Pre '90 Seats in a Post '90 Festiva

[Prafeston]

I believe I have seen some talk about this on here and also Fred mentioned it on Facebook, but I've got a '92 and I'm wanting to put some '88 LX seats in it. I'm wondering what I'm gonna be dealing with as far as installing them? Sounds like maybe the inner most mounting spots don't line up because maybe the holes were changed due to the power seat belts? Has anyone on here done this swap? Do you have pics? I was hoping for a straight up swap cause I don't really have tools to be fabbing up mounts and stuff. What if I changed to the manual seat belts and connections? Would that make it be an easy install? Sorry, lots of questions and I don't even know how to go about searching to see if any of this has been discussed before.

[dakbss3s]

I tried doing a little search and I can't find anything. Try asking Neanderpaul. I'm pretty sure he would know.

[Prafeston]

Justin...who I may be buying the seats from had this to say:

"The easiest way to resolve that is taking your inner rear brackets (1 on both sides) & welding them onto the 88-89 seats. They would drop right into place where your existing bolts line up. One bracket mounts towards the back while the other mounts to the side."

"I had them in my red festiva & it was a 91. The problem is you'll need to remove your seatbelt recievers & middle plastic that houses the emergency brake or get middle console & Seatbelt receivers from a manual seat belt car."

[dakbss3s]

Sounds like you'll be changing more than just your seats! Good luck though and let me know how it works. I'll be putting '88 seats in my '90 eventually. So any tips you come up with for making it easier will be much appreciated

[Prafeston]

I'll try to do pics and stuff when the time comes.

[bobbyspider]

justin is rite. the inner rear tab will need to be cut off and moved and rewelded. if i remember correctly the seats your installing that particular tab faces out toward your ashtray and needs to be cut and rewelded to face back toward the rear of your car. its been awhile since i did it but i think thats rite. word of caution/wisdom DONT USE A SAWZALL TO CUT THE TAB!! it will cause so much vibration that it can break the plastic in the sliding tracks (ask me how i know) use a cutting wheel to avoid making the same mistake i did. i think thats rite ..... just dont use a sawzall :nightmare:

[Prafeston]

That's for the tips! Do you have any pics of your setup now? Or could you take any?

I think the plastic in my sliding tracks are broken on my drivers seat now. It's so wobbly! Can't wait to have some nice non-ripped secured seats!

[Festevil3]

I have done this swap multiple times and i have never had to cut anything, I will grab some pics tonight if I can.

[TominMO]

It is much easier to just swap the early seat cushion onto the later seat frame; you just have to remove ten hog rings (pliers), and reinstall the cushion with zip ties. Then unbolt the early seatback and install it onto the later seat bottom's frame. Whole job start to finish is about 1/2 hour per seat, at most.

[Prafeston]

My frames...at least on the drivers side are shot. One of the reasons I've been looking for new seats.

[bravekozak]

I believe the 93 had the steel floor brackets for the front seats. They changed from the crooked foot to the straight one. I don't think you will have any problems with an 88 to 92. I am betting it will bolt straight in. At least you won't have to bother with drilling out rivets and re-riveting, like I did with my seat swap. These RX-8 seats look very nice. If you had some nice heavy black thread and a needle.

[sc72]

Prafeston, while your working on changing your seats, wash your seat covers they will look new.

[Prafeston]

Eventually I will wash them...the good news about the pre-90 seats is they do bolt right in. I just installed the passenger seat yesterday at Justin's house. Unfortunately I did have to remove the lap belt connector and the crooked bracket on the seat bolts right up to where the lap belt connector was...the connector wouldn't reinstall. Justin did give me the manual seat belt connectors and I'm hoping they will bolt right in. Will get some pics later tonight or this weekend sometime.

[Prafeston]

Shot a video of how things are mounted up now. Hopefully have that up tomorrow. The pre-90 manual belts did bolt right up. Unfortunately the set Justin gave me was missing one of the spacers and the drivers side connector worked once, but I haven't gotten it to work since...and I can see it's broken on the red part you push in to undo the belt.

[Prafeston]

Manual Belt Connectors installed


The old connectors had to be removed to allow the new seats to mount to the bolt the connectors mounted to. Here is the Drivers side old and new mounting location.


And here is the passenger side new and old locations.


And here I'm just showing how I had to cut back the carpet to find the mounting holes for the manual connectors.