Bench-to-(TRD) Bucket Swap in 2006 Tacoma -- Boom!

Recently completed a Bench to Bucket Conversion in my 2006 Regular Cab Tacoma (4x4, 5 speed). I hope my photos and notes help streamline the process for future moders (go for it, it’s not as bad as you think!).

Huge shout-out to TacomaBuzz, Kelsom, and Yoytoda for their previous threads and instructions on this topic (see links at end of post). My back thanks you, my girlfriend thanks you, and all of my future passengers, collectively, thank you.

First, a glimpse at the glorious result (seats and console from a 2005 TRD):






Mission accomplished!



The Install

The pictures don’t perfectly flow with my recommended installation order, it took me a couple weekends to acquire the hardware and finish the install and I installed the drivers seat before the console. However, if I were to do this again I would follow this order:

I. Remove Bench Seat
II. Remove Old Console
III. Remove Bench Seat Wiring & Sensors
IV. Install Weight Sensor into Passenger Bucket Seat
V. Organize the Wires
VI. Install New Console
VII. Install New Seats
VIII. Buckles


I. Remove Bench Seat
Sorry for the lack of photos here, however, the process is very straight forward. Six bolts to remove and and two wires to disconnect (grab a flashlight).
(a) Disconnect the battery and wait a few minutes, failure to do so could set-off your airbag light!
(b) Disconnect the bench seat wiring from the cab-floor wiring on both driver and passenger sides.
(c) Remove the bench-seat floor bolts and the seat-belt receptacle bolts; need 14mm socket and perhaps a mid-sized breaker bar.


II. Remove Old Console







III. Remove Bench Seat Wiring & Sensors







IV. Install Weight Sensor into Passenger Bucket Seat
Again, sorry for the lack of photos here, however, the installation is essentially the same as the removal. Disengage the cloth covers, push up on the cushion, slide sensor inside.



V. Organize the Wires!







VI. Install New Console

















VII. Install New Seats
Eight bolts total. I found it easier to do the front two bolts first. Torque spec is 27lbs.


VIII. Seat Belt Buckles
(1) The Bench-seat Buckles do not fit the Bucket-Seat Receptacles, so you've got two options here, (a) swap the seat belt systems in their entirety; or (b) grind down with Bench-Buckles to fit the smaller Bucket-Seat Receptacles. I went with the grinding option. Note: for me, the smaller-ground buckles still latch into the old Bench-Seat Receptacles—so it shouldn't be an issue if you ever need to reverse the seat-swap. Obviously only grind as much as needed.

(2)
Install dummy or false buckles into the Bench-Seat Receptacles to turn-off the indicator lights.

I spoke with Adam over at CravenSpeed and he graciously setup a 10% discount coupon for anything on their website, which includes these nifty false buckles:
http://www.cravenspeed.com/chimex/

Note, the coupon code is case sensitive: TacomaWorld2014


**Credits & Kudos**
Shout-out to TacomaBuzz, Kelsom, and Yoytoda for the following threads (read 'em!):

The encyclopedia on the Bench to Bucket mod:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/te...bout-swapping-2nd-gen-bench-seat-buckets.html

More details on removing the occupant detection sensor:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...upant-detection-system-aftermarket-seats.html

How to fool the seat rail sensor:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/162390-non-airbag-buckets-into-2010-reg-cab.html

 

Nice write up! Just saw your passenger seat on craigslist while doing my routine "Tacoma" search for worcester and the area...

Too bad it's not a drivers seat...I bought a used 2010 w/ 78,000 hard miles from someone 300lbs and wearing sandpaper pants...I think a new seat would do wonders...But I only commute 10 miles a day so It's not that big of a deal...

 

Thanks!

BTW, I'm super jealous of your truck man. I really, really, really, really wanted a 4cyl access cab a few years back when I was in the market but couldn't find a used one ANYWHERE. I hope you absolutely cherish that thing. haha.

Also, during my two year saga in search of seats I came across a really beat up pair and poked around for prices on re-surfacing/stuffing. I found a guy in Oxford (could have been Auburn, though) who could do it for around $200. I lost the guy's business card but the referral came by way of Advanced Auto Body (Park Ave, Worcester), they could probably get you in touch with him if you're interested.

 

Cool...Maybe when the wife is asking what I want for this or that...I can ask for refinished seats

I got the truck at Ira in danvers...It was traded in on a friday, showed up on their inventory on a saturday and I put a $200 deposit on a sunday after a cursory checkout..It was a mess...as the previous owner had coffee/dirt/seat tear (repaired with some kind of spreadable seat bonding goop) But it cleaned up nice and I got a great deal...
The guy couldn't understand why I was so pushy...He didn't realize they were about 2K lower than others for the same truck. The used 4cyl manuals 4wd access are impossible to find.

 

Nice work!

 

Wow, Ira Danvers huh, I'll keep them in mind. What a find, truly a needle in the haystack.

 

Great job

 

Nice!


