DIY "Racing" Seats

[tmontague]

I got this idea from a Subie guy on Youtube and figured I'd give it a go in my Yaris.

I went to Walmart and bought a super large bag of Polyester stuffing. I should've purhcase the second smallest bag. Needless to say I have way too much left and it cost around $25 instead of $10.



I you look along the back of the drivers seat you can lift a flap. If you use needle nose pliers you can open up the metal rings that hold the flap down. Once these are removed you can work on lifting the seat cover up the seat.



The cover is actually glues to the foam underneath so you have to be careful and just lightly pull it away. If you know where you want the stuffing to stay then you can only part the glue and foam in those spots and this will hold the stuffing in place for you.

I just parted the glue about halfway up the middle of the seat and almost up to the shoulder along the edges. I then filled the space with stufing. Keep in mind that when you sit down the stuffing will naturally collapse into the middle of the seat. Make sure you push it wide enough so when it does collapse it ends up in the place you want it.



I then added a little bit in the middle for lumbar support. I pulled the cover back down and then reattached the metal rings. This is a lot harder to do then removing them because of all the extra padding in the seat. They are also not meant to be removed.

I also un clipped the metal "springs" in the upper portion of the seat so that my back would sit a little further into the seat.

The end results is a much more comfortable seat that hugs my upper body much better. I was going to do the bottom seat cushion on the outside of the legs since it's virtually flat. The only way to disconnect the cover on the bottom cushion is by removing the seat from the car.

I will likely do this down the road, but for now I settled on just the top cushion. If anyone knows the steps to remove the seat from the Yaris please post it here for future reference.

Final result:


The passenger seat is stock and not modified so you can use that for reference. It looks like the drivers seat isn't much deeper but that is due to the cover being pulled taught because of the extra padding and the glue no longer being attached to it. Once you sit down in it it pulls the outer padding towards you and the cover pushed back into the seat.

It's a fairly easy DIY and it makes quite a big comfort difference, especially if you drive a long way each day.

[Be_Jammin]

I tried this, it's a big improvement! Thanks for the tip.

[tmontague]

No problem, glad you found it useful.

I ended up removing the lumbar support padding I added a it was keeping my back too far off of the seat. Once that was removed I removed a little from the sides. Now I sit much further back in the seat and it's a better position.

I also forgot to add that I unclipped the two top bracket clips for the wire cage that supports the seat padding at the top. This allows for the upper back portion of the seat to depress further allowing you to sit further into the seat.