Volare seat options

[mike2]

Anybody have any ideas for seats that fit or can be modified reasonably for the f bodies? Can't seem to find any chrysler stuff but plenty of bmw , volkswagon, acura beige seats around . Any ideas or thoughts would help. Want front and rear seats

 

[DCAspen]

I know a guy who has a complete black interior out of a 77 R/T that will bolt right in,He's in Maryland.

 

[mike2]

Of course i just finished painting interior plastic panels beige, was hopeful i could fid beige ,brow, creme,seats

 

[DCAspen]

PM sent,Looks like you kept the car

 

[BudW]

Seats for a 2-door, 4-door or station wagon?
I don’t have any spares – but it kinda makes a difference on what will fit.
BudW

 

[mike2]

2 door tan interior , brown,,thanks should have been clearer, has anyone put interior in from another car ?

 

[BudW]

Two door front seats (bench or bucket) are different from 4-door and station wagon seats – because the 2-door seats fold forward, to allow access to back seats.
You can put 2-door seats in the others but not the other way around (unless you don’t want to access the rear seat area).

Rear seats “generally” interchange between 2-door and 4-door models – but not necessarily in all cases. Station wagon and the rear drop down seats use completely different seats. I don’t think a J-body back seat will fit correctly in an F or M-body (but could be wrong - not tried).

Now to get back to your question. From mid-60’s to end of rear wheel drive Chrysler’s ('89) the seat holes are in same location and will interchange between most North America made Chrysler products – with a couple of exceptions.

I’m not sure about the older Imperials – not much experience on them.

Split-seats (buckets, 40/40, 50/50 or 60/40 seats) have 8 bolt holes.

Bench seats have 4 holes.

To convert a bench seat car to a split seat version, you will need to drill 4 new holes. Many split-seat cars also use a cross brace under floor pan for extra support – but not all have them.

If you decide to put a bench seat in place of split-seats, you will need to plug those 4 extra holes.

Split-seat cars only, Early F & M-bodies, the early Right side inner seat track is taller than the late FMJ cars are – due to floor pan difference (for bigger catalytic converter). Bench seat cars are not different. The seats are the same – only the Right side inner seat track is shorter (on the newer FMJ cars).

4-door cars did not come with center consoles – that I’ve ever seen (from mid ‘60’s to ’89) – but several people have put consoles in 4-doors and wagons. Consoles require brackets to be welded into the floor pan – so if considering adding a console, be sure to document their positions, cut-off and weld-in the brackets for it, as well.

If you use seats from another body style or older car, the seat itself may sit higher or lower than your original seats do (not a problem if you have tilt steering).
BudW

 

[mike2]

Thank you very much Bud. That is excellent info , and helps out alot for interior choices. That info should be a sticky.

 

[FredMcJoe]

I just pulled these leather 5th Ave cover assemblies out of a nice 86 in California. They're really high quality covers, and they were easy to remove off the seat frames for the shipping I'll need to do. More of these should get saved.

 

[BudW]

I'm wondering on how to get those installed into my wagon (with fold down seats).
It might require a new vehicle paint job - so my current B5 (French Racing Blue) paint might have to go.

Sigh, French and racing are two words that don’t go together, often. Where is Chrysler come up with that paint color name?
BudW

 

[FredMcJoe]

Easy, I did it with my '77 Volare Premier wagon's fold down rear seatback. It just hog-rings on the same but you have to do a specific tuck-under at the sides where it wraps over at the top. Then you have to cut a hole for the release button and it's plastic nacelle. Not difficult.

Its highly recommended to keep you leather skins treated with conditioner products, I like Leatherique's pH balanced products, they have a good leather restoration tutorial on their website and how their products naturally work together.

There was one area of the leather on these blue seats that was especially broken down, right along the area your backside first slides across getting into the driver's seat. The little bit of Leatherique's "Rejuvinator" conditioner that I had left, with some of their cleaner and a light going over with some 1000 grit sandpaper made that area look and feel like new again and they should give a long life ahead of their already being 30 years old.

Thats a big benefit of leather, it can be restored over and over, and holes/tears are pretty easy to remedy. A little dye over it and topcoat it with some gloss, its hard to tell it from new. Kerry Pinkerton on the Imperial site gave a good write-up of the process he used on his '64 and '73 Imperials
Refinishing (Chrysler) Imperial Leather Seats by Kerry Pinkerton

 

[FredMcJoe]

FYI, those are normally a satin finished leather, but I lathered on the pearlescent topcoat Leatherique sells to the light gray. It was something luxury cars used to use back in the '60s. Over the gray, it makes it silver.

 

[FredMcJoe]

if you don't have hog-ring pliers nor the rings, head over to a local farmer's supply store where they'll be selling chicken wire fencing. Hog-rings are the typical way you attach your chicken wire fence together, they usually have the pliers and rings for just a few bucks.

To remove hog rings, my half broke needle nose pliers worked well by having a half-round tool to get into the ring and spread it apart, to remove the old seat cover.

 

[BudW]

My problem is light blue car, light blue interior and (sigh) vinyl seats.

I don’t recall seeing light blue Leather seats in an FMJ before.
I have seen, what I would call medium blue cloth seats and the dark blue ones (as pictured).

Being my interior is “light blue” – it would be a lot of work to change color of all interior and trunk items to medium or dark blue.
Recoloring darker seats (also) might not be a good idea.

BudW

 

[FredMcJoe]

I went from dark maroon to light silver...
I would use the new stretchable vinyl over the hard plastic pieces instead of painting them, if I were to do this again. The spray dye works great on the soft vinyl fabrics though.

For the 1988 model year, new interior colors were specified. The gray and red stayed the same, to my perception, but the former harvest gold yellow got really muted down to a fairly tolerable tan, and the dark blue got lightened up to a medium gray-blue, for both the cloth and leather interiors.

I changed over the dashboard and 1/2 rewired my cluster connector, was a pain and still only 1/2 done, but that got me the gray dashboard. The door panels are a straight across trade, note my power roll-up windows!

 

[FredMcJoe]

My problem is light blue car, light blue interior and (sigh) vinyl seats.

I don’t recall seeing light blue Leather seats in an FMJ before.
I have seen, what I would call medium blue cloth seats and the dark blue ones (as pictured).

Being my interior is “light blue” – it would be a lot of work to change color of all interior and trunk items to medium or dark blue.
Recoloring darker seats (also) might not be a good idea.
View attachment 26969
BudW

a set of med blue cloth seats would be fine with the rest of this. It doesn't have to match exactly.

 

[FredMcJoe]

French Racing Blue turns out to be a real thing, fyi
In detail, here:
Bleu de France / #318ce7 hex color
and here:
Bleu de France (colour) - Wikipedia

 

[BudW]

Smiles, my point is not the blue, per say, but the word “French” and “racing” do not normally come up in the same sentence, very often.

I’d rather they used “Petty blue” which is real close (if not the same).
B5 blue has been known to be a medium blue back in the 60’s and early ‘70’s. They even brought it back (B5-medium blue) for the new Chargers/Challengers.
The ’77 B5 blue is, um, different – but it does stand out (part of the reason I bought this car, that and the woodgrain delete option).
BudW

 

[FredMcJoe]

my '88 5A's medium blue leather against the earlier dark blue.

 

[FredMcJoe]

As well, I fully support and will defend until death your right of driving here and there in the Frenchiest French racing blue you can find. Viva, les Libertines!

It's a great color. It seems really close to the engine blue of Mopar's.
Sure beats the heck out of that powder blue they painted Corvettes with