Are there any other seats that will slide into my 4 Dr 65 Valiant easily? Upholstery guys are expensive, my Mrs. doesn't really sew and I thought I'd maybe have an easier time finding something at a junkyard that wasn't a 65 Valiant.

What have you used if not your original A-Body seats? Share your seat stories...

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65 4 dr. Valiant 200

Seats from mid 90's mustangs fit nice. Make sure you get the brackets also. Reinforce floor with some plates. Someone on here said they used electrical box covers from home depot. Truth be told, youre going to have to use your brain a bit tk get it to fit snug and level. But hey, youre a smart guy right? Right!

I'll post some pictures soon.

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70 Plymouth Valiant 4dr

I was working on a Neon in the past few weeks and had to pull the complete interior. I was suprised how light the front seats were and not to bad in the comfort zone either. Price at the you pull it and other wrecking yards were in the $30 to $50 dollar range. The brackets with the seats can be easily reworked ( just the front of the seat bracket ) to mount to the floor. Usually the passenger seats are not as worn as the driver side and a good pair can be found with ease.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll be looking for seats for the new '64 Valiant.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Member 'Sandy in BC' used Toyota seats for his '65 Valiant, check out his home page here.

Olaf.

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Aspenized

Yep, I remember. I just need to get to a yard and sit in some things...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Lou,

I installed a set of '98 Chrysler Sebring Convertible seats in my 63 Valiant because I wanted the integrated shoulder belts. The results were excellent! The seats are very comfortable and the wiring is a snap. I have seen many of these cars showing up in the cheaper junk yards these days and I just pulled another set for only $70. Here's is a link to an install on a Corvair:

http://www.corvairkid.com/sebring.htm

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. . . there was good sport at his making.

Oooo, I forgot about those. Thanks for the tip, Michael!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I installed '97 Sebring convertible seats in my '64 Valiant convertible. They were easy to install and I love the comfort and the integrated shoulder belts.

One reminder...if you use Sebring seats, get the seat control module at the same time. These seats don't have mechanical pendulums, so it's needed to lock and release the belts.

You'll find that the computer for the Sebring seat shoulder belt is a standalone only up to 1999. A 2000 Sebring seat will work with a 1999 Sebring computer....been there...done that.

You'll also find that Sebring seat covers are easily found, inexpensive, on Ebay if you find a good pair of 95 to 99 seats but they are not an acceptable color for your car....been there...done that.

The advantage of a computer controlled shoulder belt is that they lock up quicker than normal shoulder belts which looks to me as advantage for our non air bag cars......luckily haven't tested this theory..!!

If you PM me with an email I'll send a wiring diagram that involves tapping a small amount of power from your existing fuse box to unlock the shoulder belt when you open the door, and tapping a large amount of power from an underhood fuse box to power up the electric seat controls. I can also give installation photos including underfloor reinforcements....

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

DonPal...I'm curious what type of inertia device newer models use to lock the belts if they don't have a seat control module with a mercury switch? Did they go back to a pendulum built into the seat?

My understanding is that the functions provided by the standalone seat computer were added to the main computer in 2000.

That functionality, however it's done, provides several types of locking:
1)timed
2)locking after exiting the car with ignition off/unlocking on entry with no ignition
3)decelleration rate
4)steep hill locking

In addition the shoulder harness locks if you jerk it fast enough which I take as a backup incase of power failure....otherwise you can pull it slowly & it doesn't lock up

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

If you can find them, the stock A body slider bucket floor mounts will allow you to mount pretty much any bucket seat in your A body car easily. These are the really coveted items, and the things to look for at shows like Carlisle.

Sam

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It's understandable that they would include the seat functions in another computer, especially the timed switching related to the doors, but they still need an inertia device to lock the belts on impact. They must have moved a mechanical device inside the seats. However, if the car still has a timed lock/unlock function activated by the door switches with ignition off, they couldn't have removed the solenoids from the retractors.

On my '97 seats, the seats lock when the solenoids lose 12 VDC, so I had to hook them up to the ignition switch to get them to release. Until I got used to the sequence, it was sort of annoying to have to turn on the ignition before fastening the belts, but I didn't want to power them with the courtesy lighting circuit or add another door switch. My power to the seat motors comes directly from a new circuit I added on another fuse panel, so the only function of the seat module is the mercury switch.

I'm really curious and would like to see a schematic of the newer design.

I used the existing door switch to unlock the shoulder harness when you enter.....same as the Sebring. It's seems like this method is better when you consider safety issues.....shoulder harnesses shouldn't require keys?What about when there is a key power failure or the kids jump in and play and........?

Some of the circuit info you are requesting is at the following site:

http://www.corvairkid.com/sebring.htm

where there is a substantial functionality discussion by the author. He doesn't bisect the computer but you can see what it performs.

My problem with the author's article is that concerning the seat anchors....

Adapting the Sebring seats to stock A body bucket seat anchors (designed for seperate seat belts anchored to the tunnel & rocker panel areas) could result in the driver attached firmly to a seat that releases from the car floor in a severe impact. This is because those original anchors were not designed for the added loading of a shoulder harness built into a seat.

The article could be expanded to show the types of floor reinforcement that needs to be done under the car to carry the shoulder harness loads imposed on the seat anchors over to unibody support members. Note the diameter of stock 64 Valiant bucket seat anchor bolts & the diameter of the sebring anchor bolts....that alone says something about the forces....the force increase is indirectly determined by the sebring bolt diameter squared divided by the 64 valiant bolt diameter squared......Sebring also has a wider bolt pattern that better handles the overturning moment imposed on the seat structure during a severe accident.
And for those converting from 4 bench seat bolts 5/16 diameter to 8 sebring bucket seat bolts 1/2 diameter, Mopar is giving you Sebring seats designed for at least 5 times more force than in 64 in their bench seats.

So I recommend you only use the article for it's electrical & functionality information.

For those wanting to avoid these issues get a shoulder harness attached directly to strong points such as the tunnel, door pillar, and rocker panel(that isn't rotted).....& don't forget the headrest.

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/