Miata Mailing List: April 1999, Message #13

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Hi gang!

I've been experimenting with some knee strain relief. It seems that in
order to have a comfortable degree of "oneness with horse and rider" I need
to adjust my steed so that the seat is moved towards the steering wheel.

With that and the rather upright seating stance my back prefers, I found
that my right knee was bent and pointed at a somewhat awkward angle.

So I started playing around with a slab of foam and some Velcro. The foam
slab is 4" by 8" by 2" thick and 3 strips of 4" long Velcro "hook" material
were cut to size. I stuck the Velcro stips to the bottom half of the foam
slab, three across, like this:

-------------------
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|                  |
|   |    |    |    |
|   |    |    |    |
|   |    |    |    |
|   |    |    |    |
|   |    |    |    |
-------------------

Then I stuck the slab onto the transmission tunnel, velcor towards the
floor, at an angle roughly matching the angle my lower leg was at. The best
position I found was with the top of the slab extending about 1/2" past the
console.

It would seem that a 1 1/2" thick slab might do as well or better. I would
not try this as a permanent soultion, as the Velcro adhesive won't hold up
to the heat in a car over a warm spell, but the idea works very well. I'm
going to keep playing with this (adjusting the thickness).

I thought that a more permanent fix would have some sort of plastic or
fiberboard backing on the foam, a cloth or leather cover, and the Velcro
sewn on to the covering.

I hope someone finds this useful. :-)


Hector Machado
Information Systems Coordinator
The Infortext Group
630-241-8575