Front seat cover & cushion swap

After an unsuccessful trip to the junkyard last week(search for new seats), I've decided to try to swap the passenger & driver side seat top covers & cushions. The vinyl on the sides is all tore up & the passenger cushion is firmer than the driver's side.

It's a 99, no head rests, just the standard vinyl & cloth seats. I took off the side trim, but it looked like you might have to remove the seat back to actually free up the seat cover & cushion. Can anyone give me a hand here?

Yup, seat back and seat cushion must be separated in order to properly install the covering.

Have to checked to see if any hog rings are used to attach the cover in any way, or is it all plastic clip strips?

Thanks for the reply! From what I saw, it looked like plastic strips on side & front... I'm assuming rings somewhere in the back.

My plan with the covers is to switch passenger & driver so that the carpeted side faces out (the door), & that will take care of the ripped vinyl. Only thing is, the left & right side of the cushion are not symetrical. I'm not sure if it will even work, but I'm hoping. Anyone out there know for sure?

Why where are you located I have a set of seats in a 86 xj that are in good condition that I want to get rid of(Tan). I live it Vancouver WA. I'm leaving tomorrow for a week of camping but will be back on the 7th.
Dillon

Thanks for the offer, but I'm on the other side of the country... I'm in PA

gba88 said:

Thanks for the offer, but I'm on the other side of the country... I'm in PA

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How close to allentown and eastern pa ? There are a bunch of bonyards here with alot of XJ's and some have pretty good interiors so an upgrade is also an option and that include a set of ZJ seats too.
I had my 98's front driver seat fixed a about 3 years ago by a tiny shop in allentown, he pulled the seat, stripped the cover off, removed the padding, welded the broken parts and put extra gussets in to make it stronger then put in new and better padding, reassembled. Total cost was $50 cash. As for me, I was drooling over the two show quality hod rods they were doing the interiors on. All in all the seat repair was the best $50 I have ever spent on it, it was actually giving me back problems and it took my son sitting in the back to see the angle of the drivers seat.
Another option and a good one is a set of Wet Okole seat covers, we have them in one of the TJ's both front and back, ocean camo, they are nice even in the sun on a hot day and those things fit TIGHT on the seats so there is no bunching up like those cheap seat covers most stores sell.

RichP: I'm in central western PA, about 1.5 hours from pittsburgh. My brother actually lives out near reading though

I've heard before that there are some great junkyards out there! Unfortunately for me, the only 2 I know of around here are pretty useless for interior stuff. I checked ZJs while I was there too, but I thought I read that ZJ seats couldn't bolt right in?

Yeah, pretty much all the seats in the ones I looked at were waterlogged, deformed by exhaust pipes & various other junk laying on them, or just plain trashed. I've been thinking of looking into some yards that may be up to an hour out of my way, but it's tough to justify if I know I'll drive that distance just to run into the crap that I find 20 minutes away. Thanks for the reply btw

Theres one here near cabellas that has like 80XJ's in there, quite a few newer ones too, there is also firstclass4x4 that specializes in jeeps and he's got a fairly large outbuilding with TJ, XJ and ZJ seats inside. They had stuff we needed for the TJ to rebuild it after it rolled. Check out www.bmja.org, I've seen seats in there and someone on here just did ZJ seats in his XJ with a complete write up, about a month ago or so. They look nice and are much more comfy...

Just replying to my own thread in case anyone needs future reference info... the cover swap(passenger to driver) won't work with the seat covers without modification.

I pulled the passenger seat out today and removed the back...it turns out that the covers are held on by a couple plastic strips. The thing is, both sides of each cover are attached with a different type of plastic strip. The inside of the cover connects with a strip over a bar (underneath the seat), and the outside is connected by a plastic piece that snaps into the frame of the seat.

So you can't just swap the covers since they're not symmetrical (I knew they had a curve on the outsides physically, but I figured they'd at least connect the same underneath, but they didn't). I'll probably look for seat covers now I guess since the local junkyards are crap.

Just did a base cushion swap on a 90 XJ Ltd - they swapped fine, it's even the same part number stamped on the base. Only issues were that there a small elastic loop which the seat belt buckle is supposed to thread through, but it's now on the outside of the seat rather than the inside - big deal! and I had to screw the electric controls onto the other side of the seat base.

grahamtwatson said:

Just did a base cushion swap on a 90 XJ Ltd - they swapped fine, it's even the same part number stamped on the base. Only issues were that there a small elastic loop which the seat belt buckle is supposed to thread through, but it's now on the outside of the seat rather than the inside - big deal! and I had to screw the electric controls onto the other side of the seat base.

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I'm guessing the 90 must be a little different than my 99 I ended up just getting a set of "el cheapo" covers for $20.