I have been looking at alternatives to recovering my ripped front seats (Local places want 200+ a seat). While surfin mud for seat swaps I came across someone who had put in pt cruiser seats and said it was a bolt in swap. Not that I don't want to make brackets but I really like the motto "Work smarter not harder".
Mildot,
A hearty MASSIVE thanks for this thread and the pics and tidbits. I did this recently and good god, so much better. A real pain working in the cold but worth it for the 3 mile test ride tonight. Thanks so much for the info, pics and everything. Only paid $50 for the front set but it was quite the ride to get them...
A few tips.
- If you got the lower frame with the PT Cruiser seats, reuse the 13 mm bolts for the front tabs, but reuse the rears too if you have spare 13mm nuts.
- I've found on my 62 that the slotted tab should just be (front to back) set at full spread, set tight, and then the next step. At least with the seats I had.
- use a hammer to "persuade" the tabs/ears(the things that bolt to body) wider and that makes it easier.
- Properly set each "body to tab" bolt perfectly a few rows of threads They are long. Then rock the seat to a good position. This will make sense when installing in the cold with a hammer. It helps to align the tabs.
- almost every PT cruiser made in these '01-05 model years were brown grey. And most sellers LIE to you when you say bluish grey or brownish grey? Or neutral grey they say. Liars.
- Fall River, MA has a really great Portuguese/Azores restaurant with not only rocking food, but some killer white sangria. PM for details. This place was kind of close to the seller.
- not all passenger seats have the armrest apparently.
- FJ60 seat horns/ears/tabs are LOWER than FJ62 ones. OMFG I wanted to kill somebody and myself because I thought they were the same. I pulled the passenger 60 seat thinking it was all the same, but the ears/tabs/horns are about half the height on a 60 compared to a 62. Oh well, got to practice removing/drilling horns on the 60 rails. UGH, wish I could have known that first.
- Beer is good
- Minus 20 wind chill is not good. Ever.
- I love having a drill press.
- I need better drill bits.
- Homemade white sangria that my girlfriend made up needs more alcohol to not freeze immediately in this New England weather. More alcohol really helped this project along.
- PT Cruiser seats are worth it. For the price and simplicity.
But hells yeah! These are nice. I scored a nice brown grey for my blue grey interior but they are in NICE shape. Searched for about 5 weeks for leather all over the east coast.
Found some teenager who had crashed his family PT a week or so ago, got him to agree to a nice price, hold them for a week and I got them and took the GF for a side trip to Fall River, MA for some lip smacking food and all is now well with the universe.
So Mildot, thanks much for the writeup. The pics and tips helped so, so much.
