Hi guys
Looking to go away from the stock buckets. Anyone know of or do a different seat in a '72 A body? Looking for something newer and better.

Thanks!!

 

I've seen newer A body buckets in a 72. They were swivel but I never seen them operate.

 

Some of the Procar offerings are nice.
http://procarbyscat.com/

 

TMI is making classic looking covers for modern "generic" seats that they sell for around $1100 for the pair.
They are available in Summit Racing now, i saw them in the latest catalog.

They would not exactly match your original interior, but there are various versions with horizontal or veritical pleats so that something would likely look at home.

 

Mark:
I'm retrofitting a pair of BMW convertible seats from a 2005 M3 (E46) because they have an integral shoulder belt built into the seat. I'm currently fab'ing some mounting brackets and reinforcing the floor pan sheetmetal for safety. Here's a couple of pics. The second pic is from the ProTouring.com website where I got the inspiration to use the BMW seats.

 

nice !!!

 

interested in how these turned out .... I’m trying to fab something for newer seats too I got 04 Monte seats but yours look waaaay better

 

Chris:
I don't yet have the full interior in my car, but the seats are bolted in place. The location of the BMW M3 mounting rails combined with the A-body frame rail intrusion pushes the seats about 2" off-center relative to the steering wheel. To remedy this issue, I made some support brackets that raised the seats about 1" which allowed me to mount the seats further outboard. I compared the bottom cushion height between the M3 & Olds bucket seats and the M3 seats at their lowest adjustment were several inches lower than the stock seats, so (I reasoned) raising them 1" would not make them any higher than the factory seats.

One very important thing to remember when making this modification is safety. In a collision/accident, the factory OEM seat mounts were only strong enough to hold the seats in place (not the occupant); because the seat belt is built into the BMW seat, the mounting points need to be strong enough to hold the seat and the occupant! The mounting locations must be reinforced to securely hold the seat & the occupant in a collision. I welded large 1/8" thick washers to the bottom of the floorpan at the front mounting locations. To distribute the load at the rear mounting points I plug welded two layers of 4"x6" 16ga sheetmetal that overlapped the factory cross brace, I then welded a 1/8" thick square washer in the center of the 4"x6" piece. I used weld-thru primer and seam sealer on the edges of the mounting plate to protect from the elements.

I've included some pics below. Don't be too critical of my welding skills: it's not easy to MIG weld upside down...lying on your back-lol.

Rodney


Seat supports


This is the rear mounting point. The floor is reinforced with 2 pieces of 16ga sheetmetal that overlaps the factory cross brace and a 1/8" thick square washer. The front of the car is to the left.


Front mounting point.


Passenger seat


Passenger seat