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For less than the cost of 'real' GT5-S seats, you can have your original seats reupholstered in wrinkled-leather with reworked padding etc. and avoid head-clearance issues. The real GT5-S seats have a reclining feature that is next-to-uselass in the Pantera, & a very thick padded seat and back. IMHO, the best seats for the Pantera for looks, long-distance comfort, price and ease of installation are OEM early 3-piece seats, with the following mods:
1)- slot the back straps & add knobs to the stock allen bolts, so seatback rake can be altered.
2)- reupholster in wrinkled leather, your choice of color
3)- re-contour the rear seat crossmember; in some seatback positions, this steel piece causes butt-numbness on long runs.
4)- add nylon seat rollers for ease of adjustment back & forth.
In my '72L, this cost $700 a pair (in 1990; more now), resulted in far more comfort than before, dropped the seat bottom 1-1/2 inches so I now fit comfortably wearing a helmet (I'm 6'2") and quickly adjusts for my 5'4" wife as well. And they bolt into your car with no fabrication. Most of the Pantera vendors offer this service. Other than this, consider dropped floorpans to compensate for the thicker GT5-S seatbases.
Thanks folks. My seats are falling apart I think. They no longer roll back or forth (which isnt really a problem since I keep them far back) but the seat back and steel frame seems loose. The bottom rails are bolted securely to the floor though. If I put new rollers in the rails would that solve the seat bottom looseness problem you think? thanks for your help.
Stock rollers are rubber coated steel. The rubber flat-spots and then slides rather than rolls. All the vendors sell nylon substitutes that work 100% better & are cheap. In addition, the floor pan can get bent, which twists the seat rails. Remove the seats, then the rails & dump out the stock rollers. Then lay the rails on the floor & see if they appear straight. If not, a large hammer will straighten this easily. One-piece stock seats in '73-74 Panteras often crack their frames; 71- mid'72 seats had removeable backs and seem much less prone to frame-cracking, and are more comfortable to start with IMHO.
My stock early seats were redone in black leather & fresh foam by Mike Cook (who used to work for Gary Hall), but I suspect that all the So-Cal Pantera vendors use the same talented Mexican seat-upholstery shop, as the results look identical. Could be wrong, but.... I've had good luck with local street-rod upholstery shops, too. They just need real good photos of what you want your old seats to look like.
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