that they no longer do this - but if you're going with retractors, it's sure worth asking.
Hope that helps! ERIC

Eric
I agree completely on the race harness, it's not street friendly and since most of us take awhile to build the car and the harness has aged in FF inventory there is usually less than a year left on the stale date of the harness by the time we are driving our project. The 33 should not come with a race harness unless you pay extra for it and then it should be brand new date wise not already 6 months old or more. Thanks for the part info and pictures
Dale Berry Hemi33

[erlihemi]

Eric,
That is a nice looking solution. I agree in that the race harness should be an option vice a mandated fee that gets shelved along with the other $500 worth of stuff. Some of this is either liability driven or vendor relationship driven for sure. Having expressed that opinion I just happen to be using the Kirkey seats with harness and quickly realized I can't reach the dash!! Since I do want the harness...sometimes.... I have to do a couple innovations.
1) decide which switches must be accessible and mount them near the shifter.
2) experiment with mounting points to utilize both harness and 3 point retractable.
I believe I can use the two lower points behind the seat for both. Since I'm running kirkey seats, roll bar, and hard top I probably will mount the shoulder point at the roll bar to get it up higher.
We'll see how this progresses eventually. Has to pass NYS approvals first and foremost.

[kraftee]

Having both sets of belts will probably work. For daily use, you can mount your three-point retractors in whatever manner seems to work best for your car. Then mount the race harness shoulder straps and leave them behind the seat (when you don't need them.) I don't know what kind of attachment the FF harnesses use (since I deleted them from my order), but I would use snap-in clips on the race harness belt components where they attach to the mounts so that you don't have move them out of the way every time you sit down to buckle your 3-point belts.

BTW, where are you in upstate New York? I have a place on Conesus Lake near Rochester. Of course, I don't go there THIS time of year!

ERIC

[erlihemi]

Eric, I'm south of Ithaca . I was on Conesus or the other reservoir this summer. Couple microbrews out there. I was wishing I had the 33 to cruise the area. Some nicely maintained roads until you get farther east.

[kraftee]

Yep. Really nice place to drive - in the summer! We have a '62 Triumph TR3B at the lake house for summer top-down driving and it's great fun. I'll definitely be taking the 33 up there for a summer or two when it's finished!

[kamikaze]

Can anyone tell me what the finished height of the seats are on the 33?

I am 5,11 I used sliders with a half inch spacer also . I am going to remove the spacer and the slider. I am looking strait into the windshield frame .

[galema33]

My just completed 33 (Feb 1, 2016) has the seats mounted to the floor. The front edges of the seats are level with the door sills and 16.5 inches above the ground. It has had some major modifications to the suspension to improve the ride quality and handling so the ride height may not be the usual.