Leather 4runner seats in Tacoma write up

Greetings my fellow Toyota fanatics. I decided to ditch my smelly tan cloth seats for some leather 4 runner seats I found on craigs list. I was under the impression they would "bolt right up". Well turns out its a little more complicated than that. So here is how I have spent the past two afternoons and the resulting finished functional product. I found these seats for $120 for both front seats tan leather non-power with lumbar support and height adjustable drivers seat.

So I stared with the passenger side as and quickly noticed a big difference in the front right side mount. Everything else matched up. The 4runner seats were at a 45degree slope and the Tacoma seats mounted at 90degress.


At first I thought about just trying to bend them in to submission but truthfully any thing worth doing is worth doing correctly. So first thing I did was pull both mount/rail systems off the right side and hacked the front mounts off. As few test fits, welds and some grinding wheel action later the Tacoma front right mounts were on the 4 runner rails.


I put them back on the seats and attempted to mount them. I shit my pants when I realized that the back right mount was off about 3/4' of where is should be. I guess my mock fittings were a little off. So rather than redo all that I had done I just decided to relocate the rear mount also Some more intimate time with the trusty grinding wheel and some flat black spray paint and we are good to go.


Next I switched out the Female pieces of the seat belts as they did not lock together in my trial run.

Now on day two it was time for the drivers side. The drivers seat was 20x more difficult of disassemble/reassemble as the mechanism that allowed you to raise and lower the seat height consist of a bunch of levers gear and drive shaft that I was not familiar with. Also I had to take extra special care when putting it in the vice as no to bend any of the parts out of whack.
Same deal on the front mounts and flat black paint.

I was a little more meticulous/forcefully in my final installation of the drivers seat and did not have to relocated the back bracket. Any ways here is out it tuned out. They are a hell of a lot nicer than the cloth seats and fully functional. Enjoy my friends I know I did.

 

Nice job.

 

Thank you for documenting this, awesome job!

I'm positive all the grind and sweat was worth it cause I just sold my 3rd gen T4R for a 1st gen Taco and know exactly why you did this. The Taco seats are just plain crap compared to the T4R.

 

Thanks yall I'm really pleased with the results, in fact the 4runner seats seem to go back even further than the stock Tacoma ones did and give you a lot more optional leg room than before. Really nice If your tall or want to put your seat back and take a little nap between being drunk and hung over.

 

I so want new seats but do not feel comfortable getting into a project like this.

 

Silly question, how far off we're the taco seat tracks from bolting on the runner seats?

 

The hardest part is not cutting your fingers off or getting set on fire the rest is cake

Way off trust me I tried. Not sure the exact year of the 4runner I pulled them out of but it was defiantly 96-02. Look closely at the photos above its kind of cut out but the top part of the rail/mount system where it mounts to the back portion of the seat is way different. With a few other minute differences that make it impossible.

 

Clearly you underestimate my knobitude

 

The first step is admitting you have a problem, the next step buying a welder.

 

In the local pick a part a Tacoma is seldom if ever seen but always a row of 4 runners to choose from.I think its actually a better made seat with bigger bolsters.I suspect this is the route i will take on the Tacoma i picked up.I did my hardbody up with 4 runner seats and they are a much better seat overall compared to Nissan, IMO.

 

Nice looks like it was worth it! Looks nice!

 

Hey hey. So I picked up a set of electric T4R seats out of a 99 or something and I'm concerned about accessing the xtra cab rear from the passenger side because the seats don't go forward like the stock ones. Do the ones you picked move forward on the sliders to allow easy access? I'm also wondering if the foam from the 4runner passenger seat I got can be swapped to the tacoma seat frame. I don't really care if the passenger seat is electric. It would of course get seat heaters.

 

You can look into swapping seat pans.

 

I will do just that and report my findings. Thanks!

 

What about swapping just the bottom rails? Tried this with some Camry seats, but they were not similar enough.

 

Get new hog rings and use the proper hog ring pliers.

 

The upper seat frame is not the same. Short of a welder and dynamite he'd be opening a huge can of worms

 

Really? Damn, it look like it would work considering they're the same height and the holes for the headrest are the same.

 

Well shit.

 

Again, can't you split the slider apart by drills ng/grinding off the stops and moving your rails to the 4runner seats? I'd bet they are the same.