Captains chairs out, split bench seat in????
#17
04-11-2012, 10:27 PM
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#18
07-23-2013, 10:55 AM
Captains chairs converted to bench!!
Pleased to report adding the center portion of the center seat is rather easy and doable! 
I did lots of research before biting the bullet and trying and am SO happy with the results. Here's the long story:
We too have 5 kids and wanted to add another seat to our Expy. We have an '09 Limited EL that came with captains chairs. It was find for a while but with an upcoming cross-country road trip, we had several reasons for wanting another seat...
We found the 20% center portion in the correct color from B&R Auto Wrecking in Seattle for $93 including bolts- I opted to have my brother pick it up because shipping would have been upwards of $100- it's a heavy little seat!
Initially we had hoped that we would be able to take the seat in and out as we could in our old Honda Odyssey, but no dice, that seat is in to stay :-) not worth the effort it would take to remove it.
First we had to remove the arm rests on the capatins chairs. There's a great little how to here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10577105
and here (though not on an expy, there are pics!)
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ns-chairs.html
The ***** that stick out from where the arm rests were do present a little catch when folding the seats up and down if you don't remove the ones with the star shaped wrench... once that one is removed and you're left with only the ones that are welded in place, the seats will fold just fine, however, my husband did cut them down as much as possible with a dremel disc and hack saw and then covered what was left with a black plastic cap that hammers on... they were for attaching training wheels to a bike but served a new purpose here!
We did not have to remove the captain's chairs thankfully, but it probably would have been easier if they weren't there... but not worth the effort to remove and then reinstall them for sure!
We placed the center seat approximately where we thought it would go, then I felt around under the carpet (via the holes where captain's chairs anchor in) and removed the peach colored rubber stoppers that were in the floor under the carpet... we then replaced the seat to where we thought it would go, traced the "footing" of it *crossed our fingers* and cut through the carpet with a razor blade knife and cutco scissors... as we went along, we had to cut more here and there to get the seat to sit flush on the floor.
The bolts that came with the seat out of the junked expy were not long enough! I don't know how they do it in the factory, but it wasn't gonna work for us.... my hubby brought the bolts we had into the hardware store and bought longer ones in the same size... and some washers and nuts too. Fyi, the black bolts apparently are stronger in an impact and won't break as easily, a few extra bucks altogether, but worth it!
Also, initially the seat track holes didn't seem to be lining up on both sides with the holes in the floor.... after some frustration, we discovered that the track that slides the seat forward and back was in different positions on each side :-) once we put them both forward all the way it all lined up really close to perfectly... we did have to apply some pressure to get one of the bolts in as it was a little off centered.
Still have to do something about the upholstery where the arm rests were removed, but for now its really not noticeable since I have a carseat in the middle seat. Was trying to find some tan duct tape (because they come in every color and pattern under the sun now!) but so far have not found any...
So I have to have the carseat in the center position shifted slightly to the left to allow the seat passenger side seat to completely fold forward add it was intended... if my carseat was more narrow (or if there was no carseat there at all) both seats would fold down and flip forward no problem. The center seat does slide forward on tracks and folds down flat too.
Hope this helps someone out there with the same questions I had!!
I did lots of research before biting the bullet and trying and am SO happy with the results. Here's the long story:We too have 5 kids and wanted to add another seat to our Expy. We have an '09 Limited EL that came with captains chairs. It was find for a while but with an upcoming cross-country road trip, we had several reasons for wanting another seat...
We found the 20% center portion in the correct color from B&R Auto Wrecking in Seattle for $93 including bolts- I opted to have my brother pick it up because shipping would have been upwards of $100- it's a heavy little seat!
Initially we had hoped that we would be able to take the seat in and out as we could in our old Honda Odyssey, but no dice, that seat is in to stay :-) not worth the effort it would take to remove it.
First we had to remove the arm rests on the capatins chairs. There's a great little how to here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10577105
and here (though not on an expy, there are pics!)
