Hey, my driver side's seat rails are completely rusted out. The seats only attached by two bolts (also rusted), so I have an auto reclining drivers side seat, which makes shifting a bitch. So I'm looking into getting 4th gen seats, but can't find anywhere that sells seat rails. Where should I look?

Also, I know this has been asked by everyone and their mother since this board's inception and possibly even before, but do 4th gens seats fit exactly where the existing seat rails do? I went to my local auto shop, and the guy said he'd charge $100 in labor because he'd have to move the seat rails for a 4th gen seat. Is this guy trying to screw me or just not know what hes talking about?

 

I just realized I don't even really have seat rails, just 4 bolts coming from under the carpet. So, I guess the question is how do I replace these?

 

I'm not exactly sure, I'm going to ask a few body shop guys later, if I run into them... But I have the same problems... Just the 4 bolts... Not really much of a problem, really, a pain to take the seats off... But they look pretty bad...

Anybody have any idea??

 

There are rails there. They go side to side in the car. The weld to the rocker panel and the trans tunnel. If these are actually rusted out then you have bigger problems than where to bolt the seats. As far as an exact fit, that was my impression of the whole thing, but I've been mistaken before.

 

No, there are seat rails under our seats, but I don't think you're talking about them. The seat rails bolt right to the seat, and contains the forward/backward adjusting lever. They screw into the bottom of the seat cushion with 4 long bolts, and then you bolt the rails onto the floor with 4 nuts.

But it doesn't sound like you were ever talking about the rails to begin with. Remove the seat, then you'll be able to see what's up. Four 10mm nuts. You might have to remove 4 "foot" covers; they're made out of hard black plastic, and go over the ends of the seat rails to hide them. They each use 1 phillip's head screw... if you're missing them, get those covers next time you're in a junkyard.

[edit] Or wait, am -I- mis-naming the seat rails?

 

The problem is one of the seat rails is so rusty that part of it broke off-- the part that connects to the bolt on the floor. Also, the bolt is rusted pretty bad, the nut wont budge. I'm just wondering if its possible to get new seat rails and possibly new bolts.

 

Not sure if this is of any use... really depends on when you see it... I saw this on Ebay while searching around... hope it helps at all... I don't need these yet... Need a Daily driver before I can really work on my baby...

Link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1841439669

 

Wow cool, you think those would be compatable with 4th gen seats?

 

I think so... Not completely sure... but since the 4th gen bolt right in, I'd think they'd be the same... I'm still looking on ebay... If I find some for 4th Gen, I'll post a link... I get paid Thursday so I'm looking for some cheap parts... I've had good luck with Ebay parts so far... If i find anything I'll let you know.

 

I actually took my seats out last night, to clean the carpet up in there, and I'm almost positive the seat tracks were rivetted onto the seats. Is this unusual? I'll double check when I get home, but I was going to clean up and paint the seat tracks, and when I gave them a look last night, I remember seeing rivets. Is there maybe a bolt somewhere that I'm missing? Maybe I'm trying to take them apart in the wrong spot.....

Mathius

 

I have no idea... But I'm thinking that it's quite possible they come out. I don't have much of the opportunity to take my seats out, since I have to drive 'er back and forth everywhere. so it's kinda hard to do too much at once...

I guess he'd have to look for himself on the seats he has... I'll take a look at mine in a bit as well...

 

Ok, I took a closer look, and the tracks DO come off the seats, the bolts were hidden beneath the bottom half of the track, that moves back and forth to adjust your seat. I nearly took my hand off, when I pulled the lever to look below it I'm still not sure I want to pull them off though, they're very tight up against the seat, and I'm not sure I wouldn't gouge the hell out of my seat bottom trying to get them to fit back on, plus I have an inkling that they may be part of what holds the fabric in place and since I'm selling the car, I don't want to risk ripping the fabric.

In any case, it looks like you _can_ replace the seat tracks, if you're careful and patient. I'm going to try and paint mine, so hopefully they'll come out ok with some careful masking. Oddly enough, there's almost no rust on them, except for the parts that actually bolt to the floor. I'm not sure I understand that, since the floor had no visible rust where I lifted up the carpet.

Mathius

 

Ok, so I started looking at my seats trying to decide how to mask it properly, and was wondering about whether or not I should bother spraying the springs or not, and decided what the hell, why not take them apart anyways? So I took a closer look, and there's actually metal brackets that are way outside the cushion on the seats, so you can take the seat rails out without damaging the cushion. I took some pictures here, to show a few things I noticed... Picture 4 shows the metal brackets I was talking about pretty well.

First off, you have to be careful of two things when doing this. Number one, shown in picture 1, is that if you lean on the metal bracket while trying to hold your seats steady, you can put stress on the fabric, which can cause it to tear. You do have to keep a firm hold on your seats to remove the bolts, but be careful you don't tear the fabric!

Second, be EXTREMLY careful with the levers. The levers are meant to be used with your weight rested on them. The springs aren't super powerful, but they are powerful enough that if your hand is in the way when you pull that lever, you're liable to lose a piece of it! Be careful! You can see the tracks two extreme positions (all the way opened or closed) in pictures 2 and 3. You have to open the track up the right way in order to get to the nuts, then close them to get to the other set of nuts. Play with the levers a bit until you get an idea how they work, you're going to have to be able to manipulate them quite a bit to get to all the pieces of the rails if you intend to paint them or clean them up. If you're replacing them, then I guess you can mostly ignore this tidbit, but you'd still need to know the basics to get the bolts in, and the springs attached.

I got mine all out, disassembled, and spent a good 3 hours sanding them down and applying paint, they were pretty rusted on the parts where they bolt in, especially the driver side for some reason. I think I'm going to end up having to spend 4 days painting, in order to let the paint set properly. 2 days doing top and bottom in one position, 2 days top and bottom in closed position. (giving 24 hours for each side to dry)

Tommorrow I'll start vaccuming the interior and try to get the carpet cleaner in there and fix a few spots on the seats themselves. Should clean up the interior quite a bit and I can throw a for sale sign on it this weekend.

Mathius

 

Whoops, forgot the pictures.....

 

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