'86 Suburban Seat Upgrade

[cal30_sniper]

Hey all,

The driver's front seat in my '86 3/4 ton Suburban is pretty ripped up, which to me is the perfect reason to start a seat upgrade. I've been looking around on Craigslist, and I'm seeing a lot of the '92-'99 Suburban seats for sale for pretty cheap.

I've been googling and searching this forum for three hours, and still haven't found any information about whether it's possible to upgrade a '73-91 Suburban to '92-99 seats. Intuition tells me that it probably isn't that hard, but I don't have a spare '92-99 around to look at. Does anyone have any experience with this swap, or a newer Suburban that they could compare to and see if it's even possible?

I have buckets and console in front of mine now. I'm interested in swapping in front buckets, middle 60/40, and 3rd row seat out of the newer generation.

From this:



To this:




The main thing I'd be concerned about is getting the 2nd row seats to fold down correctly, and getting the 3rd row to latch down. I've never seen how the 2nd row folds on the newer suburban. I have seen that the 3rd row uses the same style latch, but I'm not certain if it's the same width and length as the older style. I'd really appreciate some help or information

Thanks!

-cal30sniper

[RandyP]

They'll sit very high unless you can modify your floor (get rid of the hump and get a flat floor like a K5) or modify the seat base on the new seats.

[cal30_sniper]

After looking closer at the pictures, I think that's the case. It looks like I could just unbolt the seat tracks from the newer suburban and put my old seat tracks on though. The height appears to be in the tracks, and not the seat itself.

[kwin]

I have these in my 91 burb, and yes the second row does fold down the way they should. I can provide more info tonight if necessary.

Keith

[kwin]

work delayed, so here is what I did. The second row seats have a plate at the rear to bolt the seats in place. I cut off the rear tab so the seats could sit as far rearward as possible.
There is a small step in the rear floor , it is where the hinge sits for the factory rear bench, I attached a 1 inch angle to face of this ledge to provide an appropriate place for the seat to sit.
For the fronts I got rid of the factory bases and fabbed my own from 1x2 box tubing using the factory holes. I am about to re-do the mounts I made because the seats sit too low in the front for my taste. I feel like I am slipping on to the floor all the time. I am building new ones with an inch of rise. One other change I am making to the new brackets is to add tabs to move the seats further outward, my burb was a bench seat model and the factory holes cause these seats to sit about two inches too close to the center, steering wheel ends up off set.
So other than removing the power bases everything works the way it should. I'm six feet tall so I keep the drivers seat back a bit , even so the rears sit the way they should when lowered, a little tight but I could move my seat forward an inch. lol
I cant help you with the third row, sorry. I only have front buckets and 60/40 rear.
Feel free to contact me if you need more info.
Easy swap and well worth it. Don't modify your floor it is not worth it in my opinion and the seats still sit a little high for my taste. Also carpet no longer fits the way it should.
I hope this helps.

Keith

[cal30_sniper]

Keith,

That is some awesome info. I'm stoked to try it now. Looking at the bottom of your front captains chairs, do you think there's any way I could bolt them to the sliders on my factory captains chairs? It seems to me that would be the easiest way to handle the front, because the factory sliders are already have pads contoured to the humped front floor at the proper angle, but are no more than an inch or two off the floor at the highest part of the hump:

passenger side view:


Passenger front view:


The tops of these manual sliders are straight and level with each other, so as long as the bottoms of the front buckets are flat, I should be able to adapt them with little effort.

I would love to see some pictures of how you handled that angle iron on the rear seat, as well as the bracket you cut and how they sit in relation to the door jamb. Sounds like you did just about exactly what I was thinking of doing.

-Levi

[kwin]

I suspect that you may have the same issue with the front being too low, but that can be easily fixed. Worst case scenario add little tabs to the side of the factory mounts to relocate the seats out ward. you could bolt thin channel to the top of the factory rails to move them to the side if necessary.

Keith

[kwin]

Originally Posted by cal30_sniper

Keith,

That is some awesome info. I'm stoked to try it now. Looking at the bottom of your front captains chairs, do you think there's any way I could bolt them to the sliders on my factory captains chairs? It seems to me that would be the easiest way to handle the front, because the factory sliders are already have pads contoured to the humped front floor at the proper angle, but are no more than an inch or two off the floor at the highest part of the hump:

passenger side view:


Passenger front view:


The tops of these manual sliders are straight and level with each other, so as long as the bottoms of the front buckets are flat, I should be able to adapt them with little effort.

