My new seats!

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Landyjd

Landyjd

Active Member
Posts
333
Location
NZ
Hi all,

I have just finished installing new front seats in my 1986 Ninety.:) They replace the originals which were torn, worn and not particularly comfortable (did not have headrests or anything).

I used the front seats from a Rover 220 coupe (so at least the new seats are from the Rover company). They were recommended by Wiltshire Landyman and I have to thank him for his advice. The seats fit well, and are extremely comfortable. I got them for a great price too, and they're full leather, with lumbar adjustment and everything!

I have taken some photos throughout installation so I could post some on here.
 
Here are the seats at the start of the project.
 

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The first job was to get rid of the brackets attached to the bottom of the seat rails, as these were specifically shaped for a Rover 220 coupe, and no use in our Defender. They were all riveted on, with only one small bit of grinding involved. Cue some drilling and sharpening of drill bits...
 

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The rivets of the various brackets...
 

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As you can see, if you decide to use these seats there are a few rivets to drill off, so I recommend having a brench grinder for sharpening drill bits if you do. Once the brackets were off, we were left with flat seat rails (much easier to work with) and the planning of our own brackets and mounting system could begin..
 

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Here is the seat box after removing the middle seat and pasenger seat. I decided to carpet it using leftover carpet from when we carpeted the rear of the Ninety, since we had the seats out anyway.
 

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After carpeting...
 

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After placing the seats in the vehicle and taking some measurements, we decided that to sit properly they needed to be raised up at the back rather than simply sit flat on the seatbox, so we decided to use a U-section of steel at the back at each corner which the rails could sit on. At the front we used flat plate, with the holes in the plate placed to fit the holes already in the seat box. We managed to design our mounting system so that we didn't need to drill the seat box. Here are the finished brackets, all painted.
 

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Due to the raising of the seat rails above the seat box at the back, there was a gap between the plates at the front and the sloping seatbox, so we decided to use some PVC wedges as packing under each of these plates to remove any chances of flexing. They fitted together as shown.
 

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It was now simply a case of bolting everything into place. And the result was great!:)
 

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A closer view of the mounting brackets for those who are interested. I hope this thread has been of interest to people. I always find it interesting to see what other people have been doing on their Land Rovers and how they've gone about it.
 

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Superb thread - Superb Job - good stuff!!


Rep points for you sir. Seem so easy to fix etc. Is it a "bitch" to get the passenger one out to access the battery?
 
nice. got a set of vectra gsi recaros going in mine. not leather but the runners are flat fitments and just slightly less between the runners than the standard land runners. fingers crossed eh
 
johnlad said:
i fitted these in my 90

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f7/rover-200-216-seats-defender-176937-2.html
Click to expand...

Nice one johnlad. I've also got some MGF seats in the loft for fitting but just haven't got round to that yet.

Are the seat runners still doing their job & is there any room left to slide back further? (I've got a bulkhead removal bar and want them to go back a bit further)

I thought the MGF seats looked best as they've got good back support but the seat base bolsters aren't too high meaning you haven't got so much to slide your back side over getting in & out.

Ta.

EDIT: and what is the seatbase angle like? Would they benefit from tilting like the OP here with wedges?
 
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