Older style seat pictures.

[91_festy_Gl]

Right now on my 89 im having a seat problem. Its not a big issue but here is what is going on. My 89 came with manual seat belts in which the seat mounting is designed diffrent. I have a set of sport seats that are grey with black checkered squares that I will be using in my 89. The seats came out of a 93 which someone modded in order to get them to fit. Im going to be using these seats in my 89 but the only way to do so is take the bracket from the 93 car and drill a hole in my floor board and bolt in the bracket to get the seats to mount right. I really dont want to do this because of safety purposes but I was wondering if someone can get me some pictures of how the older style seats are mounted on the corner nearest to the tunnel. Any help would be appreciated.

[skimsucka]

you can undo and remove the covers from each seat by removing the snap rings or hog clips whatever there called and then put them on the 89 seats after you remove the original ones and you re-secure with zip ties

[91_festy_Gl]

Thanks for the input but these are the only seats I have and I need to use them. My only dilema is mounting the seats properly. I removed the seat belt roll up bracket from the 93 car and was planning on drilling a hole through the floor and bolting it in that way I dont have to modify the seat rails but im uncertain on how safe that would be. I dont want to get into a head on crash and the seat come flying out the windshield lol.

[91_festy_Gl]

Guess ill just have to figure this one out on my own.

[Damkid]

What about un-bolting the seat rails from the seat itself and transfering them to the seats you wanna use?

[bravekozak]

The 89 seats mounted with a side pad on the stud on the tunnel.
The 93 had a longer pad that pointed straight back and mounted on a large steel plate which also mounted on that same stud.

The 93 seat mounts are on the left hand side of this picture.

[91_festy_Gl]

I have 3 sets of seats. 2 of the sets are 90+ which would require me to adapt the seat belt roll up brackets to the 89 chassis in order to mount the 90+ seats on the rear corner closest to the tunnel on both seats. The set of 88 seats that I am going to use came from my 93 parts car but were modded in order to be used in 90+ cars. So basically I have no seats that I can swap rails from in order to bolt in my 89 which has manual seat belts.

Its either I buy early style seat rails or adapt my modded seat rails to work with the seatbelt roll up bracket that came on the later model cars.

I can end all this head ache by finding someone that has 88 model seat rails. if not I have to make 90+ seats work since someone F'ed up my 88 seats.

[25Horseplay]

If you wanted you could take both sets of seats apart and switch the lower cushions on the mounting bases. the upper part of the seat will interchange completely without removing the padding. All you need to do is use some cable ties to attach the 90 and up padding to the 88-89 brackets. Do this and the seats will bolt right in

[91_festy_Gl]

Lol thats the problem. I have no 88-89 brackets just the 90+ brackets. All 3 sets of seats I have are for 90+ model festivas. The 3rd set of seats which are 88 sport seats have been modified for 90+ festivas. So its either I find someone that has 88 seat rails or I adapt the 90+ seatbelt roll up brackets since the 90+ seats use this to mount on the rear inside corner. All I have to do there is drill a hole in the floor for the bracket since 88's didnt have this and bolt it in. Im worried about safety issues thats why I havent done that. Id much prefer to have my seats bolt in properly like they were designed to from the factory.

Im sure since all the canadian model festivas came only with manual seat belts, finding some seat rails shouldnt be to hard.

[25Horseplay]

So as of right now your 89 has no seats? I might have a set of 89 seat brackets.

[shadetree]

I have a set of 88 seats with really bad cushions but the rails are in good shape . Actually there in my parts car under a lot of spare parts . But again its a long drive . Be sure and make a list of what all you need and bring some stuff to trade Lmao

[91_festy_Gl]

So as of right now your 89 has no seats? I might have a set of 89 seat brackets.

Exactly. I pulled this festiva out of a junk yard and I am doing a full restore job. I have pics in my build thread in my sig. The car was stripped for many years.