I would love to see some pictures of how you handled that angle iron on the rear seat, as well as the bracket you cut and how they sit in relation to the door jamb. Sounds like you did just about exactly what I was thinking of doing.

-Levi

I have katskins seat covers on the way, graphite grey with silver stitching! should look great. I'm converting the entire interior over to black and brushed stainless. When I take the seats out do the covers I'll take some photos for you.
Should be here in about a week.

[kwin]

It should be easy to make this work , having the factory mounts should make your job easier that what I had to do.

[cal30_sniper]

Originally Posted by kwin

I have katskins seat covers on the way, graphite grey with silver stitching! should look great. I'm converting the entire interior over to black and brushed stainless. When I take the seats out do the covers I'll take some photos for you.
Should be here in about a week.

Awesome man, thanks!

[Edahall]

If you do end up upgrading the seats, please do a write up with some pictures. I would like to do the same thing in the future.

[cal30_sniper]

Originally Posted by Edahall

If you do end up upgrading the seats, please do a write up with some pictures. I would like to do the same thing in the future.

You got it. I'm surprised this isn't a more popular upgrade. Those 96-99 leather seats are everywhere on Craigslist. I've got to finish rebuilding my A/C system this week, then hopefully head up to Dallas to pick up a set of seats this weekend. Maybe I'll get a chance to start fabbing them in next week, we'll see.

-cal30sniper

[kwin]

Originally Posted by cal30_sniper

You got it. I'm surprised this isn't a more popular upgrade. Those 96-99 leather seats are everywhere on Craigslist. I've got to finish rebuilding my A/C system this week, then hopefully head up to Dallas to pick up a set of seats this weekend. Maybe I'll get a chance to start fabbing them in next week, we'll see.

-cal30sniper

LOL I just finished my ac, went through all the components , ran a leak stop product and filled it with refrigerant an it works great.
The seats are harder to find here, they fit so well that even the seat back and the cargo floor line up the way they should. The only slight issue would be that the mounts that line up with the tunnel for the driveshaft might sit a touch high, but no one has noticed and it does not affect function.

I am very happy with my seats

[cal30_sniper]

I was looking at that same issue with the inner mounts for the 60 side seat. Might tag the driveshaft tunnel a little bit. Looks to me like you could raise the entire seat about an inch and be free and clear all the way around. I'm going to have to take the carpet out of my '90 parts car and see how it looks. Any chance you could measure the brackets for the 2nd row seat for me? Length and Width of the 60 seat and 40 seat brackets would really help me to figure this out. That way I can go ahead and mark it out on the floor pan to see what I'm dealing with.

I'm halfway done with the A/C stuff right now. I just got through doing a conversion to serpentine belt using the factory '90 5.7L brackets out of my parts truck and the Kwik Performance adapter brackets. I mounted a SD508 Sanden compressor with a GM back pad while I was at it, along with a complete cooling system upgrade and new A/C condenser, accumulator, orifice tube, rear evap valve, and lines from the compressor to accumulator/condensor. I'm going to flush the rest of the lines tonight and put in all new o-rings tomorrow. After that I'll break out the vacuum pump and gauges and try to charge this baby up. We'll see how that goes.

[kwin]

I can do some measuring tomorrow, what are you looking for specifically?

Keith

[cal30_sniper]

Just the width and length of the mounting pads on the rear seats. I'd also like to see some pictures of how you cut that tab off the back. Can you see back there with the seats folded down?

[cal30_sniper]

I got the front in and bolted down today. I used my factory bucket seatrails and drilled the pattern to fit the bottom of the 96 seats. It worked perfectly, and they are infinitely more comfortable than the old seats. The rails for the second row have been cut and notched. The second row now fits the floor, and all I have left to do is drill the holes and bolt them through the floor. Seat belts for the second row are going to be an issue, but I'm working on it. I'll get some pictures and a step by step write up when I'm done.

-cal30sniper
Posted via Mobile Device

[kwin]

Originally Posted by cal30_sniper

I got the front in and bolted down today. I used my factory bucket seatrails and drilled the pattern to fit the bottom of the 96 seats. It worked perfectly, and they are infinitely more comfortable than the old seats. The rails for the second row have been cut and notched. The second row now fits the floor, and all I have left to do is drill the holes and bolt them through the floor. Seat belts for the second row are going to be an issue, but I'm working on it. I'll get some pictures and a step by step write up when I'm done.

-cal30sniper
Posted via Mobile Device

Never did get the measurements, got called out of town for a couple of shifts. Do you still need them?
Im in town tomorrow.

Keith

[cal30_sniper]

Writeup posted:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...01#post5431101