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ns-chairs.html
The ***** that stick out from where the arm rests were do present a little catch when folding the seats up and down if you don't remove the ones with the star shaped wrench... once that one is removed and you're left with only the ones that are welded in place, the seats will fold just fine, however, my husband did cut them down as much as possible with a dremel disc and hack saw and then covered what was left with a black plastic cap that hammers on... they were for attaching training wheels to a bike but served a new purpose here!
We did not have to remove the captain's chairs thankfully, but it probably would have been easier if they weren't there... but not worth the effort to remove and then reinstall them for sure!
We placed the center seat approximately where we thought it would go, then I felt around under the carpet (via the holes where captain's chairs anchor in) and removed the peach colored rubber stoppers that were in the floor under the carpet... we then replaced the seat to where we thought it would go, traced the "footing" of it *crossed our fingers* and cut through the carpet with a razor blade knife and cutco scissors... as we went along, we had to cut more here and there to get the seat to sit flush on the floor.
The bolts that came with the seat out of the junked expy were not long enough! I don't know how they do it in the factory, but it wasn't gonna work for us.... my hubby brought the bolts we had into the hardware store and bought longer ones in the same size... and some washers and nuts too. Fyi, the black bolts apparently are stronger in an impact and won't break as easily, a few extra bucks altogether, but worth it!
Also, initially the seat track holes didn't seem to be lining up on both sides with the holes in the floor.... after some frustration, we discovered that the track that slides the seat forward and back was in different positions on each side :-) once we put them both forward all the way it all lined up really close to perfectly... we did have to apply some pressure to get one of the bolts in as it was a little off centered.
Still have to do something about the upholstery where the arm rests were removed, but for now its really not noticeable since I have a carseat in the middle seat. Was trying to find some tan duct tape (because they come in every color and pattern under the sun now!) but so far have not found any...
So I have to have the carseat in the center position shifted slightly to the left to allow the seat passenger side seat to completely fold forward add it was intended... if my carseat was more narrow (or if there was no carseat there at all) both seats would fold down and flip forward no problem. The center seat does slide forward on tracks and folds down flat too.
Hope this helps someone out there with the same questions I had!!
#19
06-14-2015, 02:54 AM
Pleased to report adding the center portion of the center seat is rather easy and doable! I did lots of research before biting the bullet and trying and am SO happy with the results. Here's the long story:
We too have 5 kids and wanted to add another seat to our Expy. We have an '09 Limited EL that came with captains chairs. It was find for a while but with an upcoming cross-country road trip, we had several reasons for wanting another seat...
We found the 20% center portion in the correct color from B&R Auto Wrecking in Seattle for $93 including bolts- I opted to have my brother pick it up because shipping would have been upwards of $100- it's a heavy little seat!
Initially we had hoped that we would be able to take the seat in and out as we could in our old Honda Odyssey, but no dice, that seat is in to stay :-) not worth the effort it would take to remove it.
First we had to remove the arm rests on the capatins chairs. There's a great little how to here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10577105
and here (though not on an expy, there are pics!)
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ns-chairs.html
The ***** that stick out from where the arm rests were do present a little catch when folding the seats up and down if you don't remove the ones with the star shaped wrench... once that one is removed and you're left with only the ones that are welded in place, the seats will fold just fine, however, my husband did cut them down as much as possible with a dremel disc and hack saw and then covered what was left with a black plastic cap that hammers on... they were for attaching training wheels to a bike but served a new purpose here!
We did not have to remove the captain's chairs thankfully, but it probably would have been easier if they weren't there... but not worth the effort to remove and then reinstall them for sure!
We placed the center seat approximately where we thought it would go, then I felt around under the carpet (via the holes where captain's chairs anchor in) and removed the peach colored rubber stoppers that were in the floor under the carpet... we then replaced the seat to where we thought it would go, traced the "footing" of it *crossed our fingers* and cut through the carpet with a razor blade knife and cutco scissors... as we went along, we had to cut more here and there to get the seat to sit flush on the floor.
