Burb Seats in Standard Cab Questions

[izzy_Britton]

I hate to start a new topic about this as it has more or less been covered already by others. The reason for a new thread is the others are old and long dead and really didnt cover much details. So here i am to ask the questions again with the hope of getting some more detailed info out to others who may have similar thoughts.

So today i made it out to the scrappy and picked up 3 seats, two drivers and one passenger. of the two in the pair the driver seat is pretty worn out. the spare driver seat was the only seat left in the burb and was in better condition than the driver seat from the pair. I figure i can use the ratty seat for experiments.

anyways, as mentioned in other threads, i snagged the front inner mounts that are welded to the floor and cleaned them up to get ready for the truck. I bolted the inner mount to the seat track and tossed the seat in the truck for a mock up and just like everyone i quickly found that the rear of the tracks are bent the wrong way to mount up properly.

I know that i am probably *****footing around this but what i am betting at, is that there has to be a better way to do the mounts than to beat on em with a BFH or heat em up with a torch and smack em around about till they fit?

is there any way to use the bench seat tracks or parts of them to mount the buckets into the standard cab in an effort to refrain from bending or heating the oem bucket tracks?

I am sure that someone has overcome this issue and can share their experience with the rest of us? I will document my progress as i go if no one else can step forward to share.

Thank In Advance.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

SOLVED!



-Izzy

[J Knight]

Was it a direct bolt on with the bench brackets?

[Rich84]

I was just in my shed yesterday removing the tracks off of my bench seat..I used the BFH method on the suburban tracks and it worked fine. But I figured that I have the tracks so what the hell... Did they bolt right up??
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[izzy_Britton]

After some looking around and comparing components from 73-80 bench seats and components from 81-87 bench seats, I quickly realized that the brackets from a pre 80 would not work for what I had in mind as the seat adjuster handle is on the side of the seat rather than the front of the seat like the buckets have. My burb buckets came out of 89-91, I do not know what the year cut offs are for the burb buckets. They may all work.

Parts List PER SEAT:

Complete Burb Seat Tracks
Complete Truck Bench Seat Tracks
(4)Four 5/16 or 8mm Button Head Allen Bolts 3/8 or 10mm length
(4)Four Nylock or Squish Lock Nuts

Tools Needed:

1/8" Drill Bit
5/16" or 8mm Drill Bit
Deburr tool or countersink bit
BFH
Flat Blade screw driver
small round file

Start by removing all the brackets from the seat you are working on as well as the brackets from the bottom of the bench seat. One thing to keep in mind is that even though the burbs have a left and right seat, the seat adjuster brackets on the bottom or the same left or right.

I started with the Burb tracks. First thing you need to do is locate the 2 rivets that hold the seat bracket to the rail housing and one Dimple half hidden under/behind the adjuster lever cam.



The rivets and the Dimples (there are several on the rail as well as the rail housing) act as limiters for the adjustments. The rivets are easily removed by drilling them out and replaced later with bolt and nut. The dimples on the other hand are easy to drill but the dimple on the rail housing is not possible to replace. If you drill out the dimple with a bit that is too large the adjuster will hang up on that hole, limit the hole to 5/16" on the burb seat rails!!!

Drill the rivets first with the 1/8" drill bit making sure you find the center of the rivet. Then change to the 5/16 bit and drill again, the rivet SHOULD fall out once you have drilled about 3/4 way thru the rivet. If the rivet does not fall out, some gentle persuasion will help. KEEP the bracket as you will need it for reassembly. Drill The dimple with the 5/16 bit.



Rinse Lather Repeat for the other adjuster rail and housing.





Now lets do the same for the truck rails. Locate the ONE rivet and TWO dimples.



Drill the rivet and Dimples. The dimples on the truck rail housings can be drilled much larger for easier removal of the rails from the housing. this is because we are not keeping the housings and the larger drill bit allows for less need to deburr the holes after drilling. I used a 1/2" bit for the bench housings.



Once you have all the rivets removed and the dimples drilled you can proceed to the next step of actually disassembling the rails from the housings.



Remove the Rails from the housing, keep the burb housings and toss the burb rails. Likewise keep the bench rails but toss the bench housings. KEEP ALL THE SMALL PARTS THAT FALL OUT!



Once the bench rails have been removed from the housings you will need to drill ONE additional hole in each rail.

1 inch back from the 2nd dimple mark, drill a 1/2" hole (1/8" pilot hole first to ensure as close to center of rail as possible, a punch might help get the big get started in the right place).


SORRY FOR THE CRAPPY PHOTO

The size of this new hole MUST be large enough that the head of the bolt you are using will fit thru it without interference. (hence the button head allen bolts).

Drill out the LARGE hole that was already in the rail near the end to match the size of the new hole you just drilled.



Deburr BOTH sides of the hole, I used a round file to deburr these holes as the deburr bit wouldn't fit on the inside of the rail.


Deburr all holes in both rails and rail housings, this will help with reassembly.


REASSEMBLE

Be sure to grease all the SMALL parts as you reassemble the rails into the housings, I cannot recommend a good grease for this. You might want to use a good heavy thick grease. Do not use much, if you live in a hot climate the grease might drip out and stain up your carpets or whatever you might stow away under your seats like amps or such stuff. I did not grease my parts for reassembly. I did this simply for this 'tutorial'. It will be another month or more before I can install the seats into my truck so I plan to take them apart again and sand blast the nasties off and repaint the rails and housings for final assemble.














The new hole that we drilled in the rail is so that you can bolt the seat mount back onto the rail.



