Tahoe seats $40

[tomatocity]

Went to a swap meet today in Stockton CA. Finally found a 18" 7-blade fan that will hopefully work. Also picked up a flywheel cover now I can give back the chromie a Chickenwing gave me. At the end of the day we took one last cruise of the swap meet. My buddy found some 50 Olds stuff and sitting amongst the remains was two leather seats with "Tahoe Seats $50" on a piece of tape. These are the seats that can be pulled out. To make it short after a lengthy conversation I offered him $40 and he hesitated until he saw the two twentys. I could not believe it a pair of new Tahoe leather seats with 3-point seat belts for $40. I already have many thoughts how to use them and the ideas keep growing. I need to get the pieces from a Tahoe that the seats anchor to. Get some adjustable sliders that can be mounted to a metal box built to fit on the cab floor and mount the Tahoe hardware to the sliders. The seats can be removed easily if I use the same Tahoe hardware. The metal box can also be used for storage. There should be approximately 10 inches between the seats so I need to design a fold down arm rest / cup holder plus a removable seat section for a third person. Hopefully this will work well. I will give progress reports as the project comes to life.

[tomatocity]

[QUOTE=tomatocity]additional pictures

[boraxman]

Cant beat that price

[chickenwing]

Pretty cool Tim. Those are 3rd row seats if I am not mistaken. You can come over and look at my wifes Tahoe to verify. Think Stingray had some safety concerns about seat mods. Don;t have a link to the post but maybe someone else does. Seems like main concern was the seat submarining through the floor. Changing the brackets, first thing that comes to mind is additional strength required for the integral sholder-belts.

[tnblazerk5]

glad you found the fan cause i didnt have one and you got a killer deal on the seats

[greenhorn male]

Yes, those are third row seats. A three seater, but pulls out in equal halves.

[1STtimePRo'71]

What a deal.

[tomatocity]

Originally Posted by chickenwing

Pretty cool Tim. Those are 3rd row seats if I am not mistaken. You can come over and look at my wifes Tahoe to verify. Think Stingray had some safety concerns about seat mods. Don;t have a link to the post but maybe someone else does. Seems like main concern was the seat submarining through the floor. Changing the brackets, first thing that comes to mind is additional strength required for the integral sholder-belts.

Your wifes Tahoe will answer many questions for me. As for safety concerns: good enough for GM and national safety standards good enough for me. I plan on using the GM parts to anchor the seats and this would be attached to a thick metal box (below the seats) built to use the stock anchoring points of the stock bench seat. This should provide ample strength plus storage. Sure hope I get in that welding class.

[chickenwing]

Those seat use 4 anchor points per seat. Will look around for the reffered post... Think one of the guys chiming in IS an honest to God auto seat engineer.

[Fred T]

I'm not a seat engineer and don't know the crash loads for those seats, but I can tell you that in a wreck all those belts will do is hold you in the seat while the floor of your truck is ripped out. If the seat's big enough, it will keep you from flying out the windshield. Major reinforcing will be needed. I would start with a doubler on the floor and some angle to add some stiffness. And this all needs tied in to the cab supports.

[Tim240Z]

You can sell those 3rd row seats for a ton of cash!!!! They are a hot item!! Cannot buy them from the dealers. Latest thing in CA (likely other states too) is have those 3rd row seats stolen....they leave the DVD players, stereos etc and just take the seats.....put them up on ebay and make a bunch of profit!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...984391260&rd=1

[Rokcrln]

Originally Posted by tomatocity

Sure hope I get in that welding class.

If you need a hand with any welding or fab work let me know. I have just about any fab tool you could need (and I have even learned to use them) or want.

Kevin
Winters Ca

[extd56]

Are you any good at welding in cab repair panels? Sent you a PM

[vtblazer]

What about building your metal storage compartment and finding a bone yard burb or tahoe and cutting the floor out of it to weld to metal compartment?
Just a thought, the seat attatchments would be done.

Great score on the seats!

[tomatocity]

Originally Posted by vtblazer

What about building your metal storage compartment and finding a bone yard burb or tahoe and cutting the floor out of it to weld to metal compartment?
Just a thought, the seat attatchments would be done.

Great score on the seats!

Thanks for the idea, I like it. And I was thinking of doing the more difficult way by buying the parts from GM and installing them. Any ideas on how to cut the floor out of a Tahoe at a salvage yard? Now chickenwing (AKA Rich) won't let me near his wifes Tahoe. Ah come on, just one look!

[Putter]

Take a cordless Sawsall. Or have the yard burn it out with the torch, and you can trim it up once you get it home!!

[StingRay]

Like said by Fred and Chickenwing the integral seatbelts make them an animal of their own and the floor may not support the seat belt loads. GM engineering and OE parts have NOTHING to do with being able to install them safely. These trucks in the best of condition do not have floors designed to witstand the kind of loading modern integral belts will impose on them. The only way to know would be to spend 50 grand getting them tested or to literally bet your life ( or your wife/kids/friends) and drive your truck head on into a brick wall or oncoming traffic at 50MPH to see if you survive or not. Way too many mods get made to vehicles with no regard as to whether it is sound engineering. If you are not absolutely certain an engineer will look at it say "ahh probably won't kill ya" then don't do it.

[tomatocity]

Or I could stay with the standard lap belt and we know how safe they are.

