Here are the picture of the installed seats:
I pulled my "new"
seats out of a Honda CRX. I removed the sliders for
the CRX seats and began
measuring and doing a few mock ups on the old
pinz seat frames.
I
finally decided to dive into it and got out the grinder :-) First
to come
off was the passenger seat. I figured if I screwed it up real
bad, at least
I'd still be able to drive it to get my foul up
repaired.
for the
passenger side, I ground off the angled bracket that holds
the back of the
seat in place. There were about 3 welds per bracket
that finally came off
nicely with a BFH and some grinding. I then
went to True Value and bought
some of their flat weldable steel. I
bought the steel that was about 4' long
x 1.5 to 2 inches wide and
about as thick as 14pt. (arial font)
type IIII like this type
IIIII.....as you can tell I don't
have a ruler on me. I
then cut the steel in 2 sections to fit over
the tubular framing of the
original seat. I then mounted the seat
frame back in the truck, laid the
steel the appropriate width over
the frame, and positioned the seat in as
close of an original
position as possible. I then marked on the frame where
the welds were
going to need to be with some soap-stone. then sanded around
where
the welds would be to save $$ on the weld job
-took it to the
corner garage for it to be welded.....$15.
turned the seat upside down, got
the frame in position, and drilled
holes for the bolts....took some time to
get them all lined up
perfectly, but it was worth it.
Not the prettiest,
but it works.
The drivers side was basically the same, except that I junked the
tubular
part of the frame, and welded the steel to the sliders;
paying careful
attention to make sure they were parallel in all
directions.....again,
ground them clean and took them to get
welded.....vice grips and duct tape
helped keep everything in the
same plane for the trip to the garage nearby.
I love the way my back feels now!!! They held up to some serious
bouncing
around last weekend!! The CRX seats are a little on the
stiff side of the
spectrum, but I prefer them that way, when I have
to bounce around in them
for 6+ hours of wheeling. The seats are
about the same height and a tiny bit
wider, but I'll bet if I had
new cushions on the old ones it would be about
the same. If I could
change one thing about them it would be to have
adjustable lumbar
support, but it's quite good as it is right now. Also I
would like to
have installed the '98 SAAB power/heated seats I could have
gotten
for $75 each, but that would have mean more wiring......which I
HATE!! It would also have been too fancy for a truck that only goes
wheeling and camping.