Converting to different seats

[straightlinespeed]

This may be taboo, but my car is by no means original anymore.

Im wondering what vehicles you guys have pulled seats from that were a great fit into a Dart/Scamp body style? How much fab work to get them to fit etc.

My bench seat is toast and I dont feel like spending $600 on repairing all the springs and covering. What gave me this idea was a local car show. I ran into a guy that owned a Dart and he had a set of Neon seats in his. Said he had to really mess around with making the brackets but liked the seats themselves.

I know I could pick up a set of factory buckets but also dont want to spend what some are asking for them.

Pics would be great along with the years and make of the car the seats came from.

 

[sazzlefrats]

Hopefully some of this is relevant. My original seats were sitting outside for years, when I bought my 65 Dart. The fabric and the foams were totally destroyed. And the frames needed to be blasted clean and repainted. I had no idea what to expect, but I wasn't going to spend 1000 to buy new foams, seat covers and then F it up by recovering the seats myself (never done it before and not cornered into doing it yet).

I decided I wanted recaro style seats, black leather, suede, pleather, vinyl, but not cloth. I spent a few weeks trolling craigslist and found a pair of procar replica seats (folding black pleather bucket seats), they came with sliders and seat track adapters (for a 92 to 97 honda prelude). $200 bucks (thats a whole lot better than $1k)

I don't know if your body style has raised seat brackets like the 63-66 darts have. I'd find out. I think your best bet is to get your cars original style bucket seat tracks and then figure out how to mount them to any bucket seats that you find. Or buy seat track adapters for your car's body style and then figure out how to mount those to whatever seats you get.

My new seats had sliders on them, but without reusing my original buckets seat tracks I was going to sit too low and not level. It took me a while to figure it out, but the solution for me was to bolt the old seat track sliders to the new ones.

I also had to redrill the holes in my floor, and my next project is to reinforce the floor since the new holes aren't in the reinforced sections anymore.

So far I have less than $15 spent on grade 8 bolts, nuts, etc... and $200 on the seats. Sooner or later I'm going to get something aftermarket for the rear seat. I already know I'm going to need to make custom catches to hold the seats in.

 

[gniknayrb18]

i pulled my 72 demon seats out and found at a local junk yard a 2013 dodge avenger with 3000 miles and bought the seats for 35 a piece and the drivers seat bolted right to the floor the passenger however need 2 brackets and were fairly simple to do...bout $100 total invested and i have reclining and up and down seats

 

[69B-Cuda]

I pulled mine from a 1988 BMW (351i E30) I did have to modify the seat brackets. They flip forward, recline, and are very comfortable.

 

[straightlinespeed]

Thanks guys for the input. Its nice to know that other seats will fit into the car. Gives me some ideas! Still want to hear what else you guys have done for seats. Keep the posts coming!!

 

[pauly v.100]

2000 Sebring convertible seats. I had to do some fairly extensive mods to the floor so a) they would sit at the right height and b) extra support needed in floor since the belts are integrated in the seats. Also modified the Sebring brackets.

 

[TrailBeast]

1991 BMW 325i vert Recaro Sport custom covered in two tone.
Four point harnesses on both.
They adjust like 11 ways, and slide way forward when tilted to let someone in the back.
They are originally made for a flat floor, so we fabbed some special mounting frames for them

 

[straightlinespeed]

1991 BMW 325i vert Recaro Sport custom covered in two tone.
Four point harnesses on both.
They adjust like 11 ways, and slide way forward when tilted to let someone in the back.
They are originally made for a flat floor, so we fabbed some special mounting frames for them

I really like those! Nice job!

 

[inkjunkie]

Here is

View attachment crate.jpg

mine....a simple metal strap thru the bottom and you are good to go....

 

[TrailBeast]

I really like those! Nice job!

Thank you, I got them as a gift from my brother in law.
They were about $750 shipped from an Ebay store.

 

[Woods74]

For the most part you can stuff whatever fits between the hump and rocker, those bench seat 'humps' get in the way of a bunch of options, if you get lucky and can find something that fits the floor before the hump, more power to you.

I didn't get off so lucky with my volvo seats; they sure are comfy though! :blob:

 

[magnumdust]

1991 BMW 325i vert Recaro Sport custom covered in two tone.
Four point harnesses on both.
They adjust like 11 ways, and slide way forward when tilted to let someone in the back.
They are originally made for a flat floor, so we fabbed some special mounting frames for them

any pictures of how you made the mounting frames? I have a buddy who's into those old bmws and i could get some of those seats for cheap.

 

[TrailBeast]

any pictures of how you made the mounting frames? I have a buddy who's into those old bmws and i could get some of those seats for cheap.

I didn't take pictures, but there is a frame across the back two mount points of the seat tracks made of 1 inch square steel tubing.
3 inches high on the outsides of back and 2 inches on the inside back of each seat.
On the front inside it's a 1.5 inch block, and the front outside of each seat is direct to the floor pan.

So from the back seat the frame would look like this and is welded to the seat tracks, then bolted to the floor using large heavy washers.