The bolts that came with the seat out of the junked expy were not long enough! I don't know how they do it in the factory, but it wasn't gonna work for us.... my hubby brought the bolts we had into the hardware store and bought longer ones in the same size... and some washers and nuts too. Fyi, the black bolts apparently are stronger in an impact and won't break as easily, a few extra bucks altogether, but worth it!
Also, initially the seat track holes didn't seem to be lining up on both sides with the holes in the floor.... after some frustration, we discovered that the track that slides the seat forward and back was in different positions on each side :-) once we put them both forward all the way it all lined up really close to perfectly... we did have to apply some pressure to get one of the bolts in as it was a little off centered.
Still have to do something about the upholstery where the arm rests were removed, but for now its really not noticeable since I have a carseat in the middle seat. Was trying to find some tan duct tape (because they come in every color and pattern under the sun now!) but so far have not found any...
So I have to have the carseat in the center position shifted slightly to the left to allow the seat passenger side seat to completely fold forward add it was intended... if my carseat was more narrow (or if there was no carseat there at all) both seats would fold down and flip forward no problem. The center seat does slide forward on tracks and folds down flat too.
Hope this helps someone out there with the same questions I had!!
I did lots of research before biting the bullet and trying and am SO happy with the results. Here's the long story:We too have 5 kids and wanted to add another seat to our Expy. We have an '09 Limited EL that came with captains chairs. It was find for a while but with an upcoming cross-country road trip, we had several reasons for wanting another seat...
We found the 20% center portion in the correct color from B&R Auto Wrecking in Seattle for $93 including bolts- I opted to have my brother pick it up because shipping would have been upwards of $100- it's a heavy little seat!
Initially we had hoped that we would be able to take the seat in and out as we could in our old Honda Odyssey, but no dice, that seat is in to stay :-) not worth the effort it would take to remove it.
First we had to remove the arm rests on the capatins chairs. There's a great little how to here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10577105
and here (though not on an expy, there are pics!)
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ns-chairs.html
The ***** that stick out from where the arm rests were do present a little catch when folding the seats up and down if you don't remove the ones with the star shaped wrench... once that one is removed and you're left with only the ones that are welded in place, the seats will fold just fine, however, my husband did cut them down as much as possible with a dremel disc and hack saw and then covered what was left with a black plastic cap that hammers on... they were for attaching training wheels to a bike but served a new purpose here!
We did not have to remove the captain's chairs thankfully, but it probably would have been easier if they weren't there... but not worth the effort to remove and then reinstall them for sure!
We placed the center seat approximately where we thought it would go, then I felt around under the carpet (via the holes where captain's chairs anchor in) and removed the peach colored rubber stoppers that were in the floor under the carpet... we then replaced the seat to where we thought it would go, traced the "footing" of it *crossed our fingers* and cut through the carpet with a razor blade knife and cutco scissors... as we went along, we had to cut more here and there to get the seat to sit flush on the floor.
The bolts that came with the seat out of the junked expy were not long enough! I don't know how they do it in the factory, but it wasn't gonna work for us.... my hubby brought the bolts we had into the hardware store and bought longer ones in the same size... and some washers and nuts too. Fyi, the black bolts apparently are stronger in an impact and won't break as easily, a few extra bucks altogether, but worth it!
Also, initially the seat track holes didn't seem to be lining up on both sides with the holes in the floor.... after some frustration, we discovered that the track that slides the seat forward and back was in different positions on each side :-) once we put them both forward all the way it all lined up really close to perfectly... we did have to apply some pressure to get one of the bolts in as it was a little off centered.
Still have to do something about the upholstery where the arm rests were removed, but for now its really not noticeable since I have a carseat in the middle seat. Was trying to find some tan duct tape (because they come in every color and pattern under the sun now!) but so far have not found any...
So I have to have the carseat in the center position shifted slightly to the left to allow the seat passenger side seat to completely fold forward add it was intended... if my carseat was more narrow (or if there was no carseat there at all) both seats would fold down and flip forward no problem. The center seat does slide forward on tracks and folds down flat too.
Hope this helps someone out there with the same questions I had!!
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