Late model seat swaps,Pleasse school me

[bbobb]

Originally Posted by Mickm69

Here are some I got from theseatguy.com.

They are second row seats from some 2011 SUV. They are leather and very comfortable.
They also fit the truck very well.
Cheers!
Mickm69

What suv did your seat come out of...thanks

[Wootdog]

I haven't taken any pics of the one's I put in. But they are gray leather out of a 98 Bonneville. Nine way power for both. I just drilled new holes on the inside. I then for strength purposes put a piece of flat metal on the underside inner bolts holes to make sure they could not come out in a crash. The outside holes lined up. One switch controls both seats. I have it mounted on my center console. One hundred bucks on Craigslist.
Kerry

[ol_skool_chevy]

I love these seat but for the love of God they are HARD to find....

[Tim37]

like other here I like the 88-94 seats the thin back give a little extra room for taller guys.

[Boog]

Originally Posted by ol_skool_chevy

I love these seat but for the love of God they are HARD to find....

I've got that 60/40 seat in blue for mine. Blue ones are HARDER to find. I don't have it mounted yet though.

[SeniorVerde]

I put some seats out of a Subaru Impreza in mine. It wasn't a bolt-in job, but there were no new holes in the floor and didn't cost more than $300.

[Blakeman350]

Center seat from a 06 tahoe. Took a little figuring out and fabrication but nothin to bad.

[Andy4639]

LQ yard. $60.00 for both leather seats. Heated/electric.

I bought 99 Tahoe seats and installed them in my 71. I recovered them and added aftermarket heaters in both.

Here is my post on how I did them.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=649636


Here is the finished product!

[magwakeenercew2jh]

Originally Posted by magwakeenercew2jh

2004 Blazer.
I think they look pretty good. But that's a personal perspective.
I *do* know this: They are comfy.

I switched out from the buckets to a '71 GMC bench.

I miss the buckets for "roominess" and for the electric adjustment.

They're gone, though. So, the bench it is!
Fits perfectly.

[Rod Run]

Some pretty nice stuff in here

[StingRay]

If a seat has integral belts you have a lot of reinforcing of the floor and seat mounting points to do. Failure to do so will result in an extremely unsafe seat installation. Our trucks when equipped with factory buckets had reinforced floors and they did not even have integral belts. When the belts are attached to the seat a forward impact on the vehicle will result in the seat trying to rotate downward through the front floor mounting points and also trying to pull the rearward points out of the floor. In a roll over the seat is likely to simply become detached from the vehicle with you in it flying out a window. These floors were never designed for anything like this. I design retrofitted seat and belt installations for RV's and some of what I see here scares me. I've participated in destructive testing sessions and I've seen what does and doesn't survive. Some of what I see here will fall into the doesn't survive category.

[Blakeman350]

The seat I installed in my 67 bolted into the stock reinforced mounting holes and I still us the factory lap belts. I didn't need to drill any new holes into the floor and any spots of the seat frame that were modified were all reinforced as well. My kid rides in my truck so I didn't cut any coners. I will be installing shoulder belts and buckles from brothers trucks soon too.

[71meangreenc10]

Originally Posted by StingRay

If a seat has integral belts you have a lot of reinforcing of the floor and seat mounting points to do. Failure to do so will result in an extremely unsafe seat installation. Our trucks when equipped with factory buckets had reinforced floors and they did not even have integral belts. When the belts are attached to the seat a forward impact on the vehicle will result in the seat trying to rotate downward through the front floor mounting points and also trying to pull the rearward points out of the floor. In a roll over the seat is likely to simply become detached from the vehicle with you in it flying out a window. These floors were never designed for anything like this. I design retrofitted seat and belt installations for RV's and some of what I see here scares me. I've participated in destructive testing sessions and I've seen what does and doesn't survive. Some of what I see here will fall into the doesn't survive category.

How much reinforcing do you need to do? Can you put out some ideas?

Smitty

[drfloyd]

+1. I'm thinking in '67, safety on a pickup truck was not priority one. Any suggestions you have that will make seat swaps safer would be appreciated.

[StingRay]

Consider that in 69 when GM put true buckets in that they reinforced the floor. A non bucket truck does not have sufficient floor strength for a set of bucket type seats without a similar degree of reinforcement and that is to get to 1969 standards. I'd start there for anything bucket related. Pics of the factory reinforcement have been posted over the years and I've occasionally seen the parts for sale on the classified board here. For other than stock bench type retrofits just doing like the factory did will for the most part be fine. Our trucks are outfitted for 3 point belts from the factory and there are many options available for using these factory installed fastening points with modern retractable belts.

When it comes to integrated belt seats I honestly wouldn't do it myself. I try very hard to avoid it in my own designs for RV's as the combined loads for the pull tests are huge. Consider that on one of the last single seating position (rear of vehicle) belt only tests in pure tension we lifted the van off of the ground. I'm talking a completed chassis not some stripped down body in white with no drive train or interior. Most of the force was actually directed forward not upwards. You create an enormous amount of leverage by using the seat for the belt mounting point which makes it far worse. You also have to contend with both tension and compression forces where as with traditional belts everything is tension and just anchor points. Reinforcing for integrated belt seats requires significant reinforcement and spreading of loads. If I was to start somewhere I'd start with at least 1 1/2" square tubing and make sure I was connecting to structures like cab/floor supports and rockers making sure I had added plates on those structures suitable for attaching to. Most of the tin under our trucks by itself is not of suitable thickness to attach to by itself. You are really talking roll cage level of construction but below the floor.

