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I'm new to the forum and a proud owner of a 93 7.3L IDI. I would like to do a bench to bucket seat conversion on my truck. I have picked up some seats at a local u-pull-it they came out of a 95 extended cab & my tuck is a 4 door. The rails do not bolt up which I didn't expect them to but does anyone have any insight as to which year model would be easier to install without a lot of drilling and fabrication. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Aj
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welcome to FTE.
there is no direct bolt in, because the bench seat only uses outboard bolt holes. to put bucket seats on your truck, you will have to drill the inboard bolt holes.

 

OK thanks just figured I would ask before I started drilling holes in the floor pannel. The seats i got will not fit onto the outboard bolt holes so I guess I'll have to drill all four. Thank you.

 

unbolt the outer track from the bench seat and bolt it to the outside of the bucket seat and it should then work.

 

I'm going to give that a shot. I was looking at a u-pull-it for some rails that might be easier to install and just swapping them out on the seat but I will defiantly give that a shot. Thanks!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

I justchanged mine to Bucket from a 92 and whreever you drill I would recommend re-enforcing with some kind of washer. I used 1/8"x2" flat ar cut in 2 inch pieces and drilledthm out to make washers. If you get in a wreck you don't want you seat tearing out of the floor.

 

You're gonna need more than a washer to brace this up. Ask me how I know. The bucket seat trucks have bracing underneath the floor that is spot welded in place. Also the outboard bolt holes, at least on my '91, were not the same, so I had to drill 4 holes per seat. The seat then proceeded to work it's way thru the floor so I had to add the bracing from a bucket seat truck.

 

It is kinda complicated but I will do my best to explain.

Only supercabs, Broncos and Lightnings had bucket seats.

You will need a seat pan from either a 40-20-40 seat that came from a reg cab or crew cab OR a seat pan from a lightning that had a 40-20-40 or buckets. Supercab and bronco is different , as you are finding out. You unbolt your supercab buckets from their brackets, then bolt the buckets to the seat pan. That will let you bolt it right into your truck

The seat pan is a bracket that the individual seats and console bolt to, then the seat pan bolts to the floor like a bench seat.

Doing it any other way is not going to be supported correctly

 

I know making very large washers has worked great for me. I am calling them washers but they are 2" square and 3/8" grade 8 bolts. The bracing from the factory is just a larger sheet metal bracket under the body of the vehicle.

 

I'd do what Diesel Brad suggests about adding the whole floor pan. You can't believe the force that the mount bolts will see if you ever hit anything while strapped in with the seat belts. There is a reason Ford does what they do, rather than drilling four holes and putting some fender washers in for re-enforcement, But - do what you want, it;s your truck (and your ****!)

 

If you are gonna go with washers, be sure to put them above and below the floor pan, not just below like I did at first. You will want really big washers.

 

Welcome to fte. When i mounted my buckets i used 1/4 plate and cut them 5"x5" and put them inside and out and it worked great

 

Amen to that. Slightly bigger than what I used but beats the hell out of cutting the floor pan out and welding in a new one.

 

you want this assembley to do it right.

 

I agree, it's complicated. For starters, I think part of the complication stems from various terms used to define the cabs. Is a Supercab the same as Extended Cab? I believe either one refers to the cab with two doors and relatively cramped rear seating that you have to climb past either of the front seats to get to, yes?

I'll assume yes, and continue...

Because of the above, these trucks are often found with bucket seats which slide forward when the back is tilted forward. As far as I can tell, the Bronco and Supercabs typically use the same bucket seats; it wouldn't surprise me to find that the floorpans are the same.

I have a bucket seats from a '93 Supercab in my '91 Standard cab. Only the outer-forward fastening location matched up so I had to drill 3 others. One of them hits an overlap seam, which is good from a strength perspective, but you need to be aware of that so you don't put a hole where you can't get a bolt through.

The challenge with this setup is that the seat sits a bit too high. I know I measured it before and documented it in here, but I want to say it's about 2" higher than the stock bench. I believe the floor pan on the Bronco/Supercab positions the seat lower (vs Standard cab), but I've not yet verified this.

I'm still searching for whether the best answer is in using a different seat or perhaps an earlier set of tracks which might position the seat lower.