Best replacement seats

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

gotmud

gotmud

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
Threads
90
Messages
2,104
Location
Gilbert, AZ
Now that my 80 is my DD, I am looking for some more comfortable front seats. I realize almost anything could be made to work, but has anyone found a replacement seat that bolts right in or requires minimal fabrication? I am primarily interested in something I could find a in bone yard.
 
gotmud said:
Now that my 80 is my DD, I am looking for some more comfortable front seats. I realize almost anything could be made to work, but has anyone found a replacement seat that bolts right in or requires minimal fabrication? I am primarily interested in something I could find a in bone yard.
Click to expand...

Find a good upholstery shop and have the stock seat cushion built to how you like it. I spend $200 and went from pure hell to a cushy, comfortable ride. No leather work, no fabbing, still have power seats.

Nothing else bolts in. The Corbea Moab seats look like they would be excellent...but again, a good upholstery shop can get you exactly what you want cheaper.
 
Nay said:
Find a good upholstery shop and have the stock seat cushion built to how you like it. I spend $200 and went from pure hell to a cushy, comfortable ride. No leather work, no fabbing, still have power seats.

Nothing else bolts in. The Corbea Moab seats look like they would be excellent...but again, a good upholstery shop can get you exactly what you want cheaper.
Click to expand...

Thought about that, but my DS leather is trashed, PS isn't too far behind. I have custom seat covers on there now, but they still kill my back.
 
I have discussed this a few times with ginericlc, according to his research volvo seats from an s80, v70, or similar look to have the shallowest mounting depth. I have watched steelbay for the right set but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I did go sit in some that were still in the car, wow it was butt heaven. Hope this helps.

Jay
 
Just my $ 0,02: Some years ago Venezuela assembling plant released a special and limited edition with very expensive Recaro seats, I drived one and spoke with several owners and many if all were quite dissapointed.

Too stiff for long drives in a off-road vehicle, I believe the OEM are nicer on the body.

I don't know if any of you remember but there were a bussines in Champain, Illinois named Vision Research who developed and marketed for american made pickups and jeeps a seat with a front single balljoint and for the rear they used 4 coils and 2 adjustable oil shocks which dampened all the bumps of the road. This setup allowed control of up and down movement but also side movements. This is way better that the ones used in comercial trucks and motor homes which only damp the vertical ups and downs. But on a 4 wheel vehicle you have also sharp lateral movements.


They coupled the damping systems with Recaro seats and a complete 2 seat kit were up to $ 3,000.

I readed many customers review and all were very favorable, specially with people who had back problems.

The bussiness owner invested a lot of money to increase production and started to market it to dealers and tried to interest the 3 american car manufacturers but unfortunately nobody showed any interest and he closed the factory right away ( One of the employees told me he is a wealth man so for him money was no object).

Anyhow I bought from them two kits of all the suspension system without the seats and adapted them to my cruiser OEM seats.

Lo and behold this is perhaps the most amazing upgrade I did. I guess this is the only 80 series in the world which have this dampened seats and is a pleasure to drive.

When we do our year trip to the rain forest, a 2 day driving trip with more than 1000 miles each way we are the only ones from the group who arrive relaxed and ready for the next part of the trip, sleep better etc.

Unfortunately two of the adjustable shock absorbers are leaking oil through the seals, they are not serviceables and I contacted the shock manufacturer and they told me it was a special order, and of course they can manufacture new units from me but at more than $200 each one and a minimum order is 10 sets !!!!!

So I guess one day my seats will be retired, because without the dampening shocks working well my seats jump like a bouncing ball :crybaby:
 
I have been thinking about seats out of an old Volkswagen Vanagon. The seats have adjustable armrests on both sides but are still a fairly compact seat and don't sit up very high. Not sure how comfortable they are on the long haul but short term they feel good.
 
I'll bet a pair of Lexus GX470 seats would bolt right in..
 
177mph said:
I'll bet a pair of Lexus GX470 seats would bolt right in..
Click to expand...

Not trying to be smart, but do you have any evidence that would suggest this?

While it would be a good candidate, I haven't gotten a close up look to see if the mounting holes match up.

One might also think the 100 series seats would swap in, but it's not the case at all...
 
I had an 2003 GX and although I never did the measurements - I know the GX is a little skinnier (based on the prado) and so those seats might fit in terms of overall size. As far as bolt right in? Well - I said I would bet - but not too much cash! Be an interesting idea to try....

