lol. no of the fab work and the seats in the truck!

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Krylon Fusion is for Amateurs.

03 Stang to 01 extended cab
Left rear mnt.


Right rear mnt


Front raised appx 5/8" so power track will clear.


Pic of finished track installation tomorrow. (maybe)

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2001 4X4 SUPER CAB 4.0L. OFF ROAD

I have a 97 with the one solid bench. From what I've read in the sticky, I just have to tap out 4 additional mounting holes and anything will fit right in? All the mounting brackets should come with any seat I purchase....right? Who sells seats without the mounting holes???

The original post is incorrect regarding a 1986 Thunderbird. On the post's advice, I bought a pair of seats in great condition out of an '86 but have run into two problems trying to put the new seats on my 1999 Ranger's seat tracks:

1. The two black steel brackets on the seat tracks, near the back of the seat, that connect the bottom seat and seat back portions together, obstruct the new seat from being placed on the tracks.

2. The bolt pattern in the bottom of the Thunderbird seat have the bolts 14" apart. The Ranger track bolt holes have a width of only 11".

My solution so far is to drill out the rivets that secure the black brackets. Then, I suppose I'll have to make a new pair of brackets to secure the 14" seat bolt holes to the 11" seat track holes.

If anyone else has a good solution to my problem, I'd love to hear it!

the original post doesn't really apply to 98+ trucks. it was written for 97 and older, which have seat tracks that simply unbolt from the bottom of the seat, and will bolt to the donor seats from the list.

the easiest solution to your problem would be to get a set of tracks from a 93-7 ranger. just make sure they come from the same style cab you have (reg cab - reg cab, etc) the new tracks should bolt to the bottom of the seat, and then with minor enlarging of a whole or two, should bolt to the floor.

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Krylon Fusion is for Amateurs.

Thanks for the clarification. I think I'm going to try my hand a bit more at my modification and if I give up on it I'll try to find some 93-97 tracks. I've already mangled my stock seat and tracks, anyway.

Will 93-97 (extended cab) seat tracks bolt directly into my '99 (extended cab)? I'm surprised to hear that 93-97 seat tracks will take a 14" wide seat, yet have the same width of holes to bolt into the bottom of the truck. Is that really true? Or will I have to drill new holes into my '99?

yes, they will bolt in. you may need to enlarge a hole or two on the back, but they will fit. any of the seats on the list above should bolt directly to a 93-7 seat track.

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Krylon Fusion is for Amateurs.

Great advice that I should have taken before I started.

But, for anyone else who may be curious, I was successful in modifying my '99 tracks to accept the '86 Thunderbird seats. My method for each seat and its tracks was roughly:

1. Drill out the eight rivets holding the two obstructing black metal pieces off of the seat track.
2. Make two brackets out of sheet metal and bolt the tracks and seat to the brackets. One bracket runs across the front two bolts and the other across the back two bolts. (I'm not skilled at metal fabrication, so anyone with even just a bit of know-how shouldn't have much difficulty doing the same with at least as much success as me.)

The Thunderbird seats sit maybe a bit higher than they were intended to, but they work perfectly well now.

how about some pics? are they adjustable yet? what size "sheet metal" did you use? hope it's 1/8"+.

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Krylon Fusion is for Amateurs.

I took a few pictures while taking care of the driver side. Not sure exactly what the best way is to show the images, but they're attached.

1. Picture of "before", with worn and somewhat stained crappy cloth seats.
2. This is underneath one of the Tbird seats. I've attached two sheet metal strips (each of 1/16" thickness for a total of 1/8") to both the top and bottom bolts. The seat tracks will be bolted very close to the edges so that the middle of the brackets aren't load bearing.
3. This picture is after one of the black metal brackets, that attach to both the top and bottom pieces of the original seat, has been removed. Each bracket has four rivets holding it in place. Both need to be removed. I also removed the spring-loaded mechanisms that enable the original seat handle to control the seat lean.
4. This picture is after the seat has been bolted on to the original, modified tracks.
5. Finished. I love the change in appearance. However, note that the seat sits a few inches higher now. I'm tall so that works well for me.

All in all, the extra work required probably isn't worth it to avoid buying 93-97 tracks. Most of the work is quite easy, but drilling out a total of sixteen rivets was a pain for me.

Attached Images

	IMG_20120322_192038.jpg (90.4 KB, 181 views)
	IMG_20120327_172308.jpg (84.5 KB, 159 views)
	IMG_20120328_141729.jpg (97.1 KB, 155 views)
	IMG_20120328_145510.jpg (97.7 KB, 167 views)
	IMG_20120328_162505.jpg (87.5 KB, 229 views)

Also the seats are fully adjustable. The Tbird seats have power lumbar controls, so I'll have to run some wire to power those if I want it (will have to figure out how to do that). The mechanism to control lean is contained in the seat itself, so that works fine. And, the tracks slide just as easily as they did with the stock seat.

I'm looking to perhaps put some buckets in my '88 extended cab which currently has the 60/40 bench. Will all the models listed in the original post work? Or will I have to take rails out of a gen 3 to make any of them compatible? I'm looking to do an exploder swap if possible since it sounds like the easiest.

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1988 Ranger XLT 4X2. 2.3L I4. (RIP - SOLD)
1994 Lincoln Town Car Executive
1998 F-150 XLT 4x4 4.6L V8

any from the list will bolt to your seat tracks.

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Krylon Fusion is for Amateurs.

I have a 1992 ford ranger ext cab with horrible seats and im starting to get a bad back from them.. anyone know of any seats that will fit my truck?

look at page one.

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Krylon Fusion is for Amateurs.