3rd gen seat swap question

I badly need to replace my front seats on my 96 4Runner. I found a set through a friend for $100 but they are out of a 93. Does anyone know if they will fit? I found a few threads mentioning it, but no one ever confirmed if they do. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Bump

Anyone?

 

No Idea man. Maybe try t4r or something...I don't think something 10+ older is gonna fit very well. Where there's a will, there's a way, but I think you're best bet is a junk yard or something

 

None of the junkyards around here have any seats that are in good shape.

I bought them anyway. I plan on just swapping the seat tracks over somehow. The seats I got are in excellent condition for being from a 93. Really they are only 3 years older than my 4runner. I'll update on the progress if it does or doesn't work.

 

well then just figure out the track system and you'll be good to go

 

I also just realized the seat belt buckle is going to be an issue too. 2nd gens are mounted to the floor. 3rd gens are on the seat... This is going to be quite the project. I really want these seats to work they are so much more comfy than my current ones.

 

So as it turns out, the solution to my problem was very simple. I just swapped over the 93 seat foam & fabric to my 96 seat frame. I started with the passenger seat so if I ran into any issues I could still drive the truck home from work. I had to make some minor adjustments here and there though. The side bolsters were a little different as well as the width of the seat bottom. All in all it turned out fantastic and I can't wait to finish it up by doing the drivers seat. I took a few pictures during the repair but had to stop so I could finish and get back to working on other peoples cars.....


This is the drivers seat out of the 93. The tracks are different, plus there's no buckle.


This is my drivers seat in the 96. Crappy fake leather covers and no padding or support. You can see the finished seat on the other side.


This is my 96 frame with the seat back & foam removed.


Here's the foam from the 96 seat. You can see the tears in the bolsters as well as the center back.


Here is where I had to modify the foam a little. The bolster shape is a little different so I had to cut it so the frame would slide in. I worked rather well.


Here's the seat after I installed it in the 4runner. It matches the interior pretty well and the seat is very comfortable. I wish I could have driven home on it.


The best thing I found was that the headrest posts are the same width and distance apart so I reused the the post mounts from my 96 seat since the 93 post mounts don't work with the 96 frame.

I didn't get to take pictures of the seat bottom transfer but it's pretty easy. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow of my drivers seat project.

 

I think you did an awesome job, turned out great.

 

Just a quick update. I got the drivers seat swapped and installed. It had an issue I was not aware of but overcame it pretty easily. So the reason the seat sucked so bad was because the spring & grate assembly below the bottom cushion was trashed. I just swapped it over from the 93 seats and all was well, but it explains why the seat sank down so badly.



Here's the finished product. I love my new seats. I can't beleive I drove on the crappy seats for a year....

 

Thanks!!! I'm extremely happy with the results.

 

Yea, definitely looks good, brother

 

Thanks!!