from a bench, to a bucket

[68kuda]

I'm kinda new to A body's. I have a factory bench seat in my cuda. What newer cars could I probably find in a local junkyard that would have bucket seats in them that would bolt in where my bench is now. I was going to look for a 73-76 dart to do the disc brake upgrade. Would these also have buckets, maybe or something else. I don't want to have to make a custom bracket or drill new holes in anything.

Thanks,
Doug

[demon340v]

well pretty much any type of bucket seats will fit in yoru car as long as your willing to  fab up your own seat brackets like i did in my demon.

http://demon340v.tipsncheats.net/project-seats.htm

those seats came from a RoadRunner and before that they came from the junkyard. i re used the 2 holes that my  bench seat used and i had to drill 2 new holes and bolted it all up.

but be sure to have plates under the 2 new holes you drill, to give it support.

[Lars]

I don't think you can get by without drilling new holes.

[dangerdawg]

oh yeah, you will hafta drill 2 holes for each side. try yo fab your own mounts, easier than trying to make something fit. my seats came out of a fiat x19, had them re-upolstered, and made my own mounts, with plates under all 4 holes each side.

[mischiefdart]

On my '70 Dart with a bench seat there are indents for the inner seat track where the floor pan has extra support but the holes are not drilled. The tracks on the '71 B-body buckets I have don't line up with the indents. I was told all I have to do a swap the tracks with ones for an A-body. I need to know what year tracks will work. Are they all pretty much the same? Did they change in '70 with the high back buckets? was there a hump in the floor for cars that came with catylitic convertors and are those ones different?

[demon340v]

well my dad has buckets from a 71 Charger.

He sued those seat brackets even though 1 was taller then the other he modfied it to work.

Just got to use da noodle and think how to mod something to make it work and most of the time comes out cheaper

[68kuda]

well, I could build new brackets. I just don't really want to have to. What cars after 1970, for example, had bucket seats in them? I live in a town of about 40,000 and we have two smaller junkyards. So the chances of us having a RR or something else are slim and none. I guess I'll just have to go out and walk through them and see what's there.

[Sparkles459]

I am swapping my 70' Dart bench seat out as well to buckets.  I found that the seat frame for a 70 Dart is the same frame used for the 71-72 Cuda, 71-72 Belvedere, Charger, Coronet, or Satellite,  70-72 Challenger, and 70-72 Dart, Duster, Demon or Valiant. 

The seat adjustment rails are not sooo friendly.  They are specific to the 70 dart, Duster, Demon, and Valiant.  I don't know what happens if the wrong seat rails are used as the ones I have are on the Challenger seat frames I bought. Hmmm.  Let me know if you know the difference. 

I did get brackets - found them on Ebay.  Might check into those - I haven't installed anything yet - as mine is in paint right now. 

[mischiefdart]

When I mocked up the '71 B-body seats in my '70 Dart The outer seat tracks seemed OK. The mounting bolts went right in the bench seat holes. The inner tracks did not line up with the dimples at the rienforced part of the floor pan. They were a little bit closer to the trans tunnel and also not the correct height on the back bolt. So '70 A-body tracks are a one year only part? I would have liked to use the correct tracks but I guess I may just modify the B-body tracks for my car. 

[cu440da]

When I mocked up the '71 B-body seats in my '70 Dart The outer seat tracks seemed OK. The mounting bolts went right in the bench seat holes. The inner tracks did not line up with the dimples at the rienforced part of the floor pan.

When swapping from bench to buckets, the old holes on the outboard side are not used any more. My 67 B'cuda buckets mount on the part of the floor pan that is raised up, and the dimples for all four holes are there, too. If you don't want to fab anything up you will need a body tracks and you will need to drill holes. No way around that. Nothing in a late model is going to bolt in, but plenty can be made to fit with the a body tracks. Late Caravan seats have an almost identical bolt pattern for the tracks. My experience is with the reclining-only rear seats, but I'd bet the fronts would be the same. The only problem with them is if you have a 2 door getting in the back seat would be a pain, as they do not fold forward.

and also not the correct height on the back bolt.

There were seat spacers/shims used also.

[mischiefdart]

I did not notice the other dimples for the outer tracks. Thanks for the tip.