Help. I have a '74 Mav but the bucket seats are beyond repair. Here on the west coast of BC, mav's are impossible to find (they don't even have them in the wreckers anymore :-( ) I was thinking of a mustang (commonly available) seat, but am unsure as to fit. Will these fit? if so, what years? If not, what will? My mav: 74, 302ci buckets floor shift auto Craig:confused:
As long as you have and use your tracks off your old buckets, almost any Ford buck seat frame is the same dimentions. I like the Escort GT seats. Very comfortable. I have them in 2 of my Mavericks.
you can also make anything too. I would use steel. I put these 85 nisan maxima power seats inf for the time being.
I don't know about your 74 buckets, but my 72 Grabber buckets looked EXACTLY like 71-73 Mustang buckets. Dave
i used front buckets from a 97 grand am gt, i like the look of them they go well in my mav, i also got the rear seat, removed the covers and recoverd my original back seat i think it looks great.
JC13: How did you get your Maxima seats into the maverick? did you build new brakets, or did you cut the floor and flatten it out first? My 70 2dr came with bench seats. There are two large raised areas in my floor one on each side of the car, that the bench frame bolts onto. These bumps make it really frustrating to try to figure out how to mount the bucket seats I just picked up. Today I went to a salvage yard and got two fairly decent bucket seats ($50 total) from a ford tempo (blech!). Anyway the tempo seats have brackets that would easily go into my car if it had a flat floor. The only thing I would need to do would be to drill two new holes for each seat, (??and add a really large washer, to aviod stressing the sheet metal to much??). So now I am considering how to get them in. I could 1. Try to make the seats level with shims, angle iron, new brackets etc... 2. Cut the floor and weld a new flat panel in place. Then bolt the seats to that. 3. Bolt the original bench frame into the car, remove the rails and monts from the tempo seats, and mount the tempo seats on the frame with ??plywood?? or something. 4. Put the entire original bench seat back in, tape some foam to it to replace the rotten stuff that was there before, and live with lameness tille I get a rollcage, and some "cool racing seats". Later this summer I hope to install a role cage, and just mount some better seats on the role cage. But for now I really need something to sit on.
Well... I took the cover, and cushion off the old frame and also removed the springs. It looks like I could cut some of the frame to level it out, and then take it to "Bill's Welding" and have them add a couple support bars, and then mount the tempo seats without their rails, directly onto the old frame. I just hope the welding shop doesnt end up costing more than it's worth. On the other hand I need to get rid of that rust on the rear floor (where the backseat riders' feet rest), so maybe cutting and replacing the bumpy parts with a flat part would be better... except that my brake line and I think some other things are down there... Grrrrr.
Do not mount seats to your old seat frame. This is a matter of safety, and in an accident, the seats would brake off very easily. Mount them to the floor.
After a good nights sleep to clear my head, and a cup of coffee this morning, I realized that the "old seat frame" idea was too complicated, although I didn't even consider safety. So I made some measurements, and the tempo seat brackets can be adapted to fit the bastardly misshapen floor. I'm going to the welding shop now... hooray.
We used '89 mustang gt cloth seats. Bolted them directly to the floor using spacers where needed. they look great after dying the entire interior light grey, including the rear seat. Also, they are very, very comfortable. I remember once going to meet a girl at her house 110 miles away, and I remember getting there and not wanting to get out of the mav because the seats are so comfy .
Mmmm Mustang GT, Escort..... I wish I had thought to look for seats from a specific model of car... but I just sort of let the "junkyard overlord" lead me around the yard whilst pointing out various avalable seats and their prices. Well the welding shop told me it would take a couple days because they are the only place in town. I guess I'm going to have to learn to weld if I want to get something done in a hurry. Hopefully my neighbor and his handy mig welder can teach me. I searched around in the archived forums, for advice on bench to bucket conversions. A few people suggested washers for leveling the new brackets out, as well as modifing the new brakets.
try using blocks of aluminum. they are easily cut and sanded. use a grinder to shape them. drill holes for the seat frames. instead of ugly washers. mike
mfp mav: Thanks for the tip, is aluminium hard to get a hold of in blocks? ---- Well, I finally got my damn brackets back... 10 days later. They didn't do what I wanted either... they reduced the bracket's hieght, but forgot to move the front hole closer to the rear hole... so I had to do some drilling to get everything to line up. Lucky for me I have just enough room to make it work. I would have said something but I was afraid I'd have to wait for another "couple" days. The tempo seats are comfortable and seem to fit just fine, although they don't fold forward. I totally forgot that I might want people in the back oh well... I guess they can squeez. All I have left to do is add some washers (or aluminium is I can find some) to tilt the seat forward and level it out a bit.
orchard supply hardware has aluminum block pieces and strips. they have all kinds of metal. also there are places that you can buy metal. i live in southern california and we have a place called star metals. they have all metal. good luck! mike
seat safety I have to agree with Craig on the issue of safety - you really need to mount to the floor. However, I would also be careful about the floor rust you have started already. The floor is a key part of the frame that hold the Mavericks together. Drilling more holes in the floor for seats or major adjustments in seats, weight of seats, etc. can really throw off a Maverick.
