When it comes to replacement/performance parts and upgrades a la carte for your vehicle, especially for Toyotas, it's pretty straightforward. You want a new replacement carb? Not a problem. A new crate engine? We can do that. Tires? simple. Replacement doors and quarterpanels for your 1980 Hilux? Covered. Replacement rear bumper? Just a click and credit card payment away.

But the one item on any vehicle that probably receives the most stress, wear, and tear is the seats. Most of the folks on this forum have at one time or another thought about doing something about those faded, ripped, broken, dirty, nasty old seats. And that's after doing a bit of research that you learn the horrible truth: the market for automobile seats plays by its own bizarre set of rules.

1.) The least economical method fixing your seats is reupholstering them. Unless you can reupholster them yourself, which in that case, good for you; for the rest of us, we can expect to pay $600-1200. Per seat. Because there's just something about 1980's era car and pickup seats that simply demand that ridiculous pricing, and the reupholsterers are not about to spill that secret.

2.) Any search for actual seats requires you to specifically omit seat covers and even then half of your results are going to be seat covers. Because universal, tacky seat covers that cleanly fit no factory car seat ever made in the history of EVER is a huge, huge market. Likely due to the fact that buying/repairing car seats is an expensive nightmare.

3.) The only decent, OEM-style aftermarket seats are designed exclusively for Jeeps and only Jeeps. Yes, I know that it's not difficult to adapt these seats for whatever generation of Toyota pickup you have. That's not the point. There's something about Jeeps that require such a consumption of seats that the entire aftermarket panders only to Jeeps. Either Jeeps or their owners eat these seats like gangbusters. Or that these seat manufacturers live in a universe where the inhabitants only drive Jeeps; such as the officer side of base housing on any given Marine Corps base.

4.) The "universal" seat replacements are all terribly ugly, molded, uncomfortable-looking "racing" seats that look like they belong in a roller coaster. Seriously. Why can't these manufacturers make more conventional-looking seats? I don't want these nasty-looking NASCAR rejects.

You'd think there would be at least one major brand that supplies factory-looking seats with vehicle/make-specific kits in all the major generic colors and with neato options like heating, power adjustment, or those side pockets that nobody ever uses and serve only to accumulate dust, crumbs, dirt, and pennies. Today I've been to Carid, Amazon, JC Whitney, and other sites and didn't see anything like this. But if I had a Jeep, I'd be taken care of.

 

I just replaced the seats in my 83 4x4 truck with smittybuilt bucket cj5 seats ( they don't lean forward or back) I love my truck to death even tho I had to basically replace everything and I've only owned it for 4 months and it stole all my money!

Back to subject I don't know who they made these trucks for but unless you are 4ft tall you are not going to have any room behind the seats anyways. They were a 10 min project using a grinder drill and scrap metal I had laying around so I am happy with them but I had to put a block in the front cause they seat strait up you know if you've ever rode or drove in a cj. (I used factory sliders as well)

Have around 300 in them


I'll try to get some pics up Monday the rebuilt motor did not break in so guy is bringing me a new one.

I WANTED THE BENCH SEAT THAT GOES IN A POLARIS RAZER BUT DID NOT HAVE 800$ look it up it even has the indention for the shifter like the factory bench seat.

 

It's not just 1980's seats - I have leather seats that are getting completely destroyed in my 2005 Tundra Double cab and I have been having a hard time trying to find affordable replacement upholstery for them as well. And when I say affordable, I'm talking around $600-800 for a set. I'll tell you what the problem is... Years ago, you could get a very nice set of Katzkin replacement upholstery for around $700 or spend around $1,000 and get some really schnazzy custom upholstery. Well when Katzkin sold out to the dealer market, their prices went through the roof. Now, if you want factory leather in a vehicle that doesn't come with that option (Like the Tacomas) you'll end up paying in excess of $2,000 for dealer installed Katzkin upholstery! When Katzkin sold out, then the market for people like us looking to fix our worn out seats went through the roof!

As for the 80's seats - there really isn't a market so companies aren't going to waste their time on us Toyota freaks. There are plenty of Jeep bandwagoneers out there to keep the demand high for their applications PLUS Jeep has made very minimal changes in the designs within the Wrangler so it is economical and beneficial for them to produce Jeep products.

For my 83 pickup, I thought about having my seat professionally re-upholstered, but it would have been a little pricey, plus I didn't think that they were all that comfortable to begin with. So I ended up going with Corbeau Moab seats - yep, a seat made for Jeeps... They were only $260 each with sliders so it was only matter of fabricating some seat brackets to make them fit in my truck. They are comfortable seats and fit within the tight confines of my truck very well.

 

nice truck! those seat arent bad jeep uhhhg lol

 

I just don't like how high the corbeau seats are that's why I went with smittybuilt seats but they do lean forward if you ever use behind the seats