Seat Options...

One of the biggest things that concern me on our build is the seats and seat belts. Not real keen on trying to mount a shoulder harness on the wall or on a rib so have been looking at this.




The seat belts are built into the seat itself, I think this would be a huge upgrade and improvement. Anyone tried anything like this?

Seats

Not sure why it wont let me post a link correctly. I have copied and pasted that link 6 times and still doesnt do it right. Too long perhaps? Well it did it here but I couldnt change the words that will be the link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cadillac-CTS-BUCKET-SEATS-seat-leather-trim-power-/350511899294?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3ACTS|Make%3ACadillac&vxp=mtr&hash=item519c23229e

I think that these seats would fit good & have a vintage look....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beautiful-70-78-Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z-Show-Ready-Black-Seats-/180798475977?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item2a186dcec9#ht_500wt_922

I agree, but no built in shoulder belt.

Hopefully the seller will get back to me with dimensions so I can get a better idea if they will work. I dont want to spend $500 on seats that are not going to work.

Those would be awesome in my Fiat though.

I think that the cadillac seats would be to wide for the space that is available in our vans for seats & not have problems with the dog house & possibly the doors... The sides where the seat belts are at might be a problem to... They are straight & the side wall of our vans has a curve in them... If you did get them in there there would without a doubt be problems with getting the dog house open & shut unless you made mounts to either flip the seats up or take them out with quick realease's.... With nice seats I think that a quick release system would be cool to be able to pop them out when we had to open the doghouse & work on the engine...

The main issue (apart from the width of the seats) that you will have, will be making the seat supports strong enough to take an impact. The seat supports will have to be VERY strong to be able to cope with all the forces involved in a crash.

no way they will fit. evan if the bottom fits (it wont) the part with shoulder harness will hit the sides of van. when i got my van, it had seatbelts bolted to floor. whenever someone would get out, it would fall and line up perfectly with bottom edge of door causing damage when it was slammed shut. i removed with plans to reverse them someday. whatever route you go, check for this potential problem.

Most of the early van owners use the Fiero, Toyota mr2 & other small compact car seats because of the small amount of space that we have available for seats.... I bought a set of bucket seats out of a PT cruiser a while back to try to mount in my 69 GMC van but have never got the time to try them out.... They have armrests on them so I know there will be a problem right out of the gate without making a quick release system to pop them out in order to open the dog house.... It has a set of bucket seats out of a Isuzu in it right now & the factory armrests on the doors hit the side of the seat when you shut the door & I have a time getting my dog house open... I think that with Matt being a fabricator & welder that he wouldn't have any problems with making mounts for any seat that he put in his van but the big problem is going to be the width of the seats & tracks.... I am not going to say that the caddy seats won't fit because if you are fabricating a custom dog house they probaly will.... But if you are using the existing factory dog house I don't think that they will work because of the width of the back of them.... My 1969 Chevy 90 van has a set of 3rd gen Chevy van or early model 69 - 79 Chevy car bucket seats & they look & fit like they came from the factory in it....

Bills66 has a nice design for shoulder belt set ups that takes the mount away from the rib itself. I have the iron buried in my interior waiting for the chance to get to a JY and salvaging some nice ones. To me it looks like the 2nd gens might have an advantage in the seat mounting,, the 1st gens are dismal, especially on the passenger side. On the caddy seats the controls will be an issue on a stock layout. It doesnt matter what seat you use on the Pass. side it hits hard on the door. The extra thickness of the brackets and the seat cushions will also give that garden tractor feel to driving the van. It can be overcome but it'll take some surgery to pull it off.

Will front seats from a '90s Ford Escort fit my '65 G-10?

I might be junking my Moms (she's in hospice) '94 Ford Escort wagon. It's a shame as it has <65K miles, however, it needs a lot of work on all the stuff that craps out on 18 yr. old Fords/Mazdas.

The seats measure out pretty close to the footprint of the vans and I'd really like to avoid some whiplash in a crash if I could. So, if anybody has tried I'd like to know how it worked.

Thanks much, Mark

if it has the fold up 3rd seat, keep that too.

I didn't know they had fold up 3rd seats. Thanks!

fwiw, those 280z (260z/240z) seats above should fit. I picked up a pair yesterday, but not of the van. the rails on the bottom are around 13 inches apart…

I don’t have a chevy van, but I will probably experiment to see if they will fit in my dodge (should be about the same size)

I also have a pair of these that I may install in the dodge

http://www.corbeau.com/products/fixed_back_seats/classic_ii/

I did a quick fit of my Fiat Spider seats in the 64 and they will fit nicely. Seat from a Honda Del Sol are the same width cushion with slightly wider track than my Fiat seats.

ChevyVanMan1 wrote:I didn't know they had fold up 3rd seats. Thanks!

'IF' was the magic word in my post. i dont have an escort, but know some wagons have a third seat in the back. a friend sold a small ford wagon last week.his father in law owned since new and neither one knew the rear floor opened to a thin rear facing seat! they both thought it housed the spare and never looked. my neice bought it and showed it to all of us. when i saw it, i thought a couple of them would be good in the back of a van, they fold up about 4" thick top and bottom combined. could fold against wall without taking much floor space.