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Factory power seats had brackets welded to the floor that the power seat adjuster bolted to. What is the height of those brackets off the floor? See image from Assembly Manual of bucket seat 4-way power seat that show the floor brackets (circled in yellow) that lift the seat adjuster off the floor.
Maybe this thread will help. Some questions answered, some really good pics from members, and what I did to fit a power seat into my '70. I will say it's worth your time to locate and buy the proper factory brackets.
Thank you for posting your thread, Bob. I followed it back when you were posting, and couldn't find it when I searched, so I was hoping you'd post here! The images you posted are very helpful.
A power bucket seat is slightly different than a power bench seat. The front attachment floor bolt on a power bench seat adjuster is in the same location as non-power bench seat - both bolt to an existing nut in the floor, not to a bolt on a floor bracket as with the power bucket seat. (Compare image of power bench seat here to the power bucket seat image I posted above.) In fact, I installed my power bench seat adjusters directly to the floor (no brackets) simply by drilling two holes at the rear adjuster mounts and reinforcing the underside of the floor. You can see in the image that the power bench seat floor bracket is only for the rear portion of the seat adjuster. The OE power bench seat floor bracket does lift the rear of the adjuster off the floor.
I am trying to determine the lift height of that rear section of the power bench seat floor bracket. My power bench seat sits slightly low at the rear, and I always have the seat adjuster set to its highest to make up for the adjuster being mounted to the floor and not lifted an inch or so in the rear section if I had the OE floor bracket. I intend to fabricate a steel square tube to place under the rear section of the seat adjuster. I also have the seat adjuster rear carpet retainers to install and those won't fit without raising the rear section of the adjuster. Moreover, the full travel of the adjuster to its farthest back setting requires the rear section to be raised as well, since the floor contour raises slightly behind the adjuster where the original seat brackets bolted to the floor in the rear.
I'll probably use 3/4" or 1" steel square tube under the rear of the seat adjuster with not one but two bolts to attach the rear section of the seat adjuster to the floor, for a total of 3 bolts on each side.
If my car wasn't at the body shop getting the hood finished, I'd go out and measure it exactly. What I did find was the steel I used to make the new "foot" for the back left mounting bolt bracket, and the front edge of that piece is exactly 1" high. So if you go to that bit of the thread where I broke off the old and welded on the new, that front edge is an inch. If you're in the 3/4" to 1" range, I think you'll be happy with the results. The other thing I did constantly was train a level on the bolt mounts, left to right and front to back, just to make sure they were matching as best as I could make them.
Thank you Bob, I studied those pictures closely in your thread, and estimated they were 3/4" - 1" in height - which confirmed my testing of different sizes here. I was leaning to 1" as it gives the rear carpet retainer (#6 in the bench seat diagram), which is bolted to the rear hole of the adjuster, more room to clear the carpet. I'll do a final fit before selecting the size of the square tube.
Q: Does your floor carpet cover the mounting points on the floor brackets that you installed, or do you have relief cuts in the carpet to allow for the seat adjuster to be bolted directly to the floor brackets? Thanks again!
Last edited by Toms cutlass; July 13th, 2020 at 01:23 PM.
I know I cut the carpet similar to the way it is cut in the front to allow a "flap" to cover over the mounting bracket, but just how exactly is lost to memory until I get the car back and take a closer look!
Bob, Did you get your car back? Reaching back to you on this open question: Does your floor carpet cover the mounting points on the floor brackets that you installed, or do you have relief cuts in the carpet to allow for the seat adjuster to be bolted directly to the floor brackets?
Bob, Did you get your car back? Reaching back to you on this open question: Does your floor carpet cover the mounting points on the floor brackets that you installed, or do you have relief cuts in the carpet to allow for the seat adjuster to be bolted directly to the floor brackets?
Yes! I absolutely forgot to check this for you. I have relief cuts, larger than normal, to work around the power brackets. It took a little finesse to get everything pulled and tugged around the mounting points, but the bolts are hidden.
Left side, front bolt
Right side, front bolt
Left side, rear bolt. There are several cuts to get the wide bracket base underneath the carpet.
Thank you Bob. The images are helpful and clearly show your relief cuts in the carpet with the power seat mounted directly to the floor mounts - carpet not sandwiched between.
July 12th, 2020, 02:48 PM
