WHEELCHAIR MODIFICATION: Quickie S-626

2.) ADD A HEADREST

The Quickie G-424 style seat has no headrest. The very bright engineers at Quickie must have forgotten that every car made since 1968 has headrests. Remember Ralph Nader? This is not a jab, it is a true compliment to a politician that actually did something useful, even if it was 35 years ago.

Anyway, a headrest is a necessity for me. My neck joints are contracted and my head gets heavy.

This was the simplest modification made.

Pride Mobility seems to have gotten this one right. Their seats come with headrests. The headrest shown comes off a Pride 1122 but a more square shaped one from an 1170 may have cosmetically fit the Quickie chairs style better. But hey, one uses what one gets for free.

The bracket shown is 1/8" thick steel with four drilled holes. 5100-39 external retaining rings can be used in the grooves of the headrest posts to vary height. But all the way down works great for me. I'm 5'-6".

In mounting the bracket first drill and tap ¼-20 holes to bolt the bracket to the square tubular seat frame. Use the bracket as a location fixture. You can feel the tube through the fabric. After tapping, mount the bracket with the screws and use it as a drill fixture to drill the headrest post holes. That's it.

The headrest easily pulls completely off to allow hanging backpacks, etc.

Being an engineer (which means you can't look at anything without thinking of how to "improve" it), I'm considering building an infinitely adjustable height bracket. It's usefulness is doubtful since most folks would set one height and leave it. But it would have the "one size fits all" advantage.