Other seats in Dart?

-
G

gilgalad1138

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
264
Reaction score
6
Location
Lansing MI
Here's my problem. I'm picking up a '72 Dart Swinger on Friday, and it has this horrendous gold interior with a white bench seat. The car is getting painted sassy grass green and the interior is getting changed over to black. While I'm at it I'd like to upgrade to a set of bucket seats.

So my question is, anyone know what other seats would fit? I haven't been able to find any info on this. I've got my eyes on some nice Dakota seats.. I have to add rails anyway to put buckets in, so I'm not against a little modifying. But will they be too tall? What else would fit?
 
they should fit I have bucket seats from a 72 duster in my 65 dart and they are not to tall all you have to do is make adjustible seat tracks
 
Don't know which seat you have in the Swinger. The deluxe interior had a bench with a pull down arm rest. The cushions are not individually adjustable, but it would bolt up with no modifications to the floor pan. The 4-door Custom had the same bench, but no folding backrest. Here's mine in black.

The original interior was black vinyl and looked every bit of its 35 years of age when I got the car. I'm not a fan of vinyl here in the land of hotter 'n hell summers. So I reupholstered the seats in cloth. Other than the covering (Ok, I added another layer of padding for my old ***.), they are completely stock.

IMG_5614s.JPG


IMG_5616s.JPG
 
No, I wish I had the deluxe interior.. I just have the normal bench seat. In white vinyl, which isn't gonna work because I'm converting to black... I can get my hands on a set of buckets out of a Challenger, but they're going to need to be recovered. Does recovering generally cost an arm a leg and a nut? Or is there a cheap alternative?
 
I had a similar problem recently. My 65 Dart GT has bucket seats, but the foam is hard and the vinyl shot. Repairing them cost an arm, leg, and 2 nuts. Vendors want ~$250/pr for the foam and ~$500/pr for the vinyl. You would have to buy the seats too, maybe $300. 65 Mustang seats look similar size, so I considered leveraging their cheaper parts train. Foam ~$60/pr and could be trimmed easily if needed. The vinyl would probably work too. I see complete nice 60's Mustang seats fairly affordable (~$300). Might work for you. I think the bolts are different, so you would need some brackets, or just drill thru the floorpan where needed. The seat rails are flat like a Dart, rather than the funky vertical bolting surfaces you see in Sebrings and many pickups. With pickup seats I would worry that they aren't designed for sitting low, but maybe some sporty models work.

In my case, I wanted a head restraint and shoulder belts (no mount in my Dart), so I looked at convertibles, since often have the belts integral to the seat. Indeed, some sedans now have seatbelts integral to the seat (Sebring, some SUV's). I finally found some clean Mustang Cobra bucket seats on Craigslist. Only $50 for both at a hot rod shop that upgraded a customer. They needed a little mechanical work (broken hinge bolt, electrical) and I still need to get shoulder belts, but they have the top holder. Some FABOS would think heretical to install seats with embrodiered ponies, but think of the stories I can tell about taking them off a sissy Cobra driver, etc.
 
If you can find a deluxe bench with fold down backrests locally, you have the most significant part of the deluxe interior. Color won't matter since you're converting to black.

The cost of recovering depends on what you want or NEED to have done. It also depends on your own skills or your willingness to learn new ones. I started with a decent set of seat covers (for front and rear seats) and with some consultation of a pro, made a couple of mods and did it myself. Total out of pocket was a shade over $200. I was aiming to do it on the cheap, but I wanted the front and back seats to match. I also wanted it to look and work decently.

I got the covers from Seatcovers Unlimited. They use a concealed drawstring to hold the cover in place on the style I selected. The problem with this method is that it is nearly impossible to keep the material even. This is when I consulted the pro. He looked over my work and suggested that I use hog rings. In a couple of spots I sewed in vinyl so I'd have something to run the hog ring thru.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top