Man, who knew replacing front seats would be so tuff?

[Larry Hampton]

I scored some seats at PAP this past winter, but I don't remember what they're from. I want to say MX-3 or MR-2, it was small like that. I'll post pics tomorrow. This 90+ degree heat with the high humidity didn't help, sweat kept dripping down into my glasses. I think I should have welded up a fixture to replicate the mounting points, then I would have had a much easier time getting it set in place. So far I've made two front mounts that aren't yet welded to the seat, one rear inside mount that is (and was the last mount I did, and shoulda been the first) and one rear.outside mount I have to cut off.

Worked on it about 4 hours Saturday and about 2 today, and that's only the driver's side!?!

[Nerd Racing]

why not just swap the upholstery to the lower festiva frame and then bolt the back to the festiva frame like the EGT seat writeup?

[Larry Hampton]

I dont believe its the same. The seat bun bolts to the frame as does the back (i think). The rails look nothing like the Festiva rails. Years ago I put EGT seats in my '65 Mustang, couple of new holes and the old rails bolted up. Then I put FOX Mustang seats in my lowrider Isuzu mini truck, that took a bit of welding, but not like this. The inner rail is lower than the outer.

[gauge_half_inch]

When I fabbed the mounts to bolt in prelude and also protege seats, each set took about 4 hours per seat, between mock up, removing the rails to weld, bold back on test fit, mock the next corner, remove weld, ect. It's very time consuming, but so worth it. My protege seats are amazingly comfy, yet still have firm bolsters.

[Larry Hampton]

Now that I think about it, I think they're RSX seats.

I think I'll pull the cut up floorboards from the Festy I scrapped, trim 'em down a bit, mount them to my sawhorses and try to finish this outside the car, that way it'll be easier to weld without catching carpet on fire or having to avoid the ebrake.

[Larry Hampton]

Toyota Paseo seats are what they are. Thought I.scored.some Subaru VSX seats today, but the passenger one was missing the back.

[rbrown]

Bumpity.

I bought some Probe seats. Look real nice, rails were rusty so I bought some tired ones to rob.
I am not looking into putting these in and there is no way. I too have found the rails and backs are all one piece. So sad.

I know you guys don't like the Probe seats but these in grey/black looked real good.

I might just get my Capri seats redone and swap those, they look a little better than the Festy pair.

[bravekozak]

If you are very patient, you could cut off the Festiva mounting pads, drill out the rivets and re-rivet them onto your donor seat rails. I did that with my Tiburon seats and have not regretted the labor. I have a lot of extra 5/16" solid rivets if you need them. You must supply the rivet gun.

[Larry Hampton]

Bringing a thread back from the dead. Spent about 12 hours today on these seats again. Looked at swapping the stock rails, not gonna happen. Finally about 3 I decided to make a fixture using the stripped down Festy base. The fixture bolts together so it can be swapped side to side. Still working on the brackets that hold the sides together. The holes are a little larger, the idea being you bolt it to your factory seat and use a sharpie to circle your bolts so it goes back in the same spot using the factory hardware.

I leveled the stock base off its rails so my new seats will sit at the same angle.

[bravekozak]

Please post a picture of the underside of one of your seats so we can see what you did to conquer the height difference.
Here's mine.

Be sure to hover in my old posts to find any links, as they are not highlighted in blue since the software upgrade.

[Larry Hampton]

Your rails sorta look the same side to side and at the same elevation. Mine are different side to side. One is flat and the other side is rotated 90*, but not the same type of rail.

[bravekozak]

Take a look again. The brackets on the inside are rivetted directly to the level tracks. There is a half piece of cut rectangular thick wall steel tube acting as a spacer on the outside.
The front has and extra leg welded on sideways for offset and rise.

[Larry Hampton]

Here are my pics of the fixture. They are mounted to the stock driver's side base.

[Larry Hampton]

Here they are mounted to the other seats.









This one ^^^^ will have to come off, it's the front inner and it's not letting the seat go all the way forward. I'll go forward on the outside and add to the outside of the front bracket and box it to be more supportive. Before I cut it off, I'll go ahead and bolt it in the car with the seat bun in place and scoot it all the way back (where I normally ride with the factory seat) and see how it feels.

[bravekozak]

Have you sat on these seats in the car? They are a couple of inches too high. Your head will touch the ceiling.

I drilled the mounting pads off of some Festiva seats and rivetted them directly on the Tiburon seats. I did not do any welds to the Tiburon tracks. In my opinion the Tiburon seats are still about a half an inch too high, but I know I absolutely cannot make it any lower than the stock mounting pad. I still have a lot of Festiva seat pads left over + 5/16" rivets. Let me know.
The reason for using rivets instead of short bolts, is to guarantee no interference when sliding the seat back and forth. The solid rivets are clinched and will never come loose. You can only remove them by drilling, milling or shearing with an air chisel.

Here's my thread again.