The Holes line up so that you can stick the bolt thru the hole, thru the bracket and slap a nut on it.



Slide the last roller into the housing, forward enough that you can get the second bolt into the second hole and slap a nut on it to finish the seat mount bracket attachment.





Put the adjuster lever cam spring back on and THAT ONE IS DONE! repeat for the rest of them.

ALL DONE!




Yes it is a hell of a lot more work than the old fashioned BFH option but I believe that in the end it is a much more sanitary approach with a better looking result. At a glance you cannot tell that these are modified. Only removal of the seat and inspection of the rail housings will you notice there are two additional nuts on the rail housing to seat mount. I know it is more work, but it is well worth it IMO

Just a reminder that you will need 2 complete bench seat tracks to complete this 'mod'. Each burb seat requires a complete bench seat adjuster track, rails and housings to get started. I was lucky enough that the local scrappy had the burb seats, I went back yesterday to get the bench seat parts and they only had one 81-87 truck. I pulled the second bench seat parts out of my spare parts 82 truck. I did not want to remove the tracks from the bench seat that I am replacing with the burb buckets because as I mentioned it will be a month or more before I am able to bolt them in.

I hope this helps someone.

Wonder what I forgot to mention? Hmmm, it will hit me when I am as far from the computer as I can be, and I will likely forget again by the time I get home. LOL

::EDIT::

I wanted to add...

If you do not deburr all the holes as best you can before you disassemble the rails and housings, the rollers can get hung up on the burrs making it more difficult to get them apart.



As a result, the roller keepers can get distorted and the ball bearings will likely fall out.



WOOPS!

It is a good thing that there are enough leftover parts from the bench seat rails and housing that if you do get one or two messed up you still have a spare.

-Izzy

::EDITED FOR SPELLING & GRAMMAR::

[izzy_Britton]

Sorry for the long winded post and the crappy photos. I will do my best in the future to use my CAMERA rather than my Cell phone.

-Izzy

[gharris79]

Thanks for the tips. I've been hunting for a set of Blue seats from a Burban but have yet to score some.

[J Knight]

Great write up, good to know you can swap out factory parts for a clean factory install.
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[rusty76]

I want to see them installed please.

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by gharris79

Thanks for the tips. I've been hunting for a set of Blue seats from a Burban but have yet to score some.

I have a set of BLUE burb seats, shipping would be a bit ridiculous i would think. PM me if interested.

-Izzy

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by rusty76

I want to see them installed please.

I would love to show you too. However as mentioned above, I am not going to be able to mount them for AT LEAST A MONTH. the best i could do would be to mock them up in the 82 Parts truck. They of coarse would not be bolted in more than the 2 bench seat mounting holes.

-Izzy

[rusty76]

Dag gone it.....

[izzy_Britton]

Installed today. Sort of... Since i do not have a welder at home, so, I installed the brackets using self drilling screws. The one (rear center) bolt is nylock nutted from the underside.

This is a temp solution until i can get the truck up on a lift at work and weld OEM style nuts to the underside and weld the mounts on the inside.

But here it is!

[izzy_Britton]

These seats are in horrible condition and uncomfortable. This is not fun to drive. I will be recovering the seats in the near future, but i may just throw the bench seat in it again out of pure necessity for comfort.

-Izzy

[79Betty]

Sucks they're not comfy. Think it's just the seats themselves?
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[motornut]

I've got 89 burb seats in my 78 jimmy
just drilled a few holes per seat.to mount the jimmy bases
mine are comfy,I put the dials on the outside
I can dial it fwd from standing outside
but i guess you are limited for leaning back space

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by 79Betty

Sucks they're not comfy. Think it's just the seats themselves?
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Yeah, The cushion in these seats is all but gone. I planned on recovering them and putting new foam in them when I rip the whole thing apart next winter for the 5.3 install and misc upgrades.

After driving it to work today I have decided that for sure the bench seat is going in again until i find some seats that are more comfortable.

-Izzy

[Rich84]

I guess i got lucky..Mine are out of an 85 and are way more comfortable then my old bench. I just wish they were black. But I guess I can live with the 2 tone for now. Adjusting the reclining from the inside isn't too bad because I never really adjust it. It's pinned against the back wall all the time.

[legendman]

Nice write up, just so happens I picked up some burb seats myself

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by Rich84

I guess i got lucky..Mine are out of an 85 and are way more comfortable then my old bench. I just wish they were black. But I guess I can live with the 2 tone for now. Adjusting the reclining from the inside isn't too bad because I never really adjust it. It's pinned against the back wall all the time.

I swapped left to right and right to left so that the reclining adjuster was to the outside. worked out much easier, but i too never adjust.

[motornut]

Originally Posted by izzy_Britton

I swapped left to right and right to left so that the reclining adjuster was to the outside. worked out much easier, but i too never adjust.

doing that changes the wear pattern too
mine were a little worn/crushed down from in out
swapping L/R ,puts the wear on the inside

[Rich84]

For some reason mine only have one armrest..so swapping is not really an option.

[motornut]

Originally Posted by Rich84

For some reason mine only have one armrest..so swapping is not really an option.

oh ,can you feel a hole maybe under the cover?

[SourTooth307]

That's great. I'm looking to do this on my 84 K/10. For the easiest results should I go with Blazer/Jimmy seats or Suburban?

[motornut]

I don't know about later years but my 78/79 Jimmy's have no ajustments for tilt,Not sure if later years do,
but my 87/88/89 burbs did tilt/ajust