Need to either get my stock seats recovered or possibly go with an aftermarket cutom option. DOes anyone have any experience or has seen different seats from either a different make/year used in a 68-72 cutlass? I know you can bolt many different front seats in, but how much work would go into using seats out of a later olds like 90's? Is it easier just to use the old frame and have them done custom? Just trying to figure out if its easier/cheaper to pull a leather set out of a newer car or not.

 

Bolting in newer seats is mostly just an issue of sitting them in there & seeing what you have to do to make them work. What are your goals for the car? If it will be mostly stock then sticking with the stock seats will probably look best.

 

I have all the stock door panels but if I could save $$ and just pull some seats to put in for now id do that. Since its not a 442 and I wont be showing it im looking more for comfort at this point. I guess im wondering how hard it is to fit a back seat in from a later model since front seats are easy.

 

JMO, but whenever I've seen a back seat retofitted in it always looks like ***.

 

HAHA yea thats what i figured. Frnt seats can look ok but to put a back seat in that would naturally be thinner unless you did full custom with door panels and all it would look shitty.

 

I saw a guy put '96 STS seats and consoles into a 60's buick. The fronts looked okay but the back looked crammed in. I think he did door panels, too, but the back was out of place. - too big.

 

Whenever I've imagined straying from a stock type seat in a particular car .....

It's always another factory OEM type seat that I imagine taking its place.

If you really have your heart set on some non-original fronts, once you've settled on what you want and/or are going to use ...

As eluded to above (the 96 STS swap) ... it's probably best to have your factory OEM rear seat re-done to better match/blend it to whatever you end up using in the front.

Course' doing this & doing it right, could turn a bargain set of $100 front buckets you might have scored off your local CL's & a few bucks on some custom brackets ...

Into a much more expen$ive project.

Especially ... if you end up going with leather.

 

lat 90's Chrysler sebring's had real nice seats w/ integrated seatbelt (at least i'm thinking sebring)... i've seen some in older convertibles (recovered) and they look pretty good.

most modern seats stuck in an old car just look crappy & out of place unless the whole interior (seats, door panels, dash, etc) are redone to match... and the seats are very quickly dated. It was popular to put 98-02 camaro seats in classics for a while... but they are all old and dated now... Now people are putting GTo seats in (which look way too bulky for me) but soon they will be dated too. The ORIGINAL look is definitely "in" right now... just unfortunate that they were not more comfortable.

The easiest fix for that is to buy a set of aftermarket seats- like corbeaus recaro's or procars, and then take them to an upholstery shop and have them stich up a new "insert" to go in the back and bottom of the seat between the bolsters that LOOKS like your original seat pattern.

Then the rest of your interior won't look out of place. and you get the convenicnce and comfort of a modern seat. You can do the same thing with any junkyard seat. I'd suggest honda seats as they are pretty common & comfortable.

Either way though (resotring original buckets vs making late model or aftermarkets work & look right) it aint gonna be cheap.

 

Hey Curtis, if you're coming to the Rocket Roundup this Saturday you could prolly check with some of the guys who do resto mod applications.
Here is a pic of a 72 VC that comes to the show pretty regular - I think he's from Calgary. Anyway he put late model Caddy heated leather buckets into this and it looks amazing. Sorry I didn't get any inside shots. If he's there this year I will though.

EDIT: I know you're a pretty tall guy and need the leg room. The stock seats don't really give you that much do they?

 

Hey Allan, Im planning on going to Olds Saturday. I take it you'll be there. Hiopefuuly we can hook up. I did some work last night and just sprayed my current buckets black. Im amazed how they looked for it being a temporary fix. I think that i may continue to think of a way to fabricate something so my current seats(70's Monte Carlo Swivels, without the base) Can swivel. Bolting them to the floor without tracks give me great leg room. If i could find something maybe from a stool or boat seat that will allow at least the passenger seat to turn so that i can get the baby in that would be great. PM me and let em kow your plan for Saturday.

 

I think the 76/77 Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Skylark all had the option for the swivel buckets. If you're at the show I'll see you for sure. Maybe Ken will let you try out the seating in his 76 442 to see if that's the way you want to do?? I think (not sure) he has another set of them in 'storage'. Don't we all have more stuff in storage than we need?

 

Im looking forward to seeing some cars and meeting some people. Im hoping I can find some connections on parts also. Im looking for a front bumper, lenses and grille.

 

You'll prolly find a lot of answers there. Can't remember if you're going to badge your car as Cutlass or 442? Finding grills that aren't CS or 442 for the 70 model year is very hard. An NOS set just sold on fleabay for 729.00. These are the same grills that were installed in f85, Cutlass 4 doors, wagons and Cutlass S. NO ONE makes a repop. Go figure huh? I'll touch base with ya via home email later and we can catch up a bit.