Reducing thickness of A Pillar to Add Headroom?

[NVR 2L8]

Reducing thickness of "B Pillar" to Add Headroom?

SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION - I MEANT TO ASK ABOUT THE "B Pillar" !!!

On an NSX-T:

Has anyone tried to cut out a portion of the top of the B Pillar in order to increase head room?

I realize that this is structural, but it gets very thick as it gets closer to the rear glass and there must be some room to be gained.

My problem, even with the seat fully back and fully reclined (and allowing for a thinner seat cushion), I still need at least one more inch.

I don't have any problem cutting out a portion of the B Pillar as long as I am able to get a little more room.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[02#154]

I have a few questions:

How is the a-pillar getting in the way of your head if the seat is all the way back and reclined (unless you're hunching forward and not sitting back against the seat)?

Seems like you wouldn't be able to use the roof panel anymore if you mod the a-pillar in any way that would give more head room. Are you okay with this (or with spending probably thousands to somehow keep the roof usable?)

Do you mean b-pillar (where most drivers heads are near to)?

Not sure how or in what way you'd mod the a-pillar to provide more room... could you elaborate on your thoughts?

J

 

[ChopsJazz]

A pillar: structural support in front of the driver, supports the widshield.

B pillar: structural support behind the driver, supports the roof/rear glass.

 

[NVR 2L8]

I have a few questions:

How is the a-pillar getting in the way of your head if the seat is all the way back and reclined (unless you're hunching forward and not sitting back against the seat)?

Seems like you wouldn't be able to use the roof panel anymore if you mod the a-pillar in any way that would give more head room. Are you okay with this (or with spending probably thousands to somehow keep the roof usable?)

Do you mean b-pillar (where most drivers heads are near to)?

Not sure how or in what way you'd mod the a-pillar to provide more room... could you elaborate on your thoughts?

J

OK, I might have my nomenclature wrong. I am talking about the top cross piece of the roof that supports the removable top.

When the seat is fully reclined, my head is hitting this cross piece. Also, it goes from about 2" thick at the back of the roof glass to about 6" thick, which further reduces head room. It is this section that I would like to "carve out" some head room.

I have the same situation on my C5 Corvette, but since the removable top on the Vette is about 6" longer, the cross piece does not interfere.

 

[ChopsJazz]

It sounds to me that you are venturing into some dangerous territory. Literally, dangerous. The NSX-T has undergone structural reinforcing to mitigate the negative effects of removing the top. Although I'm not certain if the area that you're speaking of received any strengthening, I know that the roof serves as driver protection in the event of a rollover. It also keeps the chassis from flexing during cornering.

Have you tried a thinner seat cushion?

 

[Thom]

Have an inch removed from your scull, then you'll fit

 

[docjohn]

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67368&highlight=tall+drivers and the solution http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21886&highlight=tall+drivers

 

[NVR 2L8]

A pillar: structural support in front of the driver, supports the widshield.

B pillar: structural support behind the driver, supports the roof/rear glass.

Oops! My bad, I have definitely blew any attempt that I may have made to disguise the fact that I am definitely a "newbie" (although not in age, I am 54).

I was trying to inquire about reducing the thickness of the "B Pillar". I went to a body shop today and he pulled up the complete construction detail of the B Pillar. It is clear that everything else should be done first (seat cushion replacement, adjustment, modify bolsters, lose weight, etc.), but it does appear that removing the B Pillar cover may improve head clearance 1/2 to 1 inch.

Additional thoughts on this are welcome.

 

[slamstrom]

Don't worry about being a newbie, that's how we learn.:smile:
Welcome aboard.

 

[ANYTIME]

If your car is a targa and you think there is empty space behind the panels, you are wrong. I have had the panels off and there is about 1/16th of an inch clearance between the top mechanicals/guts and the interior panels. The panels are as tight as clearance as they are going to get!

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

OK, I might have my nomenclature wrong. I am talking about the top cross piece of the roof that supports the removable top.

When the seat is fully reclined, my head is hitting this cross piece. Also, it goes from about 2" thick at the back of the roof glass to about 6" thick, which further reduces head room. It is this section that I would like to "carve out" some head room.

I have the same situation on my C5 Corvette, but since the removable top on the Vette is about 6" longer, the cross piece does not interfere.

My initial reaction would be that reducing the thickness of the B Pillar really won't help with head clearance from where I sit. However, it sounds that perhaps you are sitting back farther than I do and may be much taller on a greater tilt... but the area by the dome light should be fine, and you wouldn't want to compromise structual integrity on a T any further by hacking that area up as it gets its strength from its form. No carving... the stock cockpit dimentions are adequate you just need to work with them.

