Bench seat shot I want to replace but with??

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straightlinespeed

straightlinespeed

Sometimes I pretend to be normal
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My bench seat is in need of repair on the drivers side. The springs sag bad! Im also going to throw a floor shifter in so I was thinking of going to buckets. Finding a decent set of buckets is very tough. What have you guys installed, OEM, aftermarket etc... Pics along with how well they installed would be great to give me ideas.
 
straightlinespeed said:
My bench seat is in need of repair on the drivers side. The springs sag bad! Im also going to throw a floor shifter in so I was thinking of going to buckets. Finding a decent set of buckets is very tough. What have you guys installed, OEM, aftermarket etc... Pics along with how well they installed would be great to give me ideas.
Click to expand...

Someone just posted a recovered bench for sale on here...... I'll bump it to the top so you can see it
 
A lot of people use buckets from newer cars from the salvage yards. Have seen some that people got pretty reasonable. I might go that way myself, can't afford even the new covers. I need new foam also.
 
I have some seats for sale in the intierior for sale forum.
Search my name.
 
I know my opinion won't be the popular opinion but new seats in old cars just looks bad to me. The cool part of owning an older car is the fact that it looks classic. New seats in an old car takes the classic "cool" factor right out of the interior.

There are ways to stiffen your springs on the cheap. Go to your local upholstery shop and pick up some listing wire that has the paper wrapped around it. Turn your seat upside down and hog ring the listing wire to each seat spring longways all the way down the seat. The more wires you run, the more it'll stiffen up the springs. This kind of equalizes the saggy springs with the good springs and gives them a little lift. If you don't live near an upholstery shop, you can use thicker gauge bailing wire but be sure to wrap cotton or some sort of felt around the wire where you are hog ringing to the springs. That way you don't get any metal on metal rattles.
 
I'm gonna agree with esp47 on that one. My car had the same problem, worn out upholstery at the driver area, some broken springs, and deteriorated foam. My first thought was to replace it with a couple buckets. The ones I found were from a 69 Mustang. Looked like it would be fairly simple to adapt them with little modification. I was wrong. Floorboards are not flat, nor symmetrical, so brackets to match the early Mustang was not going to be that simple.

I decided to re-think the idea. Got in touch with SMS < I think that was the name... They claim to be the worlds largest supplier of OEM auto fabrics. Sent them my vin number info, they sent me an exact match of 42 year old vinyl. Impressive. I took the bench to my local upholstery shop, they put in a couple new springs, a layer of 1/2 inch foam over the top of the original foam, and recovered it all in the original two tone colors. Looks just like the rest of the interior, which is in excellent condition.

I'm into it around $600, maybe a little more, but I am very happy with the results, and I am happy to have a full bench seat... My li'l wifey is happy with it too. Somebody already made mention of this in another thread, but bench seats are pretty darn hard to find in any cars nowadays. I kinda think bench seats are the new 'cool' seats for a weekend cruiser.

As far as a floor shifter, that is still an option with a bench. I know there are lots of cars with this combo, and that is what I plan on doing myself.

I'll try to get a picture later
 
Picture is taken at night, kinda dark, but it really does look good.
 

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You can out whatever you want to in there, let the imagination run wild, I'm going to install '01 Volvo S80 power everything plus heat in mine.
 
I agree the bench is not something you see anymore. Plus I love how the seat fold forward to allow access to the back seat. However, with my car having a A/C duct mounted under the dash there is no room to properly mount the floor shifter. I was going to swap out to a non A/C heater box, but there rebuilding the fire wall is not something I have the time for right now. If some of you have pictures of the A/C duct mounted with a floor shifter and a bench seat I woudl love to see them! Or ideas how to eleminate that duct but still use the A/C box, I would like to hear those also.
 
I just saw a set of front buckets and back seat all white for a 69 Dart yesterday that were for sale. Don't know if they would fit your car
 
Look in Jeg's or Summit. They both offer nice aftermarket seats.
 
I'm in the proccess of figuring out how to mount the two front seats from my brother-in laws junk '99 neon in my dart. Why because the seats themselves are free.

Then I'm gonna have them covered in black vinyl to match the back, and then rebuild the back bench, and then add heated seats, and then make a console and then a floor shift and then and then and then.......:D
 
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