Seat swapping - what have you all done?

MillerPKA

MillerPKA

New member
I've been working on a career switch so work on the truck has taken a back seat for the moment. I'm still farting around on the web though planning for when I'm ready to pull the trigger.

After getting the exterior done I will be redoing the interior and going to a black/saddle brown scheme. One upholstery person told me it would be easier to find the seats in a part out then using the leather. But the more I look into it, I'm starting to wonder more and more if I shouldn't just swap in the ones I want.

Honestly my first look was at BMW X5 and some of the finer quality seats. I was wondering in my years away if we have some good blueprints for what fits well in the front/rear. Ideally I'd love to find a set that I could custom fab into the 4Runner just for appearance's sake, but I just wanted to see what people have found out about fitting and go from there.
 
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I put in the seats from a first gen scion xb. they are cloth and very supportive on the sides, sporty you might say. they were tight for me at first since im a big guy, but they conformed to my body after a few months and the drivers seat is now perfect. when i swapped the feet at first they were 4" too tall, i had to modify the seat extensively to be at the correct height though, now it sits lower than stock which is good of you are tall. anyways it was kind of a pain but totally worth it. after taking several trips where i drove for more than 12 hours straight my back and legs dont hurt at all.

on a side note, im thinking about taking the two old front seats and replacing the rear bench with them. they would be able to move forward and back and also can be moved side to side by bolting them in different locations along a rail. it would be great for offroad because i could comfortably fit 4 or 3 tall people and have long gear sit between them, one seat could even go in the middle if i had three people.
 
I've looked a fair amount and haven't found anything that bolts straight in. Corbeau does make some but they are pricey.
 
I put the original seat feet two each on two 1" square metal tubes, and then attached the tubes to a set of Mazda 3 seats that I removed the feet from. That was the only thing that was similar in width and foot placement dimensions and wasn't too gross that I found in the junk yard on the day I went. When they wear out I'll remove my feet bars and attach them to something else.

Post 227-several pics
habanero's 1996 4Runner Build-Up Thread - Page 12 - YotaTech Forums

One caveat: I have a short body so raising the seat has been nice. My 6' husband, though, has only a little head room.

I thought the Saab's seats were very comfortable and would have liked to have a set of those. I think the measurements were even close enough.
 
I swapped Infiniti QX4 leather seats in mine, wasn't terribly hard, did front and rear matching, available in Black and Tan, they're also power and heated, which were both very simple to wire in.

Most comfortable seats I've ever sat in too, zero fatigue from riding on them.
 
I went down to my local JDM importer and found they had a few to choose from - the ones that stood out to me were a set of Recaro's supposedly out of an Accord. They even have a portion that extends to support my stupid long legs. They put me up higher, I do lose some head room but I can cope - if I was any taller (6'3") I would have issues - but the fact they have so much bolster is what sold me. And they're black, that helped.

You're going to have to figure out mounting of the seats (which you already knew) but the biggest thing is finding a set with the right dimensions.

IMG_4195_zps42a52b9b.jpg~original


IMG_4178_zps192f1cdd.jpg~original


IMG_4177_zps68c03bdb.jpg~original
 
shouldbeasy said:
I went down to my local JDM importer and found they had a few to choose from - the ones that stood out to me were a set of Recaro's supposedly out of an Accord. They even have a portion that extends to support my stupid long legs. They put me up higher, I do lose some head room but I can cope - if I was any taller (6'3") I would have issues - but the fact they have so much bolster is what sold me. And they're black, that helped.

You're going to have to figure out mounting of the seats (which you already knew) but the biggest thing is finding a set with the right dimensions.

IMG_4195_zps42a52b9b.jpg~original


IMG_4178_zps192f1cdd.jpg~original


IMG_4177_zps68c03bdb.jpg~original
Click to expand...


Broken links but I ended up getting to your photobucket. I was just surfing for new seats to put into my 4r and I'm so happy to see that you got them to work. Did you run into any significant problems? Did you put them in yourself or have someone do it?
 
it won't let me edit my post. not sure what's going on there...

I meant to ask if they're comfortable. More specifically on drives over an hour?
 
I have leather, but non-power seats and my driver side is THRASHED.

I know nothing about upholstery.....can the foam be build back up or do I need to find a donor lower cushion....I've lost at least 2" of foam off the outermost bolster on the driver side.

I DO NOT want power seats and don't really want to "upgrade" to a suspension seat. What I really want is to just re-cover the current seat after getting the foam fixed...but I'm not sure if a shop could add foam to an existing seat or if they'd need a whole new, or donor, base.
 
Lexus IS200 seats line up pretty well.

I used the method described here:

http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/showthread.php?t=71609


Remove all the legs from both seats and then reused at least one hole on each runner/ leg to re- mount surf legs to the lexus runners and then trial fitted with nuts n bolts adjusted the rotation of the legs on the runners until seats were strait n lined up with everything, i then tightened bolts through the legs so they wont move and then welded up.

The inside rear legs wont align so dont bother trying, just do the others and then rest that one on top, mark it up and then remove the lot and weld it onto the rail.
 
spazzyone said:
it won't let me edit my post. not sure what's going on there...

I meant to ask if they're comfortable. More specifically on drives over an hour?
Click to expand...

My seats are still proving to be one of / the best modification to the vehicle so far. And I determined the original vehicle they were placed in - a Mitsibushi Lancer EVO 4. So... they're good shit!

Did you see the modifications for the mounting? Not so bad... the biggest thing is the dimensions top to bottom and side to side. Obviously can't have a seat that's too wide as it just won't fit. A skinny seat will leave you pushed to one side or the other if you use the stock mounting location for one side. Things to be considered.

Good luck with the search - they've made driving the beast a very enjoyable experience. Even for long distances! I couldn't stand the ex-girlfriends RAV4 seats as they were horrible and very flat. Left me shuffling for a comfortable spot not 30 mins into a drive.
 
Sean K. said:
I have leather, but non-power seats and my driver side is THRASHED.

I know nothing about upholstery.....can the foam be build back up or do I need to find a donor lower cushion....I've lost at least 2" of foam off the outermost bolster on the driver side.

I DO NOT want power seats and don't really want to "upgrade" to a suspension seat. What I really want is to just re-cover the current seat after getting the foam fixed...but I'm not sure if a shop could add foam to an existing seat or if they'd need a whole new, or donor, base.
Click to expand...

They would probably have to have a full foam base to work with. To add, they'd need to glue, and I wouldn't think that'd be very permanent.

You could easily do it yourself. You'd just need some hog rings and hog ring pliers.

Obviously you'll have to find the proper foam or have some custom cut first. If you can find any from a junk yard, I'd assume that you could remove it from your passenger seat, take it to a shop for them to copy it, then trade it to the driver's seat while you do the passenger. The driver and passenger lower seats can be swapped.

The foam is pretty much just like an old school foam pillow. The seat cover sits snug around it (might be glued or sewed on to avoid bunching) but it's pretty much just a custom fit glove.
 
Whatever seats you eventually swap in, make sure to use your original seatbelt holders. In a shunt, you don't want them to pop due to a slight mismatch in size/tension etc.
 
How many hog ties & what size are people using when they swap seat bottoms from passenger to drivers side????


Who has performed this swap?
 
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