Easy Aspire front seat swap

[navdoc101]

Aspire seats are nicer & more comfortable than Festy seats. But... Escort seats are that much more comfortable than Aspire seats!

[rmoltis]

You know...

If you guys just bought an aspire.
You wouldn't have to source all of these upgrades from them.
You would just already have all the good stuff.

:-P :-D

[kumalaba]

I used this today Huge upgrade indeed ^

looks so good & comfy

[JPT]

Picking up Escort seats this weekend. This thread will come in handy.

[mikeyjd]

@MIKEYJD

Looks great! Really nice job

Thanks They are soooooo much better than the previous seats. I can take this on long trips now and it's a joy to drive.

[Festevil3]

@MIKEYJD

Looks great! Really nice job

[TominMO]

I believe this has also been done with the 323 seats Im curious as to what other seats it will work with. I may have to look into some 1st gen dsms or something....

Lots of Fords and Mazdas from the late 80s - early 90s. Just look for the same seatback recliner handle to see if the seat is compatible.

As far as weight difference, that would be negligible. Basically the same size seats.

[rmoltis]

what is the weight difference between the two seat sets?
just to know if people are worried about adding weight.

[Bert]

Congrats! A serious design flaw in L series Festys was the self-shredding vinyl on all of the upholstery. You've corrected yours.

[Advancedynamix]

Nice job!

[mikeyjd]

thumbs up

I used this today Huge upgrade indeed ^

[mikeyjd]

thanks much for this info!

[Studebaker]

Did this swap today. Very easy to do. Wish I had known about this years ago. No need to ride on ripped festiva seats. It just to easy to do. The rod nut is like a 9mm not a 5. I used baleing wire instead of plastic ties or hog rings. This thread needs to be a sticky.

[TominMO]

Thanks for the further info to add to this writeup.
Two corrections:
1. there are only four plastic pins on the sides of the seats, not five.
2. on the passenger side on the Festiva seat, there is a pedal that lets the rear-seat passenger slide the front passenger seat forward. This is connected to the front passenger's hand lever for the seat slider by a metal rod. This rod needs to be removed (one small nut, maybe 5mm or so; very easy), so you can get at one of the 8mm hex bolts, to remove the reclining mechanism. The Aspire seat I used did not have that rear-passenger pedal, surprisingly. And it was from a two-door car.

[Festiva_tunner]

good write up - nice that you took the time