New seats....done

Pretty proud of todays work. Installed new (to me) front seats and thought Id share/show off. Its the most major work I've done so far..


How she started off, normal arse killer seats, albeit in good nick.


Removed the battery to avoid cutting or drilling into it. Found a bit of corrosion underneath so gave it a wire brushing and a fresh coat of paint.


Nice fresh paint...


Removed the seat cushions and then unbolted the frames. Fixings came loose without a fight which I wasn't expecting


Test fit of 'new' seat and the mrs. Bought the seats without any kind of measuring and just reckoned they'd fit. Glad they did!




Marked out and cut an access hatch for the battery. Wont be able to get the battery through but at least well be able to give and receive boosts if needed. Was contemplating an extension to an anderson connector but would of needed to access inside for new seat bolts anyway. If batttery needs changing will need to remove the seat but its not a major job and is unlikely to be done anywhere but on my drive.


Fitted new seat and bolted her up...



Seats came from a Hilux surf and fitted in beautifully. £60 from scrappy in almost perfect condition. Only downside is the front ends are cranked which meant the seats sit forward quite a long way. Theres still enough legroom for me at 6'2" and no need to remove the rear bulkhead to achieve a comfortable seat position!

nice

Good work fella, looks well,

nice work!

I like that idea of the cut on the side to get access to the battery.... I may have to do that on mine as I have now fitted bucket seats and once the harnesses go in, they wont come out as easily or quickly...

do you have any pics of what you done after cuting the hatch?

[JP];1415099 said:

nice work!

I like that idea of the cut on the side to get access to the battery.... I may have to do that on mine as I have now fitted bucket seats and once the harnesses go in, they wont come out as easily or quickly...

do you have any pics of what you done after cuting the hatch?

Click to expand...

Didn't really do anymore tbh. Filed off the edges and tidied her up... Was concerned about weakening the structure but there appears to still be enough strength. Eventually Ill add a nice lid and some rubber edging and if there is any sign of weakness in the seat box I'll add some reinforcement to beef her up.

Cheers for the positive comments, few more bits to do...

I did something similar to my 90 11-years ago when I fitted Recaro seats. The removable underseat covers were replaced on both sides with a steel-plate held down using Rivnuts, studs were then fixed to the top of the plates and the seat runners bolted to these. Removing the seats & plates for full access took less than 10-minutes and was made easy by the fact that there was only a need to use one spanner/socket at a time as the stud/nut was captive. The hatch on the side was cut larger than the hole and was fixed into place using screws into Rivnuts (again). All plates (top & side) were sealed using rubber gaskets and a small hole was cut in the side of the battery-box for an aux fusebox. A battery isolator/cut-off switch (FIA type) was mounted at the front of the passenger seatbox where it could easily be reached by the driver. Battery charging was done by back-feeding through a dedicated aux-socket (fused) which bypassed the main isolator, there was no facility for jump-starting even through the hatch as the battery terminals were fully shrouded but in 10-years I never needed to anyway.

Since then the Recaro seats have been replaced with a nice new set of Trakers and the seatbox put back to standard but the side-plate is still there, just never needed.

I welded two hinges to back end of seat rails and bolted them down to seat box original holes then welded plates to front of rails and bolted down to orginal holes but am going to replace bolts on the front for some of these

very smart mate!

Hamsterberg said:

I welded two hinges to back end of seat rails and bolted them down to seat box original holes then welded plates to front of rails and bolted down to orginal holes but am going to replace bolts on the front for some of these

Click to expand...

I like that idea mate, but im wondering how those clips would fair if your Landy got 'rear end' shunted? Not sure if they would break, causing the seat to flip back on the rear hinge?

They would solve the battery access problem though

LeadFarmer said:

I like that idea mate, but im wondering how those clips would fair if your Landy got 'rear end' shunted? Not sure if they would break, causing the seat to flip back on the rear hinge?

They would solve the battery access problem though

Click to expand...

True but they are just a pic of what i want, would use two heavy duty ones, when i can find some

they allways look wrong some how

Hamsterberg said:

True but they are just a pic of what i want, would use two heavy duty ones, when i can find some

Click to expand...

like the jap motors with engine under seats

fanatic said:

like the jap motors with engine under seats

Click to expand...

You got it

My bucket seats are mounted on standard landy seat frames, so to get them out is pretty easy right now... just wack the back of it and the front pops out....

the problem, as you can imagine, is that the seat back is not separated from the bottom, like on a normal landy seat, so if you wack the back of the seat, the front pops out the rails... like the standard landy seat cushion does...

so I have to find a way of bolting the front down....