Bench to bucket conversion, need help please

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72moparswinger

72moparswinger

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So I took the plunge and bought buckets, summit brand with rails, The mounting holes center to center is 11 in where the car is at 12 center to center. my other question is, what did you guys do for the floor pan? Since it was set up for a bench and the pan is raised on one side near the door and the other by the tunnel is flat.
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I looked on mopar resto parts suppliers sites looking for possibly a factory rail and bracket that will work with my current seats.

I was thinking of using aluminum channel for the one side the is flat in the pan?
open to suggestions or if you have any pics of the summit seats mounted in the car so i can see the brackets. I found a couple threads and saw what the factory ones look like so that helped a little
 
I've used spacers to get my custom seats level.
Make sure the floor is enforced with large 2" orso flat washers on the outside to prevent the bolts from the pulling through the floorboards.

I would not use an aluminium bracket in an often used car if this is the case.
An iron channel welded to the floor would work too, but best is to double-up the base of the floor for strength.
 
For factory buckets, there is another set of dimples inside of the raised section that they use.

You can buy adapter brackets for the Procar seats that hook to the factory spots. I'm going to do this on my car this year. I thought some of the summit seats would also work with those.
 
goldduster318 said:
For factory buckets, there is another set of dimples inside of the raised section that they use.

You can buy adapter brackets for the Procar seats that hook to the factory spots. I'm going to do this on my car this year. I thought some of the summit seats would also work with those.
Click to expand...

X2 You'll need 4 body plugs for the holes where a bench mounts.
 
So pretty much ill not be using the bench mount holes. I finally found the extra 4 dimples that were not drilled, I couldn't even find them till I started poking around with a screw driver cause they were filled up with paint hahaha

Ill look at the pro car bracket kit kinda pricey but if it works its worth it, I have a buddy i just called who fabs stuff see if he will make me something for a trade of a couple 36 packs lol
 
bench seat holes are not used for bucket seats...

should be 4 dimples in the floor where the bucket seat holes should be...

seats047.jpg
 
don't forget to make/buy a set of floor reinforcement plates too..

[ame="http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOPAR-1967-76-A-Body-Bucket-Seat-Braces-Brace-Dart-Duster-Demon-Swinger-Dodge-/231167344442?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35d2a5bf3a&vxp=mtr"]Mopar 1967 76 A Body Bucket Seat Braces Brace Dart Duster Demon Swinger Dodge | eBay[/ame]
 
Here it is lined up to the dimples closest to the driver door
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rail closest to tunnel and its off of the dimple by quite a ways, so its offsetting the seat a couple inches of the steering wheel
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The link for the seat braces, it says they weld to the inside of the floor pan? ive never seen those before or even known about them
 
I think the seat braces they are referring to are the reinforcing plates welded to the floor. They are nothing but 1/8" flat stock around 4 x 4 with a hole thru them for the seat mounting stud.
Those factory dimples work if you are using a stock A body seat with stock seat tracks, but if you are using an aftermarket seat, the width between the tracks is probably not the same as a factory deal. Therefore, I would NOT rely on the factory dimples to mount your seats. Otherwise the factory holes might not line up with your track widths. I went thru this trying to use B body seats in an A body. I would get your seat to line up as best you can side to side and front to back and make new holes, then make your own reinforcing plates and weld them at each of the holes you make for your seat tracks. Then cover the old holes with either plugs or weld some scraps over them. Center punch your intended holes first and check the underside so the holes, drill bit and bolts won't interfere with anything.
 
like stated those plates are easy enough to make. i provided the link to show you what they look like.

all factory bucket seat cars had reinforcement plate installed.
 
this here is what a factory bucket seat car would look like. there was two rubber body plugs in the outer holes on the hump where the bench seat bolts to.
 

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X2 airgrabber
I used 3/16 scrap steel. Problem is, my aftermarket seats don't fit the holes. I wish I had bought the seats, marked the locations, welded and drilled the plates. Now comes time to fab some work-arounds.
 
I did this conversion on my Duster, piece of cake. I made plates to reinforce all 4 holes and tacked them to the floor. I forget what thickness plate this is, probably around 1/8".

IMG_1402_zpsf07e6916.jpg


Also, if you bought the Summit seats you don't need any kind of bracket adaptors. I just bought Summits mount kit, but all that really amounts to is some 2" aluminum angle and some bolts. For an A-body and those seats, the extra holes don't matter because they get used on the "smallest" setting anyway, basically just making a "C" out of the angle. The holes in the floor don't line up directly over center on the holes in the seat, but the width is close enough to manage with the 2" overlap. The length was a little further off, but that doesn't matter with the angle.

