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I'm looking at purchasing a 1998 Expedition that did not come with a third seat. Are the brackets for mounting the seat located under the carpet? If not can they be installed?
I've got a '97 expy and there was no third seat. However the rear seat out of an older 80ish GMC blazer is the perfect width even with the arm rest. I paid $120 for the seat and lathc points plus $375 for the matching upholstery and a day of labor installing the brackets that I cut out from the blazer. Works fantastic plus you can position it for more or less cargo room behind the seat.
In my Expy the seat bracketry is part of the chassis, and sunk into the floor. There are also plastic slides on top of the carpet for sliding the seat in place. Ditto on the safety aspects mentioned earlier. You can buy seatbelts from Ford. Check junkyards for crashed Expys. Just be sure to closely examine any hardware you buy from them for cracks and distortion. Seatbelts are a judgement call. Third row seatbelts were probably less likely occupied during a crash than first and second row. Any seatbelt occupied in an accident must be assumed damaged in the inertia reel area. That is one item I would recommend buying new from Ford.
Last edited by 2000Expy; Jul 12, 2007 at 10:01 AM.
I put a 3rd row seat in my 03 Expy XLT and it was quite a big job. Mine gets bolted directly to the floor because the aren't removable, they fold into the floor. All the holes were there but I had to tap all the holes (there were lots) to receive bolts. Yours will need brackets cut into and welded or bolted into the floor. Then you will need to install all the belting hardware. If you are lucky the holes will be there for this but will probably need tapping also (which is a job in itself). Then there is the trim covers where the retractors are (probably in the rear corner pillars). I was lucky with mine and holes were there and had covers over them. It seemed like a simple task at first but grew as I went as most jobs do. I am happy I did it just took alot longer than I thought. Happy tapping!(note some of the holes were too close to the sides of the vehicle to turn the tap into the hole and I had to cut the tap handles to fit which makes it REALLY hard to turn)