Sebring convertible seats in my '64.
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| Author: | Acuda4me@AOL.com [ Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Newer Seat Swaps |
Who out there has swapped out either aftermarket or newer model seats into an A body and how did it go? I have a 74 Dart 4-door with benches. I prefer cloth benches to the vinyl from way back when. |
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| Author: | Reed [ Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:11 pm ] |
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You could get your original seats reupholstered, or order a new upholstery set from JC Whitney. |
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| Author: | 64 Convert [ Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:18 pm ] |
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Sebring convertible seats in my '64.
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| Author: | Acuda4me@AOL.com [ Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:13 pm ] |
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Reed, don't like the stock vinyl, and most upholstery guys want more than I want to spend. This is a driver/beater. 64Convert, I remember that car from your AC how to. How difficult were the Sebring seats to adapt? |
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| Author: | 64 Convert [ Mon Jan 27, 2014 5:54 pm ] |
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Not the best pictures, but they're all I have. It's a simple combination of plates and angles with reinforcing plates under the floor. The seat belts are released and locked electrically, so the seat belt module has to be installed unless you want to design your own inertia switch setup. My module is hidden inside the center console. I also had to add a fused circuit for the power seat motors, but there was nothing really difficult about the installation.  
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| Author: | Louise76 [ Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:31 pm ] |
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Our Darts & Scamp are 1974, 75, 76, 2 & 4-door. We found that to have a reasonable shop re-upholster a bucket seat runs about $300 each, but we can scout the local salvage yards and find a dirty but good set for $150 for two. We try to pick something that we can build a complete interior around, or have the back 2-piece bench seat re-upholstered to match(almost) the front replacements (for about $300.) The problem we found is to find seats that are LOW enough to the floor pan. Most new cars seem to have low floor pans and high seat frames/tracks. When you try to put those in, you find your head too close to the roof, unless you are very short with unusually long legs! Also, we have only tried front buckets, never tried a bench. With the 4-door you have one advantage in your favor: the roof on a 4-door is about 1.6 inches taller than on a 2-door Swinger or Scamp, giving you a little fudge room on seat height. The reason we haven't just bought DYI re-upholstery kits for our original stock buckets is because Dart/Scamp bucket don't recline- something we really find lacking on long trips. We make sure the seats are installed with good hardware for security in a serious crash, and always use the original Dart / Scamp seat belts. P |
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| Author: | 63Valiant [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:05 pm ] |
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Quote: Not the best pictures, but they're all I have. It's a simple combination of plates and angles with reinforcing plates under the floor. The seat belts are released and locked electrically, so the seat belt module has to be installed unless you want to design your own inertia switch setup. My module is hidden inside the center console. I also had to add a fused circuit for the power seat motors, but there was nothing really difficult about the installation.
That's actually very helpful, I'm going to be replacing some of the floor pans in my '63 soon and when it goes back together I'll be putting a set of Sebring seats I got for it. So your pics give me a good idea how to mount it. Look like you used angle iron and flat stock, about 1 1/2"? I see on the outbound front it looks like you put the angle into the factory floor hole and put the seats mount just in front of it? So are you using all the factory holes on the outbound sides? Did you have to do any modifying of the seats brackets? How'd the seat geometry end up? Meaning is the forward and rear adjustment range close to the factory range? Or is there more or less movement? And distance between seat and steering wheel, (vertical), is it any different? Thanks for the help!  BTW, that is a nice looking Valiant you have there!!!! |
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| Author: | 64 Convert [ Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:13 am ] |
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Yes, I did use the existing bench seat front holes to locate the new seats, and that put the buckets very close to the original bench seat position. It's been several years, but I don't recall having any spacing issues, and the power adjustment makes up for any minor difference. The rear seat floor slopes toward the outside, so I installed about a half-inch fiber spacer under the rear outboard mount and that brought it level. I didn't modify the seat mounts at all. I just supported the seats in the position I wanted, then marked and match-drilled the Angles and plates. The metal material was off the shelf at Lowes, since they were the closest source. If I had used some lighter steel, it would have been easier to cut and drill, but I always tend to over-engineer my projects. |
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| Author: | 63Valiant [ Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:01 pm ] |
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Thanks again for the extra info, that really helps as I was thinking I was going to have to modify the brackets on the seat itself. The job just got a whole lot easier! I hear you on the over-engineering part, that's what I do too. Do it once and it's done forever. |
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| Author: | Reed [ Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:05 pm ] |
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These pictures are great. I am goign to be mounting some Sebring seats in my brother's 74 Duster soon, and these pictures will help a great deal. |
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| Author: | DusterIdiot [ Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:22 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Make sure... |
Make sure to use a large heavy gauge washer under the floor pan to anchor the rail bolts and sandwich the floor pan where it doesn't have a reinforcing rail...mopar used a 16 gauge 3"x3" flat plate welded to the top of the floor pan on their late bucket cars to secure the holes near the tranny hump... If the seats have their own seat belts the bolts/washers/floorpan/rails in an accident have to hold the equivalent to your weight multiplied by the speed of the impact, if any fail you will have an ejection chair. -D.Idiot |
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| Author: | 64 Convert [ Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:26 am ] |
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I purposely refrained from detailing what I used for underfloor support, as this installation is not crash engineered to the degree the seat donor car went through before it got to a customer, and I have no intention of coming across as an authority on crash protection. The Valiant floor was never designed to endure the g-forces of the seat and driver in a major crash. Add to that any metal fatigue caused by age and rust, and you have an unknown degree of protection that varies with every car. However, I know what I have in my car is an improvement over what came from the factory, since belts were optional in '64 and there were no belts of any kind in mine. I'm also confident that my installation is better than stock factory lap belts that have an anchor at two points in the floor sheet metal, but I realize that the Valiant will never have the crash protection of the Sebring the seats came from. I'll add one caveat to DI's washer suggestion. If the sharp shoulder of a washer is against the floor sheet metal, it could act like a knockout punch and neatly cut a hole in the floor on impact. I'll leave any reinforcing decisions to the installer, but the impact load needs to be spread across a substantial area of the floor, and the amount will vary with the condition of the car and the wrecking yard seats, as well as the weight of the driver. |
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| Author: | AussiePlymouths [ Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:14 am ] |
| Post subject: | Very carefully worded |
64 Convert - I like the way you worded that last post - well done Gary |
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| Author: | 63Valiant [ Fri Mar 28, 2014 5:22 am ] |
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You guys are thinking along the same lines that I am. This will be an area that over-engineering will be beneficial. I was thinking along the lines of some flat-stock underneath the car going from seat bolt mount to the other. In any result though in my case it'll be better than stock also, as my car was stock with no seat belts. I did put lap belts in the front in the early '90s. Or just put parachutes on the Sebring seats! 
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| Author: | Volare4life [ Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:33 pm ] |
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some 2x2 14g box steel tube, grade 8 3/8" bolts 1/8" thick 3/8th's fender washers, and 3/8" lock nuts, and bamo '99 leather hyundai tiburon seats installed not the best pic but they are really comfy lol 
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