Front Seat Attachment Question

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Jul 6, 2015
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Location
Iowa
My Car
1973 Mustang Grande 351C 2v
Quick question. I will be pulling my front seat out this weekend to install the clutch pedal for my T5 swap. I stopped home today and was looking at it. Does the driver's seat on a 73 coupe attach differently than the passenger? I noticed the passenger side has hex bolts that attach the frame to the car and are in front of the seat. On the drivers side seat the bolts are on the sides and are a square head???

 
On my 73 both seats are the same.

Two bolts in front and two studs with nuts in back.

Your car seat track bolts have been altered some way.

Good Luck with your project!

Paul

 
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Yeah sounds like someone changed the seats and tracks out at some time. Mine in my 71 are the same two bolts in the front point down and two studs in the rear on each. They dont bolt into the frame but into a seat riser (son of a b to get aftermarket) so be very careful not to damage the bolts or threads because you are opening up a huge can of worms. I found a hole rusted thru the passengers side floor under the dash so need to cut that out and replace the bolts were rusted in on the seats so had to cut the front legs of the seat frame off to get the seat out. So found that when you order floor pans for the car you dont get the seat risers and the car being a 71 I don't want to (and cant anyway) use the existing ones again (why not keep it all new metal right?). So after lots and lots and lots of searching i finally found a left and rightt and purchased them got them two days ago. So be careful and i would bet someone switched seats out.

 
Looks like the end of the seat track has been cut off and a strap welded to it?

Its been modified for sure. The square head bolts are strange not sure what was done.

The seat rails mount to a platform see if the modded bolts are accessible from under the car.

They had to install it somehow.

Paul

 
Ok Did some more digging on lunch on this. Those seat tracks do not show any sign of being cut and the side part is not welded on but actually part of the seat track. The square bolts on top appear to not be bolts but possibly studs. I was able to peak my head under the car and no nuts and no holes. There is no way to even turn the square heads as they are tight against the rest of the tracks. Looks like it might be a seat track from another year based on the stud configuration set up but no way to access the nuts. Might have been put in to make the seat go back further as the drivers seat does adjust back a good 1 1/2" to 2" farther than the passenger. Any ideas? Use grinder to cut the heads off and go from there?

 
This is the part that the set bolts to and is welded to the floor. So my thought is they had to have cut a hole in the floor to bolt it in and just put a body plug in to cover it. See if there is a cover if its solid your screwed you would have to cut the seat bolts out like i had to do since mine were rusted in place and could not get them out. However now i need to fix that by replacing the "Seat Risers"

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No plugs under the car. Nothing. Damn. Maybe I will just leave it and try to work around it. I was only taking it out to make it easier to install the new clutch pedal.

 
yeah probably a good idea and for ha ha's pull up on it and see if they just drilled holes and set it in. Might not be bolted in at all (would suck but might be the case). Makes you respect being a contortionist but can be done without taking the seat out.

Mike

 
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Dude

You got to get that seat out!

The job is hard enough with the seat out I couldn't imagine

doing it with the seat there.

The seat was installed somehow you just have to figure out how!

I wonder if the seat platform comes out with the seat as a unit?

Look under the carpet and see what's going on!

Paul

 
David's got a great idea there. That would probably also give you a better idea of how the seat tracks themselves are mounted.

Take a bunch of pics when you're removing the seat so we can see what you come up with. Now, I think it's more a case of morbid curiosity than anything. :whistling: :D

 
Cool. Thanks for the info David. I will go that route. Supposed to be sunny and in the 50's all weekend here so I will be going at it. Like a heat wave!

 
Ok. Update. I got out this morning and cleaned up the garage. Got the car up in the air and did some closer investigation there are some holes. I was poking around and they were hard to find. They look just like the rest of the floors but there are 4 spots that I was able to get a little deflection when I pushed on them. Turns out some one must have used a hole saw for four small holes then once the seat was in put them back and caulked from the top side and spayed some under coat to match. Good news I can get the seat out tonight. Bad news I will have to repair this correctly.

 
Well thats good and bad that they had to do that to install the seat but at least you found the way they did it. while its out you can pull back the carpet and see how they are supposed to be mounted (like the other side).

 
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