a sebring interior for my 66 dart

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66Dvert

66Dvert

Working on my custom car parts again!
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Webster , florida
I just got back from going to michigan (friend of the family's wife passed of him suddenly) But while I was there I scored a 96 sebring brown cloth set of seats. front and rear, they're sorta dirty but no rips and the driver side is power! And I got em for a hundred bucks. wooooohooo!!!!
I just stuffed them in the rear to see if thay'd fit and it'll be close
the backs I'll have to shorten up a little on the sides to clear the sidepanels and the bottom might need it but it's really close

I need to go to a junkyard around here and get the metal support for the top seatback/seatbelt mounting bracket but it looks do-able

back sort of squeezed in there. I'll have to build a raised pan to mount the seat in the correct position((and not bend over the Hump
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YehHAWWWWW front power seat(still have to test it)
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another pic of the rear seat , yup I'll have to shorten it up about and inch on a side, easy it's all foam there :cheers:
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a back view showing where it mounts and the piece I'll need to scavenge from a donor sebring for the mounting and seat belt mounts
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A shot of how it's going to go into the car, it'll be about 2 inches lower on the back seat but it should be ok

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another view showing how far I'll have to build up the mounting pan to get the correct height. of course that's after I level everything out and shorten it to whatever size I need to make it fit
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so maybe they'll be comfortable on a long drive
well I can only hope so
 
in my opinion id use the original seats, not a fan of using modern interior in classic cars. but thats my opinion, if your on a strict budget i can see the advantage but if u have original interior id stick with that. cant believe those fit though wow.
 
looks good not a fan of modern seats in classics but im willing to Bet it will be 1 million times softer and feel better then anything made from 1960-1990's
 
Looks good. I am doing the same with my 68. Pulled a full leather interior out of a 98 a few months back including all the front and rear supports and belts.
 
72_Durstya said:
in my opinion id use the original seats, not a fan of using modern interior in classic cars. but thats my opinion, if your on a strict budget i can see the advantage but if u have original interior id stick with that. cant believe those fit though wow.
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Oh I have the original seats and new black skins to go on them. looking for new new foam for them though (I have them for the wife's but not for mine)

BUT they are so darn uncomfortable to drive in long distance.The wife wanted late model type shoulder belts for her when we drive it up to michigan for the cruises with my friends and of course they're cooler than the vinyl in the Florida sun(can you say pull skin if you forget) oh and I'm converting to a brown convertible Top and "cool" Vanilla paint to help keep the car cooler and easier to AC it.
 
Not a fan of modern seats in older cars, but I have to admit that even the seats in my Omni are more comfortable and supportive than my original Dart seats.
 
Are you going to recover them? I'm not a fan right now but maybe I'm missing the bigger picture... How are you going to fill/cover that massive hole behind the rear? Yikes!
 
Dart Sport 360 said:
Are you going to recover them? I'm not a fan right now but maybe I'm missing the bigger picture... How are you going to fill/cover that massive hole behind the rear? Yikes!
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I didn't want to go to the later seats either but the wife wanted to be safer (and more comfortable) so she put her foot down on the daily driver. which this IS going to be.
Nope I'm not going to recover them but I am taking them off to wash them. it's probably got years of gunk ground in (there was 3 car seats in that car) so you can just imagine just what type of gunk was in/on there
as for the massive gaping hole in the rear I need to go to the junkyard and pick up the mounting brace for the seat and seat belts that is about 5 inches tall and the width of the wheel well to wheel well and it'll be welded on top of the original brace for the power top motor so that I can use a backer to hide the back of the seat just like the original(except curved at the ends and will have a shoulder harness mount just like the original sebring convertible). you'll only see about the top 1-2 inch or so of the seat. I also have to make a new top well because of the curve at the ends of the seat. But best of all I found a small metal strip that holds the boot to the car, at a RV place so that I can make a Boot to fit the new contour
 
toplscuda said:
Looks good. I am doing the same with my 68. Pulled a full leather interior out of a 98 a few months back including all the front and rear supports and belts.
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if you've got a convertible did you pull the back brace for the back seat top mounting?(of course I forgot to get mine in 10 degree Michigan weather it's easy to forget things like that. I did get the plastic cover but forgot to take the metal mounting brackets) hmm 98 does that have the module in the console that works for your belts or is that the newer style that has it in the computer? I thought 95-97 were one style(with wiring going to the module in the console) and 98(maybe 99) and newer were in the computer BUT you could use the 97 and earlier wiring and module to get it to work correctly.
 
98 still had the module under the console. I took a plazma to it and pulled absolutely everything out of the donor. Getting the cross brace out the bottom of the rear seats snap in to was fun because when I cut it out the car wanted to fold in to itself. Hopefully i can make some progress on getting the quarters on the car before spring so I can move to getting the interior situated. I originally got the idea to swap the interior when I was installing the new top on my 04 Sebring. I had pulled the rear seat out and had it sitting on to of the original seat from the 68. Thas when I noticed they were almost the same width.
 
