I have a 78 f-100. I would like to replace the seat with a newer one, I have read on here I can replace it with one up to a 96. The only one I can find around here that is half way decent is from a 95 and they want $275 for it, its ok but not great. That seems a little high to me. Can later models be made to fit without to much trouble. Tell me about your experiences with this.


Thanks,
Jeff

 

Just transfer the newer seat to the old truck seat tracks.

That's what I call an "on the wire" autowrecker price..where auto wreckers supply each other with expensive parts..... on the wire .

 

Million,

After looking at my post I realized I didn't make it very clear. What I ment to ask was, Will seats that are newer than 96 fit my truck? If so how new can I go?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

with as many trucks and variables as there are out there I think the best way to do it is to take some "rough in" measurements and just check for yourself in person.

Nick

 

I have an upholstery guy here locally that does an excellent reupholstery job on the original seat, complet with some of the new style padding.... Not sure what else he does to them, but he really makes them a nice, comfortable seat. Last one he did for me was for a '76, cost me about $175.00 to get it done. Just an option to getting a different one.... BTW, price around here is the same on takeout seats at the salvage yard, you don't suppose these yards talk to each other at all, do you???????

 

or you can do like I did.I put an old pair of late 60's early 70's lincoln split bench seats.I used the oem tracks from these seats,measured where the mounting holes need to be,drill and bolt in place.You should be able to make just about any seat work.The only problem you might encouter is adjusting the seats.I'm tall so mine are set back and no adjustment.It is trial and error.Good luck.

 

My front buckets are from a mid 80s Bronco, rear is a front 80/20 from a 99 F150. I had to custom make the mounts for the rear seat. The rear seats fit a tad too tight for my preference, but don't look too bad. Pics in my gallery

 

Mine is the original bench seat from factory. Hardly any wear! I don't understand why people swap in newer ones over reupholstering it. The thick foam is so comfortable.

 

I used to live near the best junkyard ever, Gary's U Pull it in Binghamton, NY. They even have a website with pricelist at www.garysupullit.com Bench seats - $16.00 Engines - $75.00 They have something like 1500 cars and trucks, constantly replacing the stripped ones. Now I live in Northeast Tennessee and the local junkyards SUCK. They're small with old picked over vehicles and ridiculous prices. I took Garys for granted, thinking all junkyards were that good. If anyone knows of any good junkyards in NE TN, please let me know. I guess I should have started a new post on junkyards rather than seats, but that crappy seat price made me think of all this.

 

$275 for a used seat is high... I would pay that if the seat looked new, but not for one that you would have to put a cover on or something like that. I pulled a plain bench seat out of an 86 Ford, nothing special and only had two small holes about the size of a pencil eraser, but it looked like no one had ever sat on it. Not worn down at all. I got it for $25. I may or may not use it, because Ideally I would like a 92-96, but It's better in my parts supply than in a truck that will be infested full of mice soon.

As far as newer than 96, I have read a couple of threads with people installing 2000 or newer seats. Requries some bracket fabrication. Also, if you would want to spend the $$$ there are placed online that have new upgrade seats with 73-79 bracket kits. I have seen anywhere from $595-$1500 for those new seats depending if you want leather and all that jazz. That's alot, but they look like nice seats.

 

I have got buckets from a late 80s or early 90s gm pickup in mine, just built the brackets to fit the existing bolt holes, kind of a pain but they turned out very nice and quite comfortable also, so I guess you can use about any seat you want as long as it actually fits in the cab...

 

Like Dave said, get your old one recovered. Even a hardly-used original seat, if you could find one, is still going to be 30 year old vinyl and foam. Our car uphostery shop did mine for $150, and it looks and feels great. Wish the rest of the truck looked that good! Maybe someday........

 

It sounds like you are wanting to put a newer style seat in your truck. I have a 78 crew cab with a 97 Ford F250 seat up front and a 97 F350 rear crewcab seat in the rear. The rear seat was just easy as described above. I just unbolted the tracks and bolted my 78 tracks on it. The front seat was a 40/20/40 and was out of an extra cab so the passenger side folded forward. the seat was in three seperat peices. What i did was unbolt all of the seats from there hardware and then made a frame out of 1 inch or 3/4 inch square tubing. I bolted the seats to this frame and welded tabs on the frame to bolt the stock tracks to. The old hardware was thrown out. By doing this the three seat move together which some people might not like but it works for me. The 40/20/40 are hard to find becasue a lot of people want them. I had to pay $600 for both. Hope this helps if you need photos send me a pm and I'll try to post them on my user gallery

 

If you take a look in my gallery, I have a 2003 F150 Lariat 60/40 split bench seat (full power/leather) in my 74 hi-boy. It took a little trimming of the 2003 seat brackets, welded 6 new mounting tabs, and 6 new holes drilled in the floor, but was worth the effort. They can be a little pricey ($500 or more for leather) but you can find cloth seats cheaper. As far as the width, they are perfect, plus they have the fold down arm rest with a storage compartment and cup holders. They also have the integrated shoulder harness seat belts so you can toss the old lap belts.

 

I'm using a cloth bench from a 89 F150 lariat in my 76 F150, The cloth seat color matched my 76 color and has a center fold down arm rest / cup holder. Easy swap, Just bolted the 76 track to the 89 seat and all done. No drilling. The more holes you drill into the floor the more chances for the floor to rust/rot. The new seat is also a high back with built in head rest.