100 Series Rear Seats in an 80

[fullthrottle]

WTF you may ask???

Thought I would part with some knowledge.

So the family wanted to go offroading, yet the wife wanted a full 3point belt in the middle rear. Did a bit of research and there were no real off-the-shelf options, so I made my own.

Sourced some 100 series rear seats which has a full center belt integrated.
Lazer cut out of 10mm plate steel a supporting frame that bolts into the existing 80 series seat bolt holes with additional subframe bolting. The 100 series mounts bolt straight to that and BINGO!

Enjoy...

 

[nukegoat]

It would be cool to see the finished product

 

[fullthrottle]

It would be cool to see the finished product

Yeah it's all done. Will find the pics and upload.

 

[Mdej3]

Bruuuuhhh

 

[lcgeek]

Did you happen to run rear AC while you're at it?

 

[Shanle929]

Any new pictures of this completed? How much to make one for me?

 

[fj4068]

Any chance of more pictures of the final results? Each day these noisy things get a bit taller...

 

[fullthrottle]

Yeah sorry all. Finally took some more photos, even though it's been in for over 2 years

 

[DocuDude]

Awesome!!

That's your middle row with a center shoulder buckle & a better 60/40 split seat?
If so, would you consider fabbing another metal bracket I can purchase?
I need a shoulder belt for the center seat in my middle row.

 

[yoda-g3]

Awesome!!

That's your middle row with a center shoulder buckle & a better 60/40 split seat?
If so, would you consider fabbing another metal bracket I can purchase?
I need a shoulder belt for the center seat in my middle row.

I'd be interested as well, I have 5 kids and have had the same concerns for safety.

 

[fj4068]

Thank you for the idea and snapshots. Looks like just the ticket for us.

 

[Qball]

Super cool!!! Gotta be awesome to have access tools to do stuff like that.

 

[fullthrottle]

Here is the support frame underneath.
10mm laser cut plate. Needed to adapt the 80 series mounts to the 100 series.

 

[asutherland]

@thatcabledude this might be what you were thinking of?

@fullthrottle , do you have any computer file for the frame cut? That you would be willing to share?

 

[thatcabledude]

@thatcabledude this might be what you were thinking of?

Yessir it is!

 

[digitalmarker]

Here is the support frame underneath.
10mm laser cut plate. Needed to adapt the 80 series mounts to the 100 series.

View attachment 2412142

Do you have a file with dimensions or any way you can make another one of these for sale? Urgently need to do this in my 80 as my kids are now out of child seats and into boosters and I need a middle three point belt as well.

 

[zapatius]

Do you have a file with dimensions or any way you can make another one of these for sale? Urgently need to do this in my 80 as my kids are now out of child seats and into boosters and I need a middle three point belt as well.

10 posts in three years, I would say you're unlikely to hear from him.

 

[digitalmarker]

10 posts in three years, I would say you're unlikely to hear from him.

Said he was last seen in September 2020 so thought it was worth a shot.

 

[digitalmarker]

Wanted to update this thread. First off have to give credit to the OP for the inspiration as I was in the same situation as him with 3 kids in boosters and needed a functional shoulder belt for the middle seat.

I first explored a vendor in the UK that comes to you in a van and installs a seatbelt behind the 2nd row for the middle seat. They don't have a presence stateside, and would not ship the kit to me to install by myself. I also bought a 5 point harness from Wesco, which was my backup solution albeit a less favorable one since the belt is either too constricting or too loose.

Since anything worth doing is worth doing right, I went with the same solution as the OP. I sourced a 2nd row seat and all accompanying hardware and brackets from a junkyard, as well as the 2nd row pillar seatbelts. Then reached out Stellar Built in Sacramento, a 4x4 custom fab shop, and shared the two fuzzy pictures from this thread with them. These guys know what they are doing, and that was enough for them to get started.

They built a bracket from 1/4" plate, similar to the original, and welded the 100 series mounting hardware to them. The plate itself mounts to the original 80 series mounting holes. The carpet fits under it nicely too. Best part is with this design the seat retained all of its folding functionality, and are fairly easily removable like the stock seats.

It sounded like a couple of folks were interested in this mod, so may be worth contacting the shop since they now have a design they can reproduce now that they did the initial R&D.

The only other thing I have to figure out this weekend is whether the 100 series seatbelts will bolt into the 80 series seatbelt locations. For some unknown reason, the 80 series buckles don't work with the 100 series receivers. The backup plan is to swap the 80 series receivers onto the 100 series seats, but I have no idea how to take the seats apart to swap them out. So hopefully the 100 series seatblets will bolt up.

Hope this helps folks with 3 kids continue using their LC for family outings. My kids are absolutely stoked to get back into the 80.

Here are some pictures of the process and the final product:

 

[fullthrottle]

Nice work on the mounting plate. Yeah haven't been online for some time, but this time I received an email notification. Go figure?

I don't have the measurements. I made a wooden template and had the seat mounts bolted to it for a temporary fit. Then gave it to the laser cutter and he programmed it into his system.
The machine did all the work and cut it out of 10mm plate.

That business has since closed, so took the measurements with them :-(