Seat mounting suggestions.. Astro minivan back seat

[420am]

I snatched up some nice leather minivan back seats. Anyone ever mounted these up? I can get better pics of the brackets they have under them. Here they are.. not bad for $40. I know I'll likely need some new brackets of some sort.





I'm not a huge of the armrests or the headrests either but I think I can get rid of them easy enough without tearing up too much.

[Brad]

That looks like a fantastic deal, however, check the width on those as I wouldn't be surprised to find they're several inches narrower than the width of the truck cabs. You may end up sitting just to the right of the steering column once it's centered and bolted in. Let us know!

[420am]

it's exactly the same width.. however you really never know until it's in there if it's going to feel right.

[420am]

Anyone?

[skchevota]

I have not done one of those, but by the looks of it , the brackets that are on it bolt straight up. I would remove the original seat sliders and brackets from the old bench. Then run ether son 1 1/2 angle or 1" square tubing from side to side ( with the sliders mounted in the truck) You would need two, one front and one back. Then weld ( or bolt) some flat stock to the tube or angle in the areas where your new seats holes are located. Drill the flat plate to match the bolt holes on the new seat and your done. You may need to play around with spacers or the size of the tube to get the seat angle right.

[MrBeast]

If I was in your shoes, I would strip a set of sliders off another bench seat, and build brackets out of .0625 wall box tube that would weld into the seat frame. then bolt em in to the stock mounting holes.

[420am]

Thanks fellas... makes me wish I had a welder already. I think if I get it mocked up I could find a friendly local welder to tack it together for me. I have the original bench in the truck now so I have the base I need.

[MrBeast]

Well I tell you what, in a couple of months I will have my shop set up a little bit better, if you want to cover the shipping round trip on it, you can send it down to me, I will mock it up in my cab, get it all tacked so it fits right and weld it out, then send it back to you.

It wouldn't be a big deal seeing as how I will already have the cab all tore apart.

[420am]

Thanks MrBeast.. as much as I appreciate that offer, I'm not that patient. lol.

I actually got the stock brackets to bolt to the seats. They actually line up in the front. They're much more narrow at the base than a stock bench, maybe 6-8". But they make up for it because of the armrests. The stock brackets bolted up in the front and I'll need to do something along the back side and probably weld a flat plate to the bottom of the stock brackets to extend over to the stock holes in the cab. It'll look silly until I have carpet.. no big deal.

Here's how it looks..

[MrBeast]

Nice, I might actually copy you there if I can find a decent seat. I am sure some one around here has wrecked an astro...

[biggreen292]

minivan rear seats..fantastic idea, i never would've that of that.

[j-dogg]

Looks good! What year minivan did those come out of?

[67_C-30]

Definitely an outside of the box idea! I like it!

[tommypic]

Originally Posted by j-dogg

Looks good! What year minivan did those come out of?

I want to know the same thing

[72-c20]

are you centered on the wheel?

[420am]

they're out of a 97. Not exactly centered.. but I can live with it. The whole thing is about an inch more towards the drivers side and it needs to come over another inch or 2 to be centered on the wheel.

So, to rephrase..

To be centered in the back windows they sit an inch or so more towards the drivers side. Even then the seat is about 1-2 inches from centered on the wheel. To me it feels fine though.