[91_festy_Gl]

I have a set of 88 seats with really bad cushions but the rails are in good shape . Actually there in my parts car under a lot of spare parts . But again its a long drive . Be sure and make a list of what all you need and bring some stuff to trade Lmao

LMAO im pretty dry on stuff to trade. Enemy got my set of side skirts. other then that I have nothing.

[Safety Guy]

I'm not sure how much these will help, but they're pictures. From my build thread, showing pictures of my '89L and Aqua, the '91L I was rebuilding (using a lot of the '89 parts):

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31934&page=3

Go to post #28 for some pictures. The white floor is the '89 and the aqua is my '91. You can see the hole and stud setup with the carpet removed. Note that your older car will not have the lower floor holes for the auto seatbelt brackets. If you mod those brackets for the newer style seats, you'll have to drill the floor holes.

Now for some more recent pics showing both an older model and newer model seat currently in Aqua (tan seat is older style; grey is newer):



My most recent idea to fit in the newer seat was to make a flat plate bracket, roughly "L" shaped, which would attach underneath one of the seatbelt latch bolts (I think there is a thick spacer there, so this thick bracket would take its place) and then run under the "floating" seat "foot" where I would drill for it and then bolt it together. On the other hand, this would use the one floor bolt for both seatbelt and seat, which may not be a good idea.

Then there are those holes under the carpet, which I have and you don't. I could run a "tall" bracket from the floor to the floating "foot." A little more work but it would be dedicated to the seat.

Then I went looking for my old auto belt floor to seat brackets. Couldn't find them. Unfortunately, I may have scrapped them. Here's another view of that area:



One more pic showing closeup of the lower floor hole (the buckle is there to show I used that bolt to fill the hole and keep water out):



One more idea would be to use thick steel strapping and craft a simple bracket connecting the front studs (where the old seats would usually bolt to) to the "floating feet" of the newer seats. That might work, but it might also not be stiff enough (though better than nothing).

If I were you I'd also be reluctant to drill holes in the floor. As for me I shall continue to try to figure out a simpler "bracket" solution utilizing current holes and studs. But if I have to I'll use that hole in the floor (which I have and you don't).

Let me know if you want more pics, or if I can help in any other way (if I can).

Karl

[Safety Guy]

I just went out and looked at my '93GL and the auto brackets that are still in it. You could cut off the seatbelt part and when you bolt it in you'd have an instant template to drill your floor hole. Then add a bolt and nut/washer through the floor with plenty of silicone for water proofing. Yes, it'd be a PITA to do that, but it should work well enough. Probably easier than making your own bracket. The auto belt bracket just needs all the non-seat-bearing stuff unbolted, or cut or ground off. (I wish I could find mine!)

I went out to take a picture of my '93 but after one shot my camera went dead. Two batteries to charge! I'll get that one and maybe another pic on later today.

I also just went back to read your first post here:

"Im going to be using these seats in my 89 but the only way to do so is take the bracket from the 93 car and drill a hole in my floor board and bolt in the bracket to get the seats to mount right. I really dont want to do this because of safety purposes..."

You just described what I just told you, so you were ahead of me. However, I don't see any "safety" problems as long as you use proper graded nuts and bolts for your drilled hole to attach the bracket. (I'd also use a fair sized washer under the car to keep the bolt from pulling through in a crash.) That's how it was designed to work, and it is simply holding up one quarter of the seat, and not sharing that load with the auto shoulder belt as in its original application. So I think it would be plenty strong to hold the seat corner up.

One more issue is the original strength of our seats. Willie was rear ended in a crash and I believe his seat broke off most of the mounts. I recall reading reports of Festiva seats coming loose in crashes, too. So any kind of a seat attachment upgrade may be worthwhile. Not to be overly rigid, mind you. We DO want our seats to DISTORT a bit under sudden loads as it helps absorb some of the crash energy. However, we don't want them to break completely loose. (At least no more than one corner.) Bend, but not break off. Now consider that some of the seat brackets may be corroded with rust and weaker than when they were new. Hmmm...

Sounds like a subject for another thread.

Karl