I'd just buy some 2" x .125" angle and make the brackets myself. That way you could make them steel brackets also. I'd consider lowering the seats from the 2" added height too, but on a 4 speed car like mine you can't really lower them much or the driver's seat will hit the 4 speed hump. On an auto car you could probably have the brackets be about an 1" tall and have it work great, the seats sit you up pretty high in the car.

Here you can see how close the driver's seat is to the 4 speed hump

IMG_5176_zps782af97e.jpg
 

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Blah blah blah reinforce this and that, good idea, but you can just get the seats where you want them, drill a hole and stick a fender washer on the bottom. Done.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Blah blah blah reinforce this and that, good idea, but you can just get the seats where you want them, drill a hole and stick a fender washer on the bottom. Done.
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Not when you got a fat *** like mine! Ain't no fender washer gonna take that much stress! LOL
 
Here is what I did to mine. Pretty much what everyone else is suggesting on here.
 

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PoisonDart74 said:
Blah blah blah reinforce this and that, good idea, but you can just get the seats where you want them, drill a hole and stick a fender washer on the bottom. Done.
Click to expand...

Most fender washers are less than a 1/16" thick. They also cover a lot less area. But if you want to trust your life to some Chinese fender washers, be my guest.

We all know how many corners the factory cut, and even they still welded reinforcing plates to the floor on the original bucket seat cars.
 
72bluNblu said:
Most fender washers are less than a 1/16" thick. They also cover a lot less area. But if you want to trust your life to some Chinese fender washers, be my guest.

We all know how many corners the factory cut, and even they still welded reinforcing plates to the floor on the original bucket seat cars.
Click to expand...

Sure, I'm just not sure I'd go as far as saying 'trust your life'. It's just a seat brah. All 4 of em' aren't gonna break at the same time, double or triple them up.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Blah blah blah reinforce this and that, good idea, but you can just get the seats where you want them, drill a hole and stick a fender washer on the bottom. Done.
Click to expand...

personal preference i guess. i used to do stuff like that when i was young and didn't know any better. now that i'm older i'll try my hardest to do thing right.
 
abodyjoe said:
personal preference i guess. i used to do stuff like that when i was young and didn't know any better. now that i'm older i'll try my hardest to do thing right.
Click to expand...

Yeah beats the heck out of hitting the steering wheel in an accident. I didn't exactly do mine "right" from a factory standpoint, they only had the two inner plates because of the reinforcements on the outer holes underneath. But it took all of 30 minutes to make the plates and weld them in. And now I don't have to fiddle with washers underneath the car since the seats don't have studs. Next set I'll make out of steel angle and tack the bolts to the brackets.

Easier to take a little more time on the build to make things go faster later. I just get sick of fighting all the little stupid shortcuts that make it harder to deal with later.
 
Thanks all for your info! I really appreciate it. I can make the plates from scrap steel from the shop I'm at. I'll have my friend with a welder come by an tack them in. The shop im interning at builds spec Miata's for SCCA and all our seats and belts are reinforced with plates. I'm a visual/hands on guy, it's best way I learn, thanks for all the pictures. now I got a clear idea what I need to do
 
Look they sky ain't falling here, In that situation what if the welded area tears out because you welded 1/8 plate to 20ga?, What if your bolts sheer off? What if your tires blow out, and your car flips over. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Agree to disagree.
 
"Agree to disagree", indeed, PD. Over the years, I've found the "quick & dirty" way usually works - 'til it doesn't! Carefully thought out, planned and executed meets MY wants these days.
"More than one way to skin a cat" is true, but the cat ain't gonna like any of 'em!

BC

PoisonDart74 said:
Look they sky ain't falling here, In that situation what if the welded area tears out because you welded 1/8 plate to 20ga?, What if your bolts sheer off? What if your tires blow out, and your car flips over. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Agree to disagree.
Click to expand...
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Look they sky ain't falling here, In that situation what if the welded area tears out because you welded 1/8 plate to 20ga?, What if your bolts sheer off? What if your tires blow out, and your car flips over. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Agree to disagree.
Click to expand...

I doubt the plates would tear. The important part is to spread out the load. I have washers on mine as of right now. The bench seat has a small piece of stamped metal that's spot welded in a few places and 4 bolts for 3 people.

In a frontal collision, the seat mounting would have little to know impact on an accident. You would be coupled to the seat belt. I'd be far more worried about wearing the shoulder harness (and having one in a pre-70 car).
 
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