Dummy Buckles
http://www.cravenspeed.com/chimex/

 

Thanks for the link! I can't believe I didn't think to Google "dummy buckle." Been putting up with that stupid indicator light for months now. Slowly blinking me to death.

I'd been planning to go to the local pull-a-part and find something "close enough" to grind and fit, but for $20, well worth avoiding that headache.

 

Updated/cleaned up a few things in my original post, I'll snap some pics of my "ground" seat buckles this weekend to give everyone an idea of "how much."

Additionally, I posted this info above but I spoke with Adam over at CravenSpeed and he created a 10% discount coupon for anything on their site. I just used it and can confirm it works!

Note, the coupon code is CaSe sensitive: TacomaWorld2014

 

OP, about how long did this take? More than 3 hours?

 

Nice right up op

 

Well, took me about 1.5 years to find all the parts (seats & console) lol, but I'd estimate the time spent working on the actual install was +/- 12 hours. Due to various complications the project got strung out over several days so I wasted a lot of time just getting set-up or breaking everything down. It's the only vehicle I own, so a trip to the store required re-installing the old seat, re-connecting the wiring harness and battery...ect.

Also, I didn't realize the rear-part of the center console required that mounting bracket you see in the photos so that complication killed Day 1 of the install. And it took me three hardware store trips before I finally had all the bolts and screws.

Provided that you acquired absolutely everything you needed, and/or had another vehicle to use in case something came up, you could probably cut the install time down to maybe 8ish hours.

By far, the biggest time suck is removing the passenger occupant sensor and the wiring harness from the bench seat—total PITA.

Too bad you're out in CA, I've got a really nice extra bucket seat for sale
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...r-side-bucket-seat-airbag-like-new-300-a.html

 

I know, I saw that recently. Just found a pair of buckets off a 12 TRD that I'm picking up, with center console, so I got lucky.

 

That's sweet. They must be in great shape, the ones I found were from an '05, good padding but lots of stains.

May the gods be with you on the airbag system stuff, I'm guessing those new trucks are a whole different can of worms? Don't forget to take pics!

 

Ya, I'm gonna have to clean the heck out of them and throw some wet okole's on them too. Ya, I hope it's not too[/B bad but I'll PM you if I run into anything problematic

 

Great Post! So quick question: Is it not possible to use the seat belt components from the bench seat??

Also, Can you please elaborate on the ziptieing and taping all the wires together to eliminate the possibility of the airbag light coming on.

 

Thanks, glad you found it helpful! Quick answers to your questions for now.

I've been meaning to update this thread with more pictures that detail exactly what I did, but it's going to have to wait a bit longer. Totally swamped with final exams at the moment.

Is it not possible to use the seat belt components from the bench seat??
Bench and Bucket model trucks use different components for their seat belt systems. Most importantly, the metal seat-belt clip on Bench model trucks is slightly wider than the ones used in Bucket model trucks. As a result, the Bench-model seat belt clips will not fit into Bucket-model receptacles (i.e., the plastic thing you click the seat-belt into). Additionally, Bench-model receptacles cannot but used with the center console of a Bucket-model truck, the Bench-model receptacles are simply far too large.

As a solution, I (carefully) used an angle grinder to "trim/narrow" my Bench-model seat belt clips so that they would engage into the receptacles on the bucket seats. I'd recommend using a file to dull the edges after grinding and only grind as much as you need to get the clip to engage—don't go hog wild. My seat belt clips will still engage with the bench-seat receptacles, which I've stashed under the seat (see next response). Note that I'm avoiding the issue of attaching the Bucket seat receptacles to the truck's wiring harness. See answer to next question for more details.

Please elaborate on the ziptieing and taping all the wires together to eliminate the possibility of the airbag light coming on.
Essentially what I did was strip the entire wiring harness from the Bench seat: rail sensors, passenger seat weight sensor, seat belt receptacles, absolutely everything, like everything — and then reconnected the entire harness to the truck. In doing so, the entire airbag/seatbelt system remains "intact," which keeps the airbag and seatbelt lights off. That is, if you remembered to disconnect the truck's battery!

First, I installed the passenger seat weight sensor into the new bucket seat. Second, I took the rest of the wiring harness and attached it back to the truck, i.e., clip it back into the connections on the cab floor. Third, I electrical taped and zip-tied a random piece of metal to the seat-rail sensor (see this guy's post: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/162390-non-airbag-buckets-into-2010-reg-cab.html). Fourth, I bought some "dummy buckles" for the Bench-seat receptacles, which are still attached to the wiring harness and stashed under my new seats. These dummy buckles fool the seat belt sensor.

 

Thanks so much for the reply. I appreciate it a lot. I am picking up my bucket seats this afternoon and will be jumping into the swap in the next few days.

I am going to try to utilize the bench seat seat belt receptacles instead of the bucket seat receptacles.

Is there only one seat-rail sensor or two?

 

Just looked, there are two seat-rail sensors.

I used some random metal brackets that I found at a hardware store. Anything 1" wide and 2-3" long should be sufficient. The sensor's magnet is pretty strong but I zip-tied and wrapped electrical tape around the whole thing, for good measure.