My Bench to Bucket Adventure

Purchased 2 bucket seats from an early 2000's Honda Civic from Pick N Pull for $50 yesterday.

Will require some "slight modification" to get them to fit in.

Seats themselves are in really good condition for junkyard seats. No rips, tears, burns. Maybe one little nasty mark on each, near the bottom of the back.

I got home and tore the D/S seat down the frame. Was able to separate the bottom frame from the back section. Just 4 bolts. Should make it easier when it comes time to figure out how I'll bolt the track to truck, won't have to deal with trying to maneuver an entire seat, just the bottom track/seat.

Cleaning the fabric from the D/S seat currently and will reassemble the back section first. Plan is to check out some of the arts/crafts stores around and see if I can't find something similar to memory foam. I want to add a layer of said foam into the seat when I put the fabric back on.

My camera broke, so I fixed it. But I screwed up the flasher...so I broke it again. I don't have pics. I'll work on getting some.

Would like to be taking the bench seat out this coming Friday so I can figure out how I'll mount the D/S bucket and get it installed. Not a huge worry on the P/S.

Whatever electronics are in the bench seat, I'll find a way to transfer them over the bucket seat. Weight senor in the P/S, there are some sensors that are just attached to a bracket under the seat....Should be fun.

 

Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

 

Cleaned the seat fabric up today. Used some real good cleaner my pops had then brushed all the little fuzzies off with a scrub brush. Look pretty good. Assembled the D/S seat back section. Reinstalled the foam, Put the fabric back over the seat/foam.

Wife kinda gave the go-ahead on a new memory foam topper. Was looking around craigslist for something cheap to cut up. Wife said it'd be ok to buy one and cut up the one we currently have cause it does have a section ripped off. Found a few king sizers for $40/50. One for $50 is still in the packaging.

What she doesn't know...I went and cut me out a little square off our current foam topper down by where it's already messed up.

Put that nice little square of memory foam between the seat cushion and fabric....mmmmm.....

Play with the bottom base this week.

 

subbed

 

I actually took the bench out today. Rode home on the highway with it in the bed of the truck, with no tailgate. Strangely, drivers behind me gave me a wide birth...WTF??? Shit's roped in there good. OH NOES! Why'd my airbag light come on??

From looking at the sensors in/on the bottom of the bench, transfer should be painless. The weight sensor in the p/s portion looks to be straight forward switch over.

I am trying to keep it as un-invasive as I can so I'm trying to reuse OE bolt holes and brackets. The civic seat however is just ever so slightly wider than the bench related OE bolt holes. I should be able to overcome this with some slight grinding and drilling.

The rear OE bench seat bracket looks to be a valid mounting option after some slight modification to the civic seat brackets. Need to grind down the width of the rear civic mount so it fits in the OE bracket channel. Both the rear mounts on each bracket/seat have an angle, about 45 degrees. Then drill a hole through the OE bracket that lines up with the hole in the civic bracket, bolt them together, bolt the rear bolts to the floor.

The right rear mount of the civic seat lines up perfectly with the bolt hole that holds the seat buckles.

Camera is still fucked. Get a pic on my phone. Get some quality pics of everything when the D/S seat is installed.

Little later update: Wire harness from the bench is completely removed. Not much to it. Weight sensor is at the very bottom of the seat. Not much of a senor, rather a mini air mattress type material, about a 12inx12in square. Flipped the seat over, unhooked the springs (not much give to em) and out she came. Shouldn't have much trouble reinstalling the harness and sensors back into the truck/seats.

The base is sorta-kinda in position but not secured down. I don't feel like sitting on that stupid crate. Think I'll try the seat out tomorrow.

 

Good to hear the bench seat sensors come out easy, I have my project in the works too but I am still cleaning my seats up from the salvage yard.

 

A D/S bucket seat is a very close reality.

After spending a good while figuring out how to mount the seat, I think I've found a decent solution. As of now, I have 2 mounts affixed; the LF mount and RR mount. I will need to put some time into the LR mount to make it more secure. Since I have a LF and RR mount only, it still flex's a little if you push down on the LR portion of the seat.

I'd really like to get it back together by the end of tomorrow. Riding around without the back support section of a car seat fucking sucks.

I did drive around on the Civic seat base and cushion...very nice. So much better than that damn bench seat. Add a layer of memory foam into the seat cushion to make it even better.

 

Just installed my buckets, the tear down was hell at spots but it was so worth it!

 

Write-up on that? Assuming those are Tacoma seats, what did you have to do to connect the sensors?

 

These are Tacoma seats, sadly there isn't an inexpensive way to use the bucket airbag system since it is a whole different system so I transplanted my bench airbag system into the buckets. I will try to post a write-up sometime soon of the tear down.

 

So you started with airbag seats?

Damn... I'm looking for someone who has transplanted early buckets into an early RC. Everyone has either gone early bucket to a later truck and given up the airbags, or new buckets into an old truck.

 

The bench itself did not have airbags, 2005 trucks never had side airbags so I didn't have to mess with that.

 

I know that... was wondering about the buckets.

What I've been looking for and can't find an answer is if a set of 2008 or older buckets are "plug and play" with the 2008 or older bench harness.
It makes sense that they would be, there's no reason for a different connector other than the seat belt switch.

 

Idk know if you have checked out this thread, http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/te...bout-swapping-2nd-gen-bench-seat-buckets.html

but it looks like there isn't a Tacoma bucket that is a direct plug and play to the bench seat.

 

That thread doesn't apply to our trucks... it's a 2011 bench (with airbags) being fitted with non-airbag seats. Of course, he is going to have different connectors (and some legal liability if anyone is ever hurt in his truck, resale issues, etc....)

 

hmm, I see, well it looks like someone with your year of truck or maybe even a close year to your truck that has done the swap can help you out as far as the "plug and play" goes. I would have no idea, maybe Kelson has some info.

 

You just did

Taken it to your thread....