When I sent the donor truck to the junkyard I lost 1.0 cubic single cab's worth of storage space... and I have a lot of parts to store. So my next task is organizing and storing parts as mundane as that is. The urgent part is that I had two pairs of captain chair seats sitting outside and the summer monsoon storms have arrived and they were getting wet. So the obvious way to take care of at least one set was to install them...

I bought the 92-96 era single cab 40/20/40 seat tracks for this. My seats are 80-91 style captain chairs so the holes don't exactly jive. It's a very simple modification, just drill new rear holes in the seat track sliders:









That part works great. The part that does not work out so well is the center console and the seat belt receivers. I realize that even without the one piece seat track pan the console will have to be blocked up in the front since the floor pan does not slope to the rear like it does in a Supercab or Bronco. However, the 92-96 seat track elevates it just that much more. I will have to chew on this, and perhaps the newer style console could be one solution/compromise. The seat belt receivers is another issue. The pan interferes with the sheath and does not let them bolt flat to the floor. It might mean that I need to cut notches in the pan, and then reinforce the rear cross member. Alternately, there might be a different receiver that would work. I have to say I'm not impressed. For my diesel build I am strongly considering butchering the floor pan to accept the bricknose double slider seat tracks. For the F150 I don't know yet. I might even go back to a bench seat, or see what I can do to modify this 92-96 pan:

 

I used a later model console and made these spacers: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13713739

 

Thanks Gary, the spacers look good. I am a little partial to the period correct console myself, even though the cup holders are very unfunctional. However the 92+ console may solve the problem, and I am not ruling that out. I didn't get a chance to really troubleshoot mounting the old style one yet... but what did you do about the seat belt receivers?

 

Haven't done the seat belts yet. Do you have the early console?

 

Yes, I have two of them. One for each truck. If the fit is horrible I can always eBay them and find some later ones. The seat belt receiver issue may end up being a little trickier. Especially for the crew cab where I want the solution to look nice from behind. For the single cab I might be able to just notch the seat pan and brace it with some angle iron. Overall I'm not real thrilled with the 92-96 seat pan. It shows more than I would like and isn't working out as well as I imagined it would.

 

Sorry it isn't working for you. That was probably my recommendation.

 

Out of all the options presented in the seat compatibility thread this seems like the most elegant solution and the best in terms of not needing to hack or modify the truck itself. And perhaps my outlook will improve once explore ways of dealing with the console and seat belts...

The newer consoles are essentially flat on the bottom, and the 1992-1996 Bronco floor itself does not dip down in the rear like the earlier ones. I am starting to warm up to the fact that the newer console is probably the answer even though it doesn't "look right" to me.

I stopped by the junkyard on my way home from work. I remembered that the 1980 F700 that they have is equipped with lap belts, and the receivers (next to the doors) are similar to captain chair receivers but not the same. I was hoping they might somehow work better with the 40/20/40 pan, but in fact they lean even further forward and the interference would be worse:



So that was a wash, but I did come across a 1983 Bronco with a black interior that was in quite nice condition. Since I want to redo my 1981 interior in black, I bought the door panels since they still had the "leather" texture on the window sills and showed no signs of crumbling. I can hardly by the paint to refurbish a pair for the junkyard price. I also bought the kick panels since they are high wear items and may not hold up if re-colored. I may go back for the entire dash shell, but they take a while to pull and I just didn't have time today...

 

You have to get this sorted - I'm depending on you 'cause that's the way I'm going.

So keep on keeping on and you'll get it figured out, I'm sure.