Captain's chair swap?

[Mark Wenner]

I'm thinking about buying a van and was wondering if the factory second row captain's chairs can be swapped in for the front pair. I'm talking specifically about a '95 E150 Chateau - thanks.

[shorebird]

Alot of the time you can make the swap. The one thing that usualy won't allow it is if the seat arms get in the way.

[Gene W]

Hi Mark,

I have a '94 Chateau so it should be the same as yours.

Your front seats are on electrically adjusted bases and the rear seats are on the quick release manual bases for easy removal, so they wouldn't be a direct swap.

If your goal is to even out the wear on the cushions and upholstery, you could swap just those parts of the front seats with the parts from the middle seats.

The upper upholstery has a long plastic clip on the underside where it meets the seat bottom, so after removing the armrest (held on by one bolt each) you should be able to tilt the seat forward, unhook the clip, and pull the upper seat cover off.

The bottom cover is held on with similar clips under the bottom. Be careful not to disturb or damage the rubber air tubing that supplies the lumbar support in the front seats.

If you need professional help with the swap, a local upholstery shop should be able to do the job in an hour or two.

For what it?s worth, I haven?t done this but I have considered the swap on my van. If someone else has actually done it, I would like to hear their comments as well.

Gene