Swapping 240 seats?

Why not look in junkyards for nicer 240 seats? Just keep in mind that they changed in '86 so the upholstery from one to another isn't compatible, but the seats themselves are interchangeable.

On Wed, 04 Aug 2004 06:36:52 GMT, the illustrious "James Sweet" favored us with the following prose:

Unfortunately I haven't had much luck finding the seats I want in a junk yard. My car came with leather seats and it's pretty much impossible that I'll find leather seats 21 years old in good condition. I'd like something a bit sportier than the cloth seats so that's why I was asking about alternative manufacturers. If nothing else can be done then I'll have to go to either a cloth seat or pay for re-covering but I'm hoping someone will say "sure, you can put Saab seats in" or something like that.

A friend of mine (owns a Honda) picked up a pair of really nice seats (not made by Honda) at a show for $150. Maybe there's an aftermarket seat designed to fit many cars and to have the rails mounted on the seat as needed.

I've just concerned myself with the general workings of the car and have never looked into this sort of thing before.

Am I being crazy?

Here's an example:

Ignoring for now the width of the seat and concentrating only on the seat-rail compatibility, do the rails come off the volvo seats so they can be re-mounted? If so these look pretty sweet and they're in my town!

Thanks, blurp

On Wed, 04 Aug 2004 11:37:16 -0400, the illustrious blurp favored us with the following prose:

Been a while since I've had some apart, but no I don't believe so. In a 240 you're pretty much locked to 140/240 seats without doing some custom work.

One of the guys on the turbobricks forum,

,(screen name, Blown240) has Prelude seats in his 240. I believe that all hehad to do was cut and reposition one of the Prelude brackets to fit on the240 seat base. They look great in the car.

I've been told [by someone I trust] that you can swap the seatbacks from seat to seat.

This lets you "build" a better driver's seat by using the base from the (usualy less-worn) passenger side and the seat back from the driver's side. This gives you working controls and belt buckles for the driver.

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blurp wrote:

Yes, or you can swap the foam, if I remember right the foam from a passenger seatback fits a driver's seatback just fine, you'll probably have to cut holes for the lumbar support though.

On Sun, 08 Aug 2004 23:33:35 GMT, the illustrious "James Sweet" favored us with the following prose:

Well I saw the swap that put Prelude seats in and it certainly helps me feel confident that it *can* be done. I was looking at fancy expensive racing seats on the Mantaray Motorsports website and they sell an adapter kit that they claim will allow the installation of their seats into my old volvo:

This is also encouraging as it may be possible to use this adapter on any seat. I don't have the knowledge or facilities to do too much welding but my brother-in-law does and may be coaxed into an easy side project that doesn't take up too much garage time.

As it stands, however, I've found no evidence yet that a straight one-to-one swap would work with any seat other than another Volvo seat (from around the same time). Too bad.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

blurp

What color of leather seats do you have ? Black or tan ? Do you need the leather skins for the both the upper and lower parts of the seat or just one part ?

I can sell you some good leather skins so all you'll have to do is go out and get a decent replacement seat from any pre '86 240 and recover it with the skins I send you. I'll even supply you with all the upholstery hog rings you need to swap the upholstery on your seat. It's a little easier to do with a proper pair of hog ring pliers but you can get by with just a regular pair of pliers.

Roger

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blurp wrote:

I tried to respond to the e-mail you sent me but it bounced back. I need your real e-mail address to be able to respond to it.

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blurp wrote: