And Seat Upgrades out there?

I am seriously wanting to upgrade my stock buckets seats on my 2003 double cab, and was wondering if anyone has already done this? Either by buying new seats, getting racing seats, or doing a reupholstering job that provides a lot better back/thigh support. This is my daily driver so a good seat would do miracles. I know options are limited but a little fab work never hurt nobody. Would love to see pictures and your upgrade story, thank y'all!

 

I have a feeling that a local upholstery shop would be your best / cheapest bet.

 

Several people have done seat swaps from various vehicles. Iirc, Scion, Lexus, etc...

They are rarely, if ever direct bolt in, and you have to at least partially fabricate new rails, but lots of people have done it.

Search around, you'll find them.

 

I really like either the Corbeau or Recaro seats and their seat tracks that bolt right up to the OEM seat track holes on the floor. No need to fabricate or cut anything. That being said, I've seen some pretty good seat retrofits with car seats from other vehicles with some custom fabrication to fit the OEM seat tracks on this forum. I've also seen some people pull seats from a 4Runner Limited with the lumbar support. There's also aftermarket seat covers with pads that you can add to your truck seat yourself. Okole or Cover Kings has that type of seat cover with padding & heating in it.

 

I often dream of doing something about my bench seat What I'd like most, I think, is to keep the stock bench frame and put in padding from a modern car or truck seat. Something more like a bucket seat with proper bolsters. I'm sure it'd be more work than fabricating seat tracks for a swap, but I also think it'd be fun.

You could probably even set them up to be heated and air conditioned. I've only liked heated seats on motorcycles, but air conditioned seats are the best thing about modern cars, imho

 

I reupholstered my own leather seats in my Land Cruiser, and swapped out the front with a Sparco.

It's like having a clean set of wheels or new headlights; really makes things stand out and look like new.

 

Corbeau Are direct bolt in with their brackets.

 

I have early 2000s Celica seats in my 2000 reg cab. Just drilled new holes in the floor and made sure that the feet that need it got a spacer to level them out. Been holding strong for over 10 years now. I got rear-ended once back in 2014 and there is no evidence of them even budging. I race this thing at least once per month(or try to when the weather is right) doing autocross and they work great.

 

Imma upgrade my seats one day, don't know what with though.

 

Recaro is super expensive....
Corbeau is way more realistic and available with bolt in brackeats. That's the way I'm going to go.

 

I will say, a lot of Corbeau owners seem to be very unhappy with their seats compared to those that own other brands.

More often than not I read about how uncomfortable they are (subjective), and most importantly, their lack of quality. Maybe this is the reason why they have a great return policy? So if you don't like them, you can always return them.

I opted against Corbeau and went Sparco instead.

If you can, I'd look up Authorized Retailers in your area and check them out in person before committing.

 

I have a set of Corbeau Sports, and they were definitely an upgrade over the stock seats with worn out foam. But they really aren't the same quality as a good OEM seat in my opinion. My old 7th gen Accord with 180k on the clock had more comfortable seats that fit my body better. If I was doing it again, I'd probably look for some clean seats from a Honda/Acura coupe.

That said, if I ever come into a big chunk of money I'll be buying Scheel Mann seats.

 

I totally dove down the rabbit hole with air conditioned seats yesterday

You can get what seem (to me) to be high quality retrofits kits, but I'd have to live on the hot side of the sun to spend that much ($750 for two seats) on a couple fans for my posterior.

So, I dove into figuring out what they're using and how. You can definitely build one of these units cheap(ish) by sourcing the individual components and fabricobbling the ancillaries. It's even quite a bit cheaper to buy factory Lexus assemblies than it is to get one of those retrofit kits, but there's plenty of work left to be done if you choose that route.

Anyway, let's hope I do get around to this project someday so I can write a build thread on it before I forget it all.

For anyone who's interested in the basics - the "thermoelectric device" they use in that kit is a peltier module with a heatsink and coldsink on it, and the air "distribution pad" is a 10mm thick spacer mesh. The spacer mesh allows airflow through the fabric even if a gorilla is sitting on it.

The trickest part of the kit is the temperature controller, and they aren't even offering heat and cold (totally doable with the right controller), just different levels of cold.

 

Ha ha Ha I was quoted by a auto upholstery shop such a high price to just rebuild a seat color matching did not need to be done.

I swapped in 83 Celica seats I had for just the time spent.

The Volvo SUV seats look comfortable .

 

So when it comes to donor seats from other cars, I'm seeing folks mention Celica, Impreza, Accord.... what else is good? Gotta know what to look for.

 

Well, that's subjective.

It's whatever you find comfortable. Every ass is different.

With that said, it's fair to say any seat is better than the stock seat.

 

Preach

 

The stock seats were just fine when the Truck rolled off the line.

20 plus years 250,000 miles any seat most likely would be an upgrade .

 

Holy thread revival batman. FWIW I imagine getting seats reupholstered is EXPENSIVE. I got only one cushion done on my RSX seats in the tacoma and it cost $225. Got quotes for $350 too.

 

Yeah, it really isn't hard to customize the seat pad any way you like. I mean you could whittle up the perfect cushions to fit your ass with super high quality foam for $0 (foam is everywhere), but then you have to get the thing reupholstered why can't my girlfriend be happy with a wool blanket and some bungee cords?!!