Plus those GX seats are nice....
 
all ii kno is i was watching a 80 on ebay a while ago and the guy said he was selling it because he was having back problems. He said it was do to the seat in the 80.... said he never had back probs before.

I thought he was full of sheeite, till I finaly got mine.

I have to say even with all of the adjustments on the seat it has to be the most uncomfortable 50,000.00 dollar truck seat I have prob. ever sat in.
My 88 4runner SR5 seats were more comfortable
Come to think of it I bet if you did not care about power seats and leather or if you were willing to recover I bet they would bolt in
I have a 88 turbo runner just sitting in my drive.
I Wont be seeing my new LX for a while as it has to be shipped to me, but when it comes in I will try and see if they fit.
I think the runner seats from that year have better lumbar support.
the 80 seats are to sloppy and wide, they don,t provide enough support.
 
jasonomni said:
all ii kno is i was watching a 80 on ebay a while ago and the guy said he was selling it because he was having back problems. He said it was do to the seat in the 80.... said he never had back probs before.

I thought he was full of sheeite, till I finaly got mine.

I have to say even with all of the adjustments on the seat it has to be the most uncomfortable 50,000.00 dollar truck seat I have prob. ever sat in.
My 88 4runner SR5 seats were more comfortable
Come to think of it I bet if you did not care about power seats and leather or if you were willing to recover I bet they would bolt in
I have a 88 turbo runner just sitting in my drive.
I Wont be seeing my new LX for a while as it has to be shipped to me, but when it comes in I will try and see if they fit.
I think the runner seats from that year have better lumbar support.
the 80 seats are to sloppy and wide, they don,t provide enough support.
Click to expand...

I would be interested to hear if the SR5 seats whould swap in. My '92 SR5 4Runner seats were the most comfortable, durable seats I've ever had. I don't care about power, but the tilting headrest on the SR5 seats would be nice. Please post if you try a set out. I don't think the brackets will swap, but if you can find a way to put the 4Runner seats on the 80 bracket, it should be perfect.

Not to mention the fact that used mini-truck seats are a dime a dozen at the pick 'n' pull. 80s... not so much.
 
I know you're looking for something that requires minimal fab work to fit, but these are the top of my list for replacement seats. I'm sure they would require a bit of modification but I'm sure it wouldn't be any harder than any other seat. These are Recaros from a Mitsubishi Evo VIII or IX. There are three styles, one is cloth (black microfiber bolsters and blue centers), full leather (all black), and the MR style (leather/alcantara mix). I have the cloth seats in my Evo and love them. I have planned on finding a set to put in my 80 for a while, just haven't been able to save up the money just yet.

Should be lots of them for sale online since quite a few Evo owners swap them out for higher end seats (if that's possible) like Sparcos or Brides. You could probably find some at a salvage yard too, but it would probably take some calling around.

Just an idea in case you decide to try something that isn't a direct bolt-in.

Here's a shot of the cloth Recaros like I have....
15.jpg



Here is a shot of the MR style ones...
mitsubishi-evo-9-2006-20051122003430781.jpg


The leather ones are identical but all black leather.
 
Since you have an evo, would you mind telling me the measurement of how far apart the two front mouting holes are?

This seems to be the crucial issue.
80 series mount holes are ~14in apart while many other seats i've looked into are much wider. I wanted to swap in some cressida seats as they are the most comfortable seat i've ever sat in, but the mounts run 18-19in apart making it a little tough to fit in the stock seat spot.
 
That's what is really amazing to me. The 80 seats just suck. I mean, for one thing, the fronts don't come up enough in relationship to the back of the bucket. I always feel like I'm leaning forward. Compared to the 100 seats, the 80 seats are a garbage design. Hell, compared to the manual cloth seats, the adjustable leather seats are a garbage design. Really half-assed on Toyota's part.
 
Cruiserhead05 said:
Since you have an evo, would you mind telling me the measurement of how far apart the two front mouting holes are?

This seems to be the crucial issue.
80 series mount holes are ~14in apart while many other seats i've looked into are much wider. I wanted to swap in some cressida seats as they are the most comfortable seat i've ever sat in, but the mounts run 18-19in apart making it a little tough to fit in the stock seat spot.
Click to expand...

I'll get some measurements. Doesn't seem like it would be that hard to fab some sort of adapter or something to make them work if the measurements are different.
 
ok one note about these Recaro's for those interested is that they are totally manual adjustment. They are a real performance seat which are almost all manual adjustment. Even the seats in Porsches and Lambos are manual. Just thought this was worth pointing out since some people really want power adjustment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom