Bucket Seat Substitute

-
eric22

eric22

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
127
Reaction score
11
Location
Staten Island NY
I've heard that instead of finding original bucket seats that people actually get them from a later dodge van which is supposedly the same except for the material
Is this true?
:confused:
 
Never heard of that. As far as I know A body tracks are different then all others.

Some guys do use the older A100 van seats in race cars though.
 
I recently parted out an '88 Van and although the buckets themselves are high backs and do look similar to the Mopar car buckets the van ones are fixed and have no tip forward feature and the seats are mounted on pedestals instead of tracks. I suppose you could mount them on car tracks but then you still have no way to tip them forward to get into the back.


Chuck
 
Some of the van seat frames are the same. A-body skins fit them.
 
I was looking threw summit in the restoration section and seen some neat looking bucket seats there kinda expensive but look like they would be nice.
 
I put 89 dodge shadow buckets in my 65 cuda. I built new rail adaptors from unistrut and 1 1/2x 1/8 angle iron. They turned out really nice and I have the adjustment and height needed to make it much more comfortable. I am 6'1 and trying to fit in the car was always a bit of a pain. The cool part is I can remove them and install the original seats at any time. No new holes in the floorpan!
 
I had thought about using van seats too, and then reupholstering them with new correct upholstery.
However, my roomate found me a pair of unripped mint condition black buckets out of '71 Demon in the junkyard for $80 today, so I no longer have to go with the van buckets.:-D
 
Yuri, you lucky dog
I'd deffintly go back and see what else you can score on.
I've been looking for a set of seat tracks that I can afford
for 2 years.
I'm jealous
 
I yet, do not have front seats for my Swinger. I've also thought of van seats, and thought I might modify the back frame to tilt forward, and use my own rails. Coming up with original buckets is getting harder to do. The original bench that was in the car was to far gone to save. Howard
 
Myself and the guys in the local fab shop have successfully converted bench seat tracks to bucket seat tracks. I've got about 260.oo invested in 3 sets of bucket seat tracks for my own cars.
No one wants to donate those bench seat tracks to a worthy cause so... :(
We'll pay shipping for usable cores but thats all.
 
BigStrok3: Are you looking at the Scat Rally seats in Summit's catalog? I have a pair in black vinyl with Dart seat brackets made by Scat. Nice seats with awesome lateral support and they recline....each bracket used two existing holes from the bench seat and I had to drill two holes for the mounts near the tunnel.
 
Mike&his69Dart said:
BigStrok3: Are you looking at the Scat Rally seats in Summit's catalog? I have a pair in black vinyl with Dart seat brackets made by Scat. Nice seats with awesome lateral support and they recline....each bracket used two existing holes from the bench seat and I had to drill two holes for the mounts near the tunnel.
Click to expand...

I have those Scat Rally seat in my 68 Dart right now too. I drilled two holes and bolted them to my existing bucket seat tracks. But they sit very high. I am 5'8". That is about the max height for someone with those seats and factory tracks.

Got them new for $80 at a Long Beach swap meet. Didn't have tracks with them, so I made do with what I had.
 
for those of you who have the scat rally seats can you show me a pic of them in your car. Ive been thinking of getting some for my duster.
 
BigStrok3:

I never got around to taking a picture of them in my Dart before that woman ran a stop sign and put an end to it. I removed the seats and they are sitting in my shed. I can perhaps take a picture of them. I think its true, they do sit kind of high. The scat frames had 3 vertical mounting holes and I set mine on the lowest holes. I wasn't happy with their "stance" in the car until I shimmed up one side with washers. Lots of compliments after that.

I've read how others have said you need to mount steel plates to reinforce the area where the new holes are drilled....but I'll tell you....my 70 Dart is a total loss with bent frame and mangled front end. But there was no evidence of strain on the mounting holes. I just used big washers under the bolts.

My biggest issue with these seats is that even with traditional styling, the seats have pretty aggressive lateral support. Getting in and out of the car once these seats were installed...became a gymnastics feat. With a 38 inch waist, I don't miss many meals and sitting in these seats for longer than 90 minutes got a bit uncomfortable. The seats really hold you in there and my 17 year old son, wearing only the lap belts...had no injuries from the crash.

The seats are well made in my opinion and the force of the accident did not in any way distort the seat back. If you have a small butt and want good lateral support, I think they are a good product.
 
Did you install the Scat seats with the adapter brackets listed on Summit? Did you also have to purchase the adjuster tracks or are they built into the seats?

Thanks
 
Summit offered seat tracks to fit just about any car, so I bought em....as I was replacing my worn out bench seat. The seats came pretty quick, but Scat had to make up the seat tracks as a special order. The seat tracks are nicely powder coated. The only thing I would change is they use a piece of straight wire to connect the adjuster arm on the side with the adjuster handle....to the adjuster arm on the other rail. Its a bit flimsy and flexes too much for my taste. I'd replace with a length of flat stock if I were doing it again.
 
I'd like to find the right seats for my Twister. The guy I bought it off of stripped it before he sold it to me. I even had to buy the hood scoops back.
icon_rolleyes.gif
The mirrors were gone as well. I have a bench seat in it with a fold down arm rest, but it's not the right one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top