[StingRay]

Your are alot safer attached to the vehicle in the stock belt than you are to a seat that isn't attached to the vehicle. The stock bucket trucks actually have floor reinforcments above and beyond the bench trucks. They don't even have integral belts. I actually do this stuff for a living and yes I actually do know how safe they are.

[vtblazer]

Originally Posted by StingRay

the integral seatbelts make them an animal of their own and the floor may not support the seat belt loads.

Would using the factory shoulder strap bolt holes make any difference/change?

If the newer seats are installed onto the factory bucket supports, would that help more?

Don't take this as picking on your info/input, just trying to learn here.

[chickenwing]

StingRay, you have a link to the post I was refering to? I searched the site with google and can't find it. Pretty good discussion. Main point of interest I remember was some type of limiter to restrict downward movement of the front of the seat.

Kinda hoping you could add something else to the post like "I totally don;t recommend this but if you just HAVE to install it you should think about X..."

[Long Roof]

All this talk about seatbelt safety made me think about my childhood. I can remember clear as day the station wagon rides as a kid. We NEVER wore seatbelts, NEVER had a car seat as a baby. My parents never wore seatbelts either, still don't to this day.

Now I know we were very lucky but in my opinion (Im sure not shared by all) any seatbelt is better than nun at all. If you are in accident that is bad enough to rip the seat from the floor then you are in serious trouble anyhow.

While I agree that safety is nothing to mess with and that OE has been engineered and tested, nothing is perfect. We had an accident 2 weeks ago in the area where the gentleman was partially ejected from his car even though he was wearing a belt. The shoulder harness anchor broke. He did not suffer one broken bone or any internal bleading but from the last I heard he was more or less brain dead from hitting his head on something.

I wonder what test procedures were used in 67-72 for seatbelt safety. I bet that the requirements were not near what is required by todays standards. Just take a look at the mounting points and configuration in one of our rigs. Does not look very beefy to me.

I guess right or wrong we risk our lives every day just leaving our driveway.

Aaron

[tomatocity]

Originally Posted by chickenwing

StingRay, you have a link to the post I was refering to? I searched the site with google and can't find it. Pretty good discussion. Main point of interest I remember was some type of limiter to restrict downward movement of the front of the seat.

Kinda hoping you could add something else to the post like "I totally don;t recommend this but if you just HAVE to install it you should think about X..."

I like this discussion though one of the problems with it is none of us has defined what we would be using or where the weaknesses are or, as Rich infers, what we would do if we were to install the seats. StingRay don't recommend anything but say how you would install these seats for yourself to make them safe. This should reduce your liability issues. I like the idea that all of us are working towards the same answer.

Getting back to the lap belt vs the third row seats. If you were driving 65 MPH and hit a parked truck what would happen to you with lap belts or the third row seats. Lap belts: barring a miracle you are dead because your face and head smashed into the steering wheel. Third row seats: if installed incorrectly, same result as lap belts. If installed correctly with reinforced floors, strong floor box, and GM mounting brackets, you stand a chance though probably will have some damage but your face and head should not contact the steering wheel. The shoulder strap is the difference.

Now how do we design a reinforced floor, strong floor box, and mounting hardware. I think using the original floorboard and mounting hardware, as suggested by VT, is an excellent idea. The floor box should be built from heavy " [ " angle iron with strong welds. How to attach these two items? What to use to reinforce the floors? Identify the problem(s) and create a solution. StingRay, VT, Rich, anyone else, what do you think? All information is valuable we just need the time and space to use (test) it. Cost? I am thinking $100 to complete the safe installation.

[XXL]

Originally Posted by Fred T

I'm not a seat engineer...

... but you play one on TV

Great addition to the living room. You might try them on the front porch as well, but be careful about the leather getting wet.

[StingRay]

I wouldn't install seats with integral belts. At work we avoid them specifically because of the concentrated loads and the difficulty involved in retrofitting them into applications not originally intended for them. I personally will be using 67/68 CST buckets with 3 point harness into factory locations. I am going to sound a bit rude here but some of the members with thicker skulls (and this is directed at quite a number of members that have made similar statements over the years when this topic comes up) seem to think well if the accident is that bad you're screwed anyway. NOT if you have proper belts, seat and mountings. Factory seat anchors only have to restrain the weight of the seat multiplied by the number of G's (multiples of gravity) of force applied in the accident. In a head on for example there is a combination of shear and tension on the seat mounting hardware at the rear and shear and compression at the front. The seat weighs say about 60 lbs. Add integral belts and now you ask the mounting to handle in some case say 3 300lb adults ( this is a real and easy possibility) now you have 1000 lbs times the number of g's of force. The seat belts and their mountings used to be restraining all of that and virtually all in tension and all from engineered and tested anchor points. To top it all off now you have shoulder belt loads that pull on the seat back trying to create a moment around the center of gravity( a much higher center of gravity) of the loaded seat which will be trying to pull the rear wimpy bolts up through the floor and trying to ram the front of seat through the floor. With factory belts the bodies in the cab were simply suspended in tension by the belts. No large forces exerted on the seat mountings. So do you think GM engineered the floors of our trucks 16 times stroger than required? I wouldn't bet my life on it and I personally wouldn't install integral belt seats without a ton of floor reinforcement. Lets assume you use all of the rear floor attachments for seat and belts to hold your new seat in. This would help alot at the back. The front still has the potential to be far too weak to keep the front of the seat from pounding it's way through the floor. As to the solution I'm not even gonna try because I don't agree with it in the first place. If I installed a seat like I know many have I'd never let anybody I cared about ride in the truck.