nerdnic

IMPORTANT BACKSTORY
While the lumbar and bottom cushion on the standard 997 seats could be softer, they are decent enough and don't cause any issues for me. However, I have broad shoulders and the standard 997 seats do not fit my shoulders well at all. My shoulder blades touch the outside of the top bolsters which leaves my spin floating with no support. I end up rolling my shoulders forward and hunching my upper back as I settle into the seat. This causes extreme discomfort after driving for more than 20 minutes. I've put up with this for over a year now and it was making me enjoy my car less.

Ideally, I would just buy better seats (sport adaptive?). However, that's expensive and I don't want to buy new seats unless it's the last resort. Thankfully, there is another option and I wanted to share it with everyone in hopes it will help someone else.

RESEARCH
Whatever solution I found would need to address my upper back support and still allow the seats lower bolsters to keep me in place. After looking at pre-made pads/cushions, I wasn't able to find any that weren't really bulky. I needed a solution for JUST my upper back and most products served lumbar or the whole seat. After not finding any existing products, I decided to try my hand at making my own.

THE DIY
I really like the feel of natural latex vs foam. I have a pillow that's latex and a bed topper and it's just great. So, I bought a $20 latex pillow as my starting point for my custom pad. Latex pillows also have air holes bored in them and I thought this would help with my heat/ventilation function on my seats (spoiler: it didn't).

This first photo is the final pad I shaped and then covered in fabric, I also added an elastic strap so that it would stay in place. I adjusted this pad a few times before I got to this final shape/size. The main outside shape just follows the seat arch, but the depth of the pad was something I played with. To test it out, I hung it on my seat like this for a few months while I ensured it fully solved my issue.




Success! My pain is gone! My shoulder blades still rest on the bolsters, but now my spine is supported oh so nicely. Additionally, the lower bolsters still works perfectly and the seat feels very nice. But.. this thing is hideous and I need to solve that.


FINAL FORM
I did some googling and read that the seat back pad come be removed in 10 seconds and the leather covering only takes an additional 20 seconds. So, I pulled the seat pad partially off and removed the top leather. I put the pad between the leather and existing pad, so the latex is what my back is being supported by directly. There were a few vents that are blocked by the pad that will prevent ventilation from working on the upper cushion. Also, the heating elements and now eating the latex and not the leather. This doesn't bother me and so far hasn't caused any issues.

This second photo is after I stuffed the pad behind the leather for a clean but chonky finish.




CONCLUSION
My seat now looks normal-ish AND it feels much better for my upper back. Hopefully this helps someone else having the same issue. Note that I don't think you'd really have to go to the point of covering the pad like I did, I just needed a way to test the pad until the last step. Also, you can use any type of pad/foam you want, I just like latex so I went with that. The pad can be removed and the seat returned to 100% stock, so there is no permanent alteration performed in this DIY.

Everman31

Wow. Creative yet simple solution to make the seat fit your body better. Love that it’s also reversible with no permanent modification to the seat. Nice job!

Petza914

That's clever and glad it works. The better solution is the adaptive hard back sport seats with the shoulder wings. Best seat Porsche makes for regular use and some sporty driving. Added the full power ones into my 997, have put them into 3 928s, and made an office chair out of another one.

groovzilla

I do miss my Adaptive Sport Seats that were in my C4S.
My wife loved them.

Petza914

If you kept your cars for more than 9 months, I'd tell you to buy a set and swap them, but might not be worth your time