Seat upgrade?

[clickman]

The discomfort in my back from my 25 year old standard seats could quite possibly end my Boxster journey. Has anyone found a replacement seat with adjustable lumbar that doesn’t require a graduate degree in electrical and mechanical engineering to install?

[kmarei]

Originally Posted by clickman

The discomfort in my back from my 25 year old standard seats could quite possibly end my Boxster journey. Has anyone found a replacement seat with adjustable lumbar that doesn’t require a graduate degree in electrical and mechanical engineering to install?

if your seats are the same as mine
i got some foam thats used for cushions from Michaels
its a 2 pack of a white square of foam
i cut the square into 2 rectangles
which came out to be the perfect size to slide between the center cushion of the seat
you can pull the center section of the upper part of the seat and push your hand in one side
and pull the foam to be centered
or you can unclip the top of the center section of the seat upwards and undo those plastic clips
place the foam to be centered, then reattach the plastic clips

this way there is more padding and the seat is a lot more comfortable
if you wanna go overboard you could probably find the same thing on amazon that's memory foam
but you are aiming for something that is about 1/2" thick
otherwise the seat will look deformed and the center section will be sticking out too much

this is the part i am talking about
here its unclipped and lying down on the bottom of the seat
so basically you want the piece of foam to cover the white area below, then you lift it up and re-attach it to the seat

[clickman]

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ve tried pushing a few things behind the center cushion, but I couldn’t get anything low enough. I tried unclipping the cushion but was pulling so hard I was worried I’d break something. Could you give some details, like where to grab and in which direction to pull? Do you need to push in or twist somewhere at the same time?

[kmarei]

Originally Posted by clickman

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ve tried pushing a few things behind the center cushion, but I couldn’t get anything low enough. I tried unclipping the cushion but was pulling so hard I was worried I’d break something. Could you give some details, like where to grab and in which direction to pull? Do you need to push in or twist somewhere at the same time?

in the above picture
grab it from both sides where you see the red text printed on the white foam (on the left)
and you want to lift straight up, as if you are lifting the seat up towards the roof
do not pull towards the front of the car, just straight up

you can see the 3 clips on the far left of the pic
they are the only clips on the top part of the center cushion
you need to lift them up , so they get unhooked from the metal rod in the actual seat
that's all that holds that center cushion to the seat frame
the clips on the side just hold the leather to the cushion, they do not attach to the seat frame

[kmarei]

you grab from the top of both sides
and pull straight up
as if you are pulling the seat up towards the roof
you basically need to unclip those 3 clips on the far left of the above pic
they hook on a metal rod
you lift up to pull the clips above the rod, then you pull towards the front of the car

[clickman]

Got it open.

Buying replacement seats is such a risky proposal to me given the age of some of the components and the subjective feel each of us has as to what works and what doesn’t. And with the seat center now open I thought I’d revisit an earlier attempt.

I bought an inflatable airbag years ago but not knowing the seat center portion separates, I couldn’t get the airbag low enough. With the seat center separated I thought I’d try a new airbag. It’s only rubber, so I’ve got a concern with its well-being given some sharper edges in the lumbar area. First I just tried a thicker piece of material alone to protect it but found the new lumbar support was too concentrated. I added a flat thin sheet of plastic on either side to distribute the pressure and provide protection, fiddled with the position of the whole mess, and have something now that is worth trying on a longer drive.

One benefit of this approach over just adding padding is that I can vary the pressure in the bag during a trip, something I’ve found helpful in my daily driver.

The crappy Porsche arrangement for adjusting the angle of the seat bottom on the base seats still irks me, but we’ll give this current arrangement a try for this year’s driving season.