Aftermarket/Alternative seats?

Geekdriver

Active Member
Dudes.

My drivers seat is beginning to show signs of 25 years of asses in the saddle.

Do y'all know of any decent replacement options? I was thinking that the leather stow and go seats out of a dodge caravan may fit well, but I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel if there are good solutions already known.

What say you all?
 
I have been wondering that myself! I was thinking of seats from a late 80s or early 90s light duty truck as they had seats that squatted lower. BUT, I would love to have arm rests and that makes it waaayyyy more complicated.
 
I rebuilt my driver's seat. It's not a hard project, especially if you can drive a sewing machine. You will need hog ring pliers and rings, a donor seat for foam (doesn't need to be Delica); and some 3M77 spray glue. The process goes like this:
1) disassemble the seat from the back and bottom rails
2) clip and remove all the hog rings from the underside and then from the topside
3) assess/repair the frame (probably a broken weld or two)
4) cut back the worn foam on the seat bun and reconstruct from your donor. An electric carving knife is the tool of choice.
5) repair the seat cover- here you will want matching fabric. I sacrificed one headrest for the material needed- slice it following the seams and then tear the two pieces off the foam; it's put together like a baseball. Unfortunately, I had to scab together two the two pieces to get a piece long enough- and the underside had aged differently.
6) reassemble with new wires (sturdy coat hanger works great) and hog rings
Also, use scrap material and spray glue to reinforce any thin areas on the underside before putting it back together.
Of course- take lots of photos and notes along the way- the install sequence is important to get the nice factory tucks in the seat since you will be hog-ringing the internal support wires to the frame
I can put together a more detailed post if it would help; I have more photos of the process.
Befores and afters:

IMG_5442.JPGIMG_5474.jpegIMG_5483.jpegIMG_6635.jpg
 
Anyone running aftermarket seats or had theirs rebuilt?
There are a couple of issue when fitting different seats:
-L300 seats are asymmetrical, the inside bolster is narrower than the outside bolster to shift the seating position inboard. Regular symmetrical seats will have you siting closer to the door, which makes the wonky steering wheel and pedal offset worse.
-L300 seat bases are very low, only 4" from seat fabric to floorpan with very compact runners. Most aftermarket seats are taller than this.

It's been done (Recaro fishnets look really good!) but the two people I know who've done it reverted to standard seats after a while.
 
That's what I figured... So do you guys just adjust to the asymmetric driving position, or do lots of yoga, or take the pain and just cry on the inside?
 
There are a couple of issue when fitting different seats:
-L300 seats are asymmetrical, the inside bolster is narrower than the outside bolster to shift the seating position inboard. Regular symmetrical seats will have you siting closer to the door, which makes the wonky steering wheel and pedal offset worse.
-L300 seat bases are very low, only 4" from seat fabric to floorpan with very compact runners. Most aftermarket seats are taller than this.

It's been done (Recaro fishnets look really good!) but the two people I know who've done it reverted to standard seats after a while.

I've been looking into this a bit further and found a (quite expensive...) seat with near exact dimensions to the stock seat, though the seatback is about 30cm taller.. The Bride Digo. Might be able to fab a seat rail, who knows?

My seats are shot and may be worth heading to a local upholster to see about a rebuild.
 
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