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Corner Wrench: Take a seat

There's more to seat mounts than bolt placement

Brian Turner
Sep 21, 2021  •  October 8, 2021  •  2 minute read  •  Join the conversation
The seats were reupholstered in gunmetal grey leather with blue piping to match the exterior colour.
The seats were reupholstered in gunmetal grey leather with blue piping to match the exterior colour. Photo by Alyn Edwards

A favourite vehicle modification for a wide range of owners (from veteran hot-rod DIY-ers to regular commuters) is an original equipment seat replacement. Some are done to bring technology that the original pew didn’t have, such as a recline function. Some swaps are done for looks, but most are for comfort and performance. Yes, seats have to perform well to keep you properly located, secure, and reduce body movement due to cornering, braking and acceleration. If you spend any time at all behind the wheel, you know that having the right perch can make the difference. But what about safety? How well will an after-market or an original factory seat from a different model keep you protected in a collision?

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Many tinkerers are fooled by the simplicity of most vehicle seat mounting systems. After all, it’s usually just 4 small bolts holding the throne to the floor; what’s sophisticated about that? They mistakenly think that just because a particular seat fits, it’s OK to use. And if the mounting points don’t all line up, you can simply correct things with a drill and some new holes, right?

Even vehicles with older, out-dated safety systems had their seats, seat-belts, and mounting systems engineered and tested in collision labs to ensure they would deliver the best protection available at the time. No amount of shade-tree home-driveway design and execution can duplicate that. The alternative to trying to shoe-horn in a bucket seat from a Lincoln (for example) into your classic Chev, is to determine exactly what you don’t like about the original and fixing it. Replacing tired upholstery and sagging springs can be cheaper and definitely safer than a mis-fitting junkyard seat. And interior specialty shops that can do this abound from coast to coast.

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    Your Corner Wrench: Take a seat, for comfort and safety

You can also consider turning to the experts in after-market seats. Seat companies like Recaro have been in the business for decades and can supply mounting systems to properly fit just about anything on the road or supply seats that can use existing factory mounts. And in some cases they actually make financial sense. I ran into a professional photographer years ago that travelled the country by vehicle for his work and easily covered more than 100,000 km per year. In the short time I knew him he wore out 3 SUVs, but was smart enough to buy a quality Recaro seat, built for long haul comfort, for his first Jeep. When we transferred it into the third one, it still looked new, provided more than enough comfort and support, and bolted directly onto the factory mounts.

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