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Interchanging Seat Frames, Covers, Foam, and Backs

Bruzilla

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Orange Park, FL
I wanted to convert my bench seat 1974 Roadrunner into bucket seats but didn't want to spend $1,000+ to do it. I found a set of seats from a 1976 Dodge Aspen on Craigslist for $45 and noticed they were the same size and general shape as 73-74 seats that cost $300-$400 for a rebuildable set. Plus I don't like the design of the 73-74 covers and wanted to do 71-72 covers instead.

I kept checking Craigslist and ebay for seat covers, and hit the jackpot when I found a guy who was selling a set of 72 seat covers, foam, and seat backs for $400. They were all used, but the seat covers were like new LI pieces. The deal was the owner of the 72 GTX they were in decided to get the front seats recovered but since the back seat looked fine he left it alone. And as many of us have learned the hard way, that back seat that looks fine is actually a dried out piece of tissue just waiting for someone to sit on it to split all the seams apart. :( So a few years later someone sat on the seat and the cover just came apart. The owner was concerned that if he bought new rear covers they might not perfectly match the front ones, so he decided to just replace all the covers, foam, and backs.

I went out and talked to him, and explained that the seat covers while "like" new weren't new, and if I was going to spend $400 I might as well get new covers. Also, how many people in the area want 72 GTX seat covers? So in the end I talked him down to $225 for the covers, seat foam, and backs. :)

Here's how the seats looked once I pulled them from the car:

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I took the seats apart and quickly found out the covers on the Aspen seats were not original. I also found out whoever had put the covers on had put them on right over the top of the original covers! So I had to do a LOT of snipping of old, rusted, hog rings to get the old covers off. I removed the old foam, and cleaned up some rust off the frame. Once that was done I started mounting the new seat covers to the 72 seat foam, and I think this is the hardest part of the process. Getting the metal rods that hold the covers to the foam hog ringed to the rods in the foam isn't hard but it is tricky and took a few minutes to figure out the easiest way to do it.

I put the 72 GTX foam, covers, and backs on and found they were a 100% match for the 76 seat frames, so yes... you can change later Mopar seat frames into older seats and save a lot of $$$. Here's how the seats looked before going back in the car:

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Those of you with eagle eyes will notice the right side of the seat back looks to be about 1/2" closer forward than the left. I was puzzled when I put the covers on that the left side was nice and tight but the right side was loose. I filled it in with some extra foam, which is why it's a little more forward than the left side. It wasn't until I did the passenger seat that I found out I had goofed and put the back part of the foam in front of the seat frame instead of behind it on the right side of the passenger side. So I had to do a quick fix on the driver seat by snipping the five hog rings holding that side of the cover on, removing the extra foam, slipping the seat foam into the correct position, and applying new hog rings.

I ended up spending $270 on the front seats, which is about $30 to $130 less than most folks want for a set of 73-74 frames with crappy foam and ripped covers. They took about six hours to complete, and that was with having to remove two sets of old covers. And I plan on selling the old foam, covers, and backs off the seats on ebay as I know F body guys are always looking for these since no one is reproducing them, so I expect to make about $200 back. And now here's what my seats look like:

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Nice job, great score, they look nice in there, that is on thing I pay close attention to, seats, I am using 70 charger seats in my 70 bee, I dont like the bee seats and the charger buckets are my favorite...

Looks good, and that is good info on the interchange...
 
Nice deal, but... now you need the matching rear.....

Sometimes you get lucky and those 75 and up seats .....recline
 
I have matching 72 covers on the back seats. I had to break down and order those from Classic Interiors. They do fit fine on the 74 frames and foam though.
 
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