 

[jimmyray]

Seats from Jaguar X-type in 73 Duster.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=222580

 

[72ScampTramp]

Dodge Neon unsure of year. Fit on driver was good. Pass side sits a bit high. I had to make some pedestals for the rear about 1 1/2" to sit level.

 

[VSTwister]

The Jag seats look like a good match to the rear seat as well, and belong in that interior. What do some of you do to get the rear seat and front seats to match? Custom fit the modern rear seats as well, get the old recovered to match, or just say screw it, good enough?

Then there's questions about seat belts...but I won't get into that right now.

This is my current interior.

Now about 10 years ago, someone was selling a pair of bucket seats on eBay in this same style. Wish I had the money then, but didn't.

My bench seat now is pretty uncomfortable. Vinyl sticks in warm weather, very springy and you bounce on the seats when going over any bumps. So I've been toying with the idea of going bucket seats when I redo the interior. But I do like the look of the seats I have now.

 

[diymirage]

i'd like to know what the best BENCH seat option is
im hoping to buy me my first muscle car this year and it just so happens my dream car has a bench seat in it

 

[MileHighDart]

2005 Scion TC seats in my 68 Dart.

Rather than build brackets which would have raised the seats an inch or two, I chose to modify the floor to fit the seats. I cut the bench seat humps out of the floor and replaced them with flat sheet metal. And welded in reinforment plates to the floor (top and bottom)

Very comfortable, and for accessing the back seat, the seat backs fold forward, and then the seat slides forward, makes for easy access to the back seat. Seats cost me $200 buck off craigslist.

 

[sazzlefrats]

From reading more posts in this thread it seems like it doesn't matter what year the car is the floors all have a slope starting from the transmission tunnel going down to the door side.

This means you'll need custom made brackets, the original bucket seat tracks, or find seats with brackets meant for a sloped floor. There is a guy on this forum that has made solid aluminum seat brackets (no sliders) with speed holes (cause those are just awesome.)

I love them but machined aluminum is pricey but if I didn't have my old bucket seat brackets... I think I'd have done it.

 

[TrailBeast]

From reading more posts in this thread it seems like it doesn't matter what year the car is the floors all have a slope starting from the transmission tunnel going down to the door side.

This means you'll need custom made brackets, the original bucket seat tracks, or find seats with brackets meant for a sloped floor. There is a guy on this forum that has made solid aluminum seat brackets (no sliders) with speed holes (cause those are just awesome.)

I love them but machined aluminum is pricey but if I didn't have my old bucket seat brackets... I think I'd have done it.

That's about the sum of it.
When I did mine I considered making the frame for the seats all one unit from the outside of one seat to the outside of the other, and then putting a console/junk holder between them on the same frame.
Probably would have been a lot easier that builing the two separate frames and dealing with leveling them individually.

 

[longarm]

Seen a guy put a Pontiac Bonneville interior
in a Dart.
Said it all fit fairly well and he now had power seats.
I didn't think it looked too bad except for the steering wheel.

 

[Dartn440]

I had asked this question on my 74 build thread and no one replied...started filing through pages on here. I am a simple person...was hoping some straight options. Like this year, this style will work...because that is easy. Seems like anything will work, just getting track fitment. Planning on keeping the shifter on the column so I am looking for floor storage consoles and bucket options. Thanks for the info.

 

[pauly v.100]

2005 Scion TC seats in my 68 Dart.

Rather than build brackets which would have raised the seats an inch or two, I chose to modify the floor to fit the seats. I cut the bench seat humps out of the floor and replaced them with flat sheet metal. And welded in reinforment plates to the floor (top and bottom)

Very comfortable, and for accessing the back seat, the seat backs fold forward, and then the seat slides forward, makes for easy access to the back seat. Seats cost me $200 buck off craigslist.

Thats pretty much what I did. -pauly

 

[ken5124]

I used 4 buckets from early 2000's cavaliers/.. 30 bucks each at the wrecking yard.. Made leveling brackets out of 1 by 3 channel steel, Brackets bolted thru the original holes in the floor, 3 of the seat mounting points bolt to the bracket, the 4th, straight thru the original hole.
The front 2 came out of 2 door cars, rear came from 4 door( they don't tilt forward.)

Comfortable, fronts tilt forward for rear seat access, recline if you wish and have a bracket for shoulder belt.

 

[jamesdart]

I had a set of sunfire seats in my duster. I got them like brand new. they are a nice size for abodies. I like the flip forward and slide feature where they return to the original location, brackets were kind of a pain since the lft and right seat use a different setup. I managed to set them on fire, bought a less nice set of cavalier seats, I brought them to an a shop to get them covered and the guy wouldn't even tought them. told me they were throw away seats. the first set was real comfy. this set is beat.
I have a set of leather gto seats waiting to go in. I think those are going to be awesome. but im going to have to cut the bench seat humps off the floor. I was after a set of the blue ones they are almost a perfect match to my clean original interior. i would have had to ship them and i didn't want to go crazy not knowing if i could get them to fit. i settled on a cheap set locally, they are black. now the prices of them have gone crazy.