toplscuda said:
98 still had the module under the console. I took a plazma to it and pulled absolutely everything out of the donor. Getting the cross brace out the bottom of the rear seats snap in to was fun because when I cut it out the car wanted to fold in to itself. Hopefully i can make some progress on getting the quarters on the car before spring so I can move to getting the interior situated. I originally got the idea to swap the interior when I was installing the new top on my 04 Sebring. I had pulled the rear seat out and had it sitting on to of the original seat from the 68. Thas when I noticed they were almost the same width.
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ok I wasn't sure what year it changed over , I have to go a pickin to get my backseat brace. I'm measuring now and it looks like I'll have to remove 1 inch per side on the top of the seat back to give my top sidepanel covers room to move and 1 1/2 inch per side on the seat bottom so it doesn't look all scrunched up. that's ok since it's all foam and I'll have a professional upholsterer's help making sure I don't do a "stupid" hack job. I did test the power seat, I have a slow motor for the up/down. the rest of them work just fine. even the module when powered up unlocks the belts and locks up when I jerk the module forward or backwards by hand. so it all looks good.
front brackets are going to be a little more work than I wanted but I wanted the seats in 1 inch further toward the tunnel than the brackets allow. so a little finessing/adjusting/fiddling(maybe a big hammer) is called for.
 
Sounds like you have a good plan in place. I know the up/down motor in my 04 Sebring isn't the speediest so what you have may be normal.
 
The Sebring seats are definitely the ones to pick, because of their inbuilt 3-point seat belts. I've seen them re-covered with period-correct vinyl and cloth materials for our old cars and they really blend in well when redone that way.

Did you get the brain box (electronic control unit) for the seat belts? You'll need it. See here.
 
slantsixdan said:
The Sebring seats are definitely the ones to pick, because of their inbuilt 3-point seat belts. I've seen them re-covered with period-correct vinyl and cloth materials for our old cars and they really blend in well when redone that way.

Did you get the brain box (electronic control unit) for the seat belts? You'll need it. See here.
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yep got the brain box for the belts. and was able to test it (it works!)

I'm thinking of recovering them a lighter beige color though not in vinyl(to hot in florida for that) it'll take a while before that gets done ($$$$$)
I've already cooked my legs in shorts by making that mistake of vinyl and top down in the sun
 
toplscuda said:
Sounds like you have a good plan in place. I know the up/down motor in my 04 Sebring isn't the speediest so what you have may be normal.
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I just called a yard near me and they have a 97 sebring. I'll be going over there on monday to grab the rear seat metal for mounting the rear seat and I'll grab a motor or two to replace the slow one since they all look the same on mounting bolt locations and the wire color code looks to be the same too.
 
Done right, like Dan said, they look good and add a marginal of more safety. I say "Right on!" (Yes, my defiant fist is in the air)
 
Good luck with your project sounds very interesting.
Please add some pics when you've got it set up.
Thanks
 
AussiePlymouths said:
Good luck with your project sounds very interesting.
Please add some pics when you've got it set up.
Thanks
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hah it's more like put the seats in check bracket fit, !@#%@% hmm don't fit adjust some more and so forth. right now I'm at the "oh yeah do some more sanding on the body to get it ready to block, now jump to the brake lines since 1 set came in to check fit, another thing to check on the led lights parts " stage. Sort of drives my wife crazy and it looks like nothing is getting done. but it's slowly getting done to my satisfaction.

just finished getting one side of the knock down paint booth glued together and it feels solid! another oh yeah moment, dang I get side tracked easy don't I?
 
My 65 buckets felt like sitting on the pot, center was sunken and the sides were like wood, that was turning to yellow snow all over my new carpet kit.. Go for it!
 
pishta said:
My 65 buckets felt like sitting on the pot, center was sunken and the sides were like wood, that was turning to yellow snow all over my new carpet kit.. Go for it!
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My foam was not even there on my seats. I ordered new buns and reskinned them. they still sucked!
I'm spoiled I like the newer seat feel and the added safety of the shoulder belt. plus it power and I can adjust it any way I need to. and they are a real close fit. (about an 1 1/2 on the bottom and 1/2 on the top in the rear)
 
here's some pic's of the rear seat in and mounted. I still have to add some filler pieces to finish the seat pan but it's in and SOLID. It took a couple of tries to get the top of the set the way I like it. but now all I have to do is finish the seat belt bolts on the bottom and make sure the top brace is welded solid so it won't pull loose in case of an accident.
"WAS" this big old gap and ugly looking
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"now" is this with correct bracing form sebring. plus it gives me an extra 2 inches on top and let's me make a super deep well and a nicer boot for the top. that is after I do the filler pieces on the sides and get the metal bent where it's supposed to be.
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I just tacked in the mounts for the front seats and decided to check it out.
it looks pretty good in there,I'm going to do the sub frame connectors after I weld up the original mounting location holes that I made before I decided to go to the late model seats.
here's some pic's

man that's a huge steering wheel
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I have a slow up/down motor and I think I'll try and get a rack of motors to replace it with.
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I just adjusted it to even out the top to bottom side clearance and now have 2 inches clearance on both seats\.
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this is the total clearance I have on both sides now. and they sit pretty good
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of course I keep seeing that huge wheel (may go and inch or 2 smaller now that I have a power steering setup) and no dash in yet but it looks like I've got plenty of room all the way around. I'll have to make a custom console. gotta have my coffee cup holder in there :glasses7::coffee2:


now to finish wiring up the seat belts so that they work the way they are supposed to.
 
That is looking good. After you get it down to a science you can come over and put the set I have for my car in.
 
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