Man4God

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to give you guys a sample of the way I have gone about swapping my seats to something more comfortable and with much more support.

Background is this: 4Runner limited seats suck in general and of course, after more than a decade, the seats are shredded to hell. So, I have decided to search around for a new seats for the truck on the cheap. I wanted to get away from the power seats and get manual racks. There are tons of options out there, but most of them are of the Honda variety. So i picked up a set for $80 out of a Prelude. No, they don't match my interior, but seat covers will solve that.

My strategy was simply this: cut the feet off my old 4Runner seats, cut the feet off the Prelude rails and graft them on.

Below is a shot of the two seats side by side. 4Runner on the left and Prelude on the right.


Below is my first attempt at cutting of the 4Runner feet. The problem is that getting a cut off wheel in the acute angles there on ALL the feet is difficult. An on top of that, there are tack welds that are not visible.


Here is a picture showing the large rivet and if you look closely, you can see the recessed portion of the tack weld. This lead to my new strategy of drilling them out. I went and bought one of those super hardened steel bits. Cobalt I believe. It was about $8 bucks at Home Depot. By the time I was done drilling, the bit was done. Go slow, use oil to cool and lubricate the bit. I needed holes to mount the feet anyway...


Truthfully, this is all very simple. Measure like six times, and drill holes accordingly. As long as the rails are 17.5" wide, you can mount any seat into the existing spots where the feet go.

Here I am showing my plan for tackling the back inside feet. This was not a flush mount. I had to use longer bolts for the front portion and then the standard ones for the back.




Here are the holes drilled.


And showing how the back inside feet are going to mount up.


And here it is mounted up.


Here is the front inside foot and how it is going to line up.


Front inside foot completed.


Front outside foot. I had to clearance this bolt by shaving it on two of the six sides to get it to slide into the rail. The rail is very narrow on this particular foot. However, after shaving it down (maybe a 1/16th on each side), I was able to pull it down into the bottom of the rail and I can assure you, the bolt is not moving.



Front outside foot complete.


And back outside foot.


Back outside foot completed.


Front inside foot as mounted.


Front outside foot as mounted.


Back outside foot (with my amp line all attached) as mounted.


Back inside foot as mounted.


And installed!


Back shot.


I had to spend about $20 in grade 8 hardware. I used locking washers and after about 1000 miles, the seats haven't moved a bit. Honestly, they are tighter, more solid feeling than they were before with the stock seats. The slide mechanism works great. I have lots of adjustment as far as degrees. And I love the cloth as it is much cooler in the heat of the summer.

Before everyone gives me warnings about the integrity of my seats. I am sitting just under 300 lbs and these seats have not moved a millimeter. Eventually, I will tack them up, but for no reason other than I want to practice some welding when I get a welder.

So there you have it!