Need more leg room!! First off how do I go about removing then re-installing the front seat riser and front seat back panel, etc.? I'm in hopes I can do this without tearing out the uppoulstry. Any help and photos will be useful.

Lynn, I don't see how you can do this with or without disrupting the upholstery. The seat bottom support is riveted to the sills and the seat back is bolted into the side panels.

For photos, see
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/257047/331133.html?1356802061 The body parked by the blue shelves is my 26 roadster but the seat set-up is typical of the touring.

Can't without a major re-work. I think that those assemblies are spot welded into place.

Lynn;
What year and style do you have? I'm 6'4" and I didn't have any problem with my '27 Touring.

Thanks Richard. Mine is also a 27 Touring. What I am in hopes of is doing this without removing the front seat back upholstery. Seems like I ought to be able to remove the stove bolts that hold the seat back to the center support section
between the front and rear doors then fabricate a metal strip to serve as an extension maybe 4" long with a new hole drilled to accept the stove bolt. Thoughts are this would then allow me to slide the seat back rearward a couple of inches. One issue may be freeing the seat riser and the rear toe rest from the floor in order to fit the new seat back arrangement. Any ideas?

You might try a smaller steering wheel; it would be a lot easier.

1926/27 touring and roadster are not my favorite T's. Space in the driver's seat is not made for a tall person. The rear seat in a touring has more than enough room.
Good luck on that modification Lynn, it will not be easy and may make the back seat entry difficult. Just a thought????

Would be a lot of real hard work to put the metal seat backrest further back. You interfere with the rear door jam. Can't think of that as a easy solution. That seat back frame is also on the subframe rail. Lots of fasterners to try to replace, also the seat base frame would go back, a new front seat spring base of wider dimension would be needed too.



If all you need is a few inches, you might just try to remove the back rest spring. That spring is thick, and covered with uphol, is what gives the backrest its padding.




So, if you compromise on comfort, you could just remove it, and use a thinner piece of solid foam for the padding, that will give you several inches, and allow your backside to slide back giving you the legroom.



This owner did that, hard to really tell by this picture, but note how thin the folding of uphol material over the back tack strip, the seat spring wasn't used on this upholstery job for more room.

Here is what is typical.

I just went out to the garage and looked at my bare '26 touring body and realized why moving the seat backrest is a bad idea.

If you want to be able to open and close all four doors, do not move the backrest. It is providing the cross car stiffness of the body. If the seat back is no longer in contact with the structure that supports the hinges on the side panels between the doors, the body will become a noodle. That seat back is permanently affixed for a reason. This is the same reason the Lincolns in the sixties had suicide doors. That center panel will not support the hinge load without the seatback.

Lynn
if you are "tall in the undercarriage" like me, perhaps consider raising the seat cushion a bit as well as seriously consider deleting the rear spring. my '13 never had a back rest spring and it is perfectly comfortable

Lynn, the easy answer is to buy a 27' Lincoln problem solved. Your welcome.

A tall friend of mine has a 27. He left the riser in the same place but tilted the seat back a few inches. Then he put lower springs, perhaps, a thick foam pad for the seat. It allows him to see through the windshield and his legs to operate the pedals without bumping the steering wheel. Another member of our club has a 23 touring and extended the windshield posts about 4 inches to raise the front of the top. His car is the farthest on the right in this picture.

Norm

Here is a picture of the car on which the seat back was tilted. It doesn't look much different from the way Henry made it.
Norm

Maybe you should trade to a different car. A '13 thru '16 touring seems to have the most front legroom. Also they have round gas tanks so the seat is several inches higher giving a different leg angle.

I started off in this hobby with a '26 touring, and the reason I sold it was because of the leg room. I'm 6'3, and it wasn't right for me. The earlier cars have more room.