Front bench or not? (1 Viewer)

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Ok and let finish this serie of posts with the seat belts (even if it's not really related to the debate bench or not).

I found some Toyota seat belts from a Corolla of the 70's.

So even if they are not Land Cruiser seat belts they are OEM Toyota and period correct... and they have a nice trick in their sleeve.

These seat belts are hybrids 2-point / 3-point and hybrids retractable / fixed.

They can look as a standard 2-point retractable seat belt:

The buckle is really nice, beautiful Toyota metal button to open them, textured casing.

And here is the trick, they are provided with a 3rd part that you can hook to the clip:

And tada you got a 3-point seatbelt:

I find that in the spirit it really matches the FJ40 because you would have your nice 3-point seatbelt with the hardtop on and when you remove the hardtop you could keep your seatbelt as a 2-point.


The shoulder part it non-retractable but that works nicely with the hip part that is retractable and does not bother:

 

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I'm back with a new seat purchase

I have no exact info on the source but my guess is, it's a 1973 driver seat for bench configuration. The seat has clearly already been restored once in its life but the vinyl pattern match the 73-78 seats look. Also the how is made the base of the seat with the springs etc. match the 73-78 seats and is different from the <72 seats.
1973 on the left - 1975-1978 on the right

As expected the 1973 is 48cm wide and matches my original seat structure on my 40. Versus 43cm for the 1975 on the right.
What I had not expected is the difference of height. the 1975+ has a back 50cm tall, my original 1974 passenger bench also has a 50cm tall back. But this 1973 seat has a 47cm tall back, so it's shorter!

Both have the posts for the headrest.


So... The research for the perfect seat continues... that would be a seat only produced between 09/73 and 07/74... But it would be the perfect mix, 48cm wide and 50cm tall.

In the mean time... it's in!!

You can feel the 3cm height difference, on my passenger bench my shoulders are supported and also the headrest comes at the top of my head. On the driver seat my shoulders aren't supported and can go toward the back, the headrest comes at the middle of my head which is fine for safety but not so much to rest my head.

That being said the seat itself with its restoration is a lot more confortable that my passenger bench, they added foam on top of the original foam and some kind of very dense (wool?) blanket over the spring. It makes a world of difference with the passenger where I can feel the springs.... would actually classified it as comfy.
restored vs original