The 96-00 4Runners do not come with proper hardware to anchor the strap for forward-facing child car seats. The 01-02 had rear seats with an added bracket on the frame for this. I borrowed the idea from this Overland writeup to swap out seat frames to get this functionality.

I used these Drake hog ring pliers

Original frame on left, new frame on right


The magic bracket


- Pull off back seats
- Clip hog rings, remove fabric cover
- Swap frames that are nestled into the foam
- Reinstall fabric cover
- Install new hog rings
- Cut rectangular holes in seat backs to allow the plastic bracket covers to fit in




Finished product


edit: forgot to mention, thanks to @xxJAMxx for the seat frames! It was awesome of you to pack them up and ship them to me.