The trucks these integrated belt seats come from have the advantage that the floor stampings have the shapes needed for appropriate stiffness built in where it needs to be and the material is high strength steel. Our trucks floors are pretty flat. It takes a lot of tubular material, heavy plate and creativity to make up for a cad/fea engineered stamped shape.

The other thing that must be considered is what shape are your floor, rockers, cab corners and cab supports in. Even stock seats and belts need 100% rust free structure to be truly safe. If considering non stock or worse integrated then don't even think about it until your cab is completely sorted out.

Witness a floor fold up like origami some time and it puts a whole different perspective on safety for you. Thankfully I've never had to see one of my own designs do this. I've never failed a destructive test in 18 years.

A significant change in your spacial relationship to other parts of the cab is a very dangerous thing. Worse is to lose it altogether be be ejected from it either by yourself or still belted to the seat.

[Lloyd C.]

Originally Posted by Joe69C10

The seat was out of 1990-94 Chevy truck I believe. Got the seat as an extra with another truck I bought a few months back.

Joe:
I just stumbled upon your posts of Jan. and Mar. 2013 about your late model seat conversion in your C-10. Your hounds-tooth covered seats turned out beautiful. A big Attaboy goes out to your upholsterer.

I'm in the process of installing a true 60/40 split bench seat from a 90 Silverado in to my 68 Stepside and will need to have the seats recovered to match my existing interior. I've been told that the original fabric is glued to the foam backing and is not easily removed without damaging the foam rubber. How did your upholsterer accomplish the removal of the fabric or did you install the hounds-tooth covers over the existing fabric?

Lloyd in beautiful downtown Battle Ground, WA, where no battle ever took place.

[hugger6933]

I'm not calling anyone out but I build truck wrecks and have done a couple hundred or more of the later style with the belts in the seats[talking 99-07 style seats] and out of all the impacts not one had the seat pull through the floor however I have junked some extreme hard hit stuff that the cab bolts did. I think 1 1/2 in square tube is excessive. I'd say 1/4 inch flat plate would suffice in any instance but then again it is a personal thing. I the first one to consider how safely built something is and would not argue this just for arguments sake. Of course it never hurts to over build anything. the trucks with the seats in question don't have square tube in them but the metal is a little thicker than the floors of our body style.

[XwalkerX]

Originally Posted by Joe69C10

Just finished recovering my seat, brackets made so it bolts right in.






Posted via Mobile Device

this came out FANTASTIC

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by hugger6933

I'm not calling anyone out but I build truck wrecks and have done a couple hundred or more of the later style with the belts in the seats[talking 99-07 style seats] and out of all the impacts not one had the seat pull through the floor however I have junked some extreme hard hit stuff that the cab bolts did. I think 1 1/2 in square tube is excessive. I'd say 1/4 inch flat plate would suffice in any instance but then again it is a personal thing. I the first one to consider how safely built something is and would not argue this just for arguments sake. Of course it never hurts to over build anything. the trucks with the seats in question don't have square tube in them but the metal is a little thicker than the floors of our body style.

The issue isn't it pulling out of the floor of the truck it came from.
Damn well better not. It had to pass tests to make sure it doesn't. The issue is the floor of a 67-72 not being designed for it in the first place. The whole floor. No consideration was ever given to dealing with those kinds of loads when the truck was designed. It definitely was when the modern truck was designed. Read that a 69-72 bucket truck had factory floor reinforcements. You can't bolt a bucket into a 67-72 safely without doing at least that much. Unless you've put modern integrated belt seats in a 67-72 and destructive tested it you have no clue what the result will be. I've been through enough destructive tests to not bet anybodies life on it. After 18 years of never having my work fail a test I can genuinely say I would would add significant reinforcement to a floor if integrated belt seats were to be used. There are a lot of great seat options other than those and proven factory belt locations are supplied. Why would you do anything else?

Only one possibility is the seat coming loose. If the floor collapses beneath the front of the seat you eat the column and the dash. You are just as dead. Tubing would be to guarantee that the floor maintains its shape and the seat maintains its relationship to to the things in the cab that you don't want to impact. There are a lot of ways for an installation to fail.

[Mapearso]

Originally Posted by StingRay

There are a lot of ways for an installation to fail.

StingRay,

What, specifically, would you suggest for putting buckets in a truck that originally came with a bench seat? The minimum needed to what would be ideal.

Thanks!

[Z10]

I don't have any experience with this vendor but they do offer some interesting replacement bucket seats and bench seats for our trucks. Obviously more expensive but once you factor in new upholster and installation, might not be so bad.

http://www.tmiproducts.com

[raggedjim]

I'll throw my recovered 1994 bench out. I like how it came out.

Rg

[Rod Run]

Originally Posted by Z10

I don't have any experience with this vendor but they do offer some interesting replacement bucket seats and bench seats for our trucks. Obviously more expensive but once you factor in new upholster and installation, might not be so bad.

http://www.tmiproducts.com

They are top notch. Pretty much the best out there. Just don't expect it to be cheap. They just debuted their truck stuff at SEMA this year

[ol_skool_chevy]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

I'll throw my recovered 1994 bench out. I like how it came out.

Rg

wow that is a Very hard seat to find....I have been looking for a decent one for about a year with no luck

[ol_skool_chevy]

These seat are really hard to find in Oregon.....