There is no question, especially stock... head clearance in the NSX can definitely be tight; more so in the targa. The stock seat sits high. In general head clearance kind of comes here and there, but it all really adds up. If you want to keep everything stockish... remove the seat cushion and if that doesn't do it.... perhaps think about getting a race seat and side mounts moving forward.



I spent a lot of time working on seating position this year. I wanted to A) get sufficient clearance with my helmet on considering my roll cage is tight... and B) part of a greater project, put the driver into a lower position for better CG. Not sure how relevant it would be for you.. but while I have the stand.. if your willing to go all out, here are some trial and error tricks I found that worked well for me given my roll cage:

Helmet: If you can find a sugar daddy... get an Arai GP5, it has an overall lower height than some of the other models I've tried. Remove the sweat pad inside it. You can pick up about a 1/2" over some other ones right there.

Seats: Get rid of the stock power ones and get a decent race seat. Remove the butt padding. It makes a significant difference. You can mold a custom foam shell with an off the shelf kit that will feel better and get the best of both.

Mounting: How you mount a seat has a huge bearing on head clearance. Ditch the carpet or at least the thick backing pad, and if you really want to go all out remove the interior tar mat. Then use side mount brackets with the full safe range of tilt up to about 20 degrees max as opposed to using a steel sparco style slider... and you can save another inch plus right there too.

For a max clearance seat mount... use a pre-tapped fixed mount V's style. Drill out the welds and remove the front mounting span. If you put in the time you can get a set of custom revised seat mounts made one-off that serves the same purpose. You can then get that seat to be as forward and as low as possible to the floor given the stock ribbing contour and pick up about another inch. Basically, setting the rear of that seat on the floor.

My only warning there is to make sure any work is solid for inspection. Use proper area steel backing plates on the underside with good grade 10+ hex bolts and grade 8+ washers with loctite and ideally tie your new mount into the roll cage if you have one. My race seat is anchored to reinforced roll cage points and for my lap belt I drop a huge bolt down from the stock rear 14mm seat mounts and cap it off on the bottom of the car so I know it is solid.

Trim: Remove all the interior trim from the Targa cover. Hey an 1/8" is 1/8" of an inch you don't have now.

Roll Cage: If you think targa clearance is bad wait until you add a roll cage. Because of the latching mechanism side to side clearance can definitely be more of a challenge in the T. Especially with the thicker BSCI FIA padding on there with side restraints I found that things get real tight real quick.

You need to ensure that in the event of a serious impact there is no contact by the helmet against a bar. With enough g's the neck can stretch a good bit. Also ensure the design gets the front bar as high as possible so if you flip and your belts go taut you still won't get contact upside down. As it is hard to get things 100% all the time, I made custom shims to get every last mm out of mine. I took anything I could get before hitting the T latch mechanism and I still wish I had more.

Note that some tech rules state a 2" mandatory clearance to the bar. For the street you'll have ubber clearance.. probably head just poking up over the door. On the track it's great to have good helmet clearance... honestly I can't stand the stock seating position it seems really high to me.

In general I try and get everything as low as possible.. as the nice thing is that you can always add pads later or adjust at the mount.

Hope that helps.

 

[argon_nsx]

NO!!! THERE'S A BETTER SOLUTION!!!! Please don't chop an NSX up. Find a low slung recaro or some sort of race seat and mount it to the floor instead of using rails... That should gain you a good bit. I switched to recaros and noticed that my sitting position is now lower... and I'm using SOS rails. You can mount them to the floor instead of using rails and I think it's much safer to drill four holes in the floor than it is to start butchering the car up. Also... I've used my recaro with the cushioning removed without any issues and when I do I have to move the seat forward b/c it lowers me enough so that I can't reach the pedals comfortably with where my seat was before removing the cushion. That buys lots of room too. You could even remove the carpet and padding as well as the tar from under the seat and that would allow you to bolt the seat even lower to the ground and if you did it right you could hide the edge of where the carpet was removed with the sides of the seat so no one would ever really notice. Remember too... selling an NSX... we'll really good examples sell for sometimes twice book (I've sold three of mine for twice to nearly twice book)... while NSX that have been poorly modded/cared for sell for far less... so doing something like that will really make it harder to sell your NSX and when it did sell I'd expect it to sell for far less than it otherwise would have. I'm only 5.9 but like John I keep lowering my center of gravity Let us know what you end up doing and how it works out.