pictures and tips on installing new front seats?

audiocontr · Post by **audiocontr** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:57 am

I've read a few posts of swapping out the front seats. I'm curious how people have mated the traditional rails to the new seats. Is this something a shade tree mechanic can do or does it require some welding?

captxmas · Post by **captxmas** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:52 pm

Greetings, I recently replaced the seats in my 710k. Seats came from a Accura and took almost no fabrication to fit into the rig. I began with a piece of 1/8" aluminum sheet and cut it so it would sit over the floor mounts. I cut slots so the forward screww holes would line up and used metric allen head screws with plastic knobs attached to anchor the front. The rear is held down with the original screw. The seat was removed from the original car and the bottom portion of the 'tracks" taken off to lower the seat due to my height (6'4"). Unfortunately I ended up with a fixed position seat, but for me, I'm so tall the seat was all the way back anyway. For a shorter person one can leave the tracks on. Either way, I used the original wholes in the sest tracks to bolt the seat to the aluminum and it became a very usable, easily removable seat that reclines and provided much better support than the original. In doning research it appears that seats from Honda CRX and Smart Cars seem to be the chosen seat but many others will also fit. Hope this helps.

texas pinzgauer · Post by **texas pinzgauer** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:23 pm

This is what I'm trying to accomplish as well. The best and easiest way to improve the front seats from the stock units.

Thomas-E · Post by **Thomas-E** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:14 pm

I removed my old seats and made a template of the bottom of the original seat. I wanted to copy the way they were originally mounted.

My wife and I searched at pic'n'pulls in the Fremont, CA wrecking yards, just hoping to find something that was 19" or less wide. That's the magic number to fit into a pinz.

We finally settled on a Kia (don't remember the model) and used an angle grinder to cut off the seats' original mounts. I was able to save the slider track, but it did add an inch to the overall height..

I then fabricated the mount using steel angle, square tubing and 3/16" plate. Angle across the front pinz brackets to support the new seat and bolts welded through the angle to contact the left inside of the left bracket and right inside of the right bracket. This holds the seat securely laterally and the angle sits on the two pinz brackets with the welded bolts under the pinz mounts securing in the forward and upward directions.

A plate was cut to lay over the rear bracket allowing the original pinz wing-bolt to secure the rear. Square tubing and more angle pieces were used to attach the the Kia seat frame.

I can quickly pull the buckets out an reinstall the old military seats since I didn't destroy the pinz mounts.

The only problem that I ran into was having to cantilever the engine side of the seat frames to lift it over the bottom of the engine cover.

My other half really appreciates the seats after our last trip to SoCal and the Calico mogfest (600 miles round trip). Very comfortable.

Just a thought... adding the seats, installing Scott's (E.I) foot-steps and installing a good am/fm CD keeps her happy and makes the driving easier for me too! Oh yes, Scotts' beefy bumper for a bit of forward protection

Now to get back to the camper interior

.....

Thomas E
712Camper (m)
Sonora, CA

EvanH · Post by **EvanH** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 7:33 pm

I just posted this on a thread for the "classified" section...

Here is a page I posted showing the CTX seats on stock bases. I find the seats too high for my comfort, I am considering taking the Sawzall to them as suggested by another post.

These were installed when I bought the truck. I think Dennis at LinDen engineering did the installation.

http://home.comcast.net/~hillmanpinz/71 ... 0Seats.htm

-Evan