Pre-95 Seat swap...

[SanDiegoOverland]

Ok, so I'm looking to change out my current power seats. My rig is a 1992 4door, so I don't have the option of putting ZJ/WJ seats in.

What I do have, though, is a set of manual, cloth seats from a 1995 rig in good shape. What I want to do is adapt those bases to my floor pan.

What I've noticed is that these seats basically sit flat, but have a 90 downward angle built into the front mounting tabs where the front mounting bolts are located, seen here in this borrowed pic:

Would you say that it be acceptable to simply trim those front angles off, and take a bolt straight down, through the feet, using a washer to keepthe bolt straight, or possibly heating and flattening the tabs to be used as mounting points?

 

[SanDiegoOverland]

Oh, and I'd plan on upping the fastener size a bit, and going only with grade 8 "good stuff" for the floor pan mounts, just fyi.

Probably just get it in place, mark holes and then drill through the pan, using fender washers on the underside. Seems like it'd actually be quite a bit beefer than the stock setup once it was done.

 

[xcm]

are you trying to put later model xj seats (95?96+) into an early model floor pan xj?
ie, that pic is NOT your jeep, but the brackets you want to adapt?

 

[SanDiegoOverland]

Yes, correct, thanks for clarifying. I'm trying to install 1995+ seats in a pre-'95 rig with the early floorpan.

I'm wanting to install the 1995 XJ seats I have now, as well as set myself up to be able to swap to ZJ/WJ seats(which I understand will fit on 1995-up bases) in the future, if I can get my hands on some.

 

[xcm]

i adapted my seats instead.... i say renix, but thats incorrect, i mean 85ish to 94ish

late model xj/grand cherokee?? seats in a renix xj... aka modifing renix brackets to accept a late model seat...

 

[xcm]

did i mention these things are 100% Better than early model seats? i love em.

 

[SanDiegoOverland]

Nice, good to hear!

And thanks for the pics. I definitely see the wisdom in that approach as it leaves the stock bases and mounting points intact.

Did your method raise the seat height much at all, versus the height of the seats you took out?

 

[xcm]

Its hard to say. im 5'10", and dont have a headliner, everything was fine untill i installed a low hanging cage... But i need to drop them cause of the cage.. not because of the 3/8ths or so it probably raised me.


If you are particularly tall, you might be able to configure it to drop them a 1/4" to 3/8ths, by changing how it goes. Mine have the cross members that bolt to the sliders on top of the new seat peice... if you put it on the other side of the steel, inside the seat, you could gain that 1/4 to 3/8ths.


Your method might work.... but my fear is getting those tabs to bend flat... it seems like a bad idea to say YES, DO IT. because i know it will fatigue the metal.... how much is the question. I would side with caution, and say no! Better safe than sorry.

 

[xcm]

i made a pic: to illustrate drop...

 

[SanDiegoOverland]

I see, thanks for the illustration.