Help with 4th gen seats in a 2nd Gen
 

I have acquired a full set of cloth 4th Gen seats to replace my current wrong front seats and original rear vinyl seats.

I had hoped the full set would work but I believe that the rear 4th Gen seats cant be used as the spacing and size are completely different or am I wrong about that?

I do want to use the front 4th Gen seats as the driver seat is powered and I like the recline option. I have found that others have done this conversion with some success but I cant find mounting or conversion details or specs. I cant find any specific detailed write up of the conversion.

I need to use the 4th Gen seat tracks as I dont have original 2nd gen front seat tracks and I would like the power option on the driver seat.

I know the Gen 2 front seat front bolts holes tapped in the floor are approximately 11 1/2 inches between seat rail mounting locations and the 4th gen are 13 3/8 inches between the rail mounting locations.

To be able to use the existing mounting locations in the floor, can I just use flat stock to extend the mounting spacing for the 4th gen seat tracks?

Will the power tracks work for driver seat mounted directly to the floor or do I have to put spacers to lift the tracks off the floor to get full range of movement on the power mechanism.

Does anyone have a specific write up of the conversion to put 4th gen seats and tracks into a 2nd Gen - 79 Trans Am?

Thank you

Sorry I dont have the specific answers to your questions, but a friend of mine installed 4th gen T/A seats in a 69 firebird, from what I recall he drilled new holes in the floor to mount them with the 4th gen tracks. I will look closer next time im there.

You can use strap steel to drill new holes for the 4th gen tracks, I did that on some procar seats I installed in my 2nd gen, the procar tracks are expensive & sit up a lot taller than factory tracks, so I made some brackets out of strap steel that bolted to the seats, then drilled holes to mount the factory seat tracks, worked great and the seats sit at factory height.

If you cant figure out how to mount with the 4th gen tracks, I have a very nice set of 2nd gen tracks for sale.

Thank you for the information

I can drill new holes in the floor to mount the 4th gen tracks, however the floor is re-enforced where the stock mounting locations are and my first thought was to try and use the stock mounting locations that are threaded. I can drill new holes and run hardened bolts up through the floor to fit the 4th gen mounting locations if that is the best way to go.

It appears that I have to block or spacer up the driver side power track in the rear as the taper to the powered seat tracks front to rear are different than the taper on the passenger side. It looks like the passenger side non power tracks fit the contour of the floor good but drops lower in the rear - maybe an inch to the front mounting location. The driver mounting holes are at the same level front to rear on the power seat tracks which likely requires a spacer in the rear to fit contour of the floor.

I am sure I can make these tracks work and the seats look nice and right in the car. I will just have to build up the tracks to the right level with trial and fitment.

I was hoping someone had done the conversion already and could offer some short cuts to using the stock mounting locations.

Yes the floors have bracing/support for the track bolts, best to use them if you can.

I forgot to mention that keeping the 2nd gen tracks on my procar seats, I had to use some small spacers also to get the tracks spaced away a tad from the seat frames, mainly to give a little clearance for the front/back adjuster knob. I used 1" round hollow steel rod cut into about 3/4"-1" tall, they securely spaced the tracks away from the seat kind of like what youre thinking.

Heres a pic of the steel plates I used and the track bolted to them, cant really see the spacers in the pics but they spaced the track away from the seat by about 1", you should be able to space yours as needed too. I also welded nuts on the back side of the plates to accept the bolts for the tracks.

I put a 3rd gen set of camaro seats in my car a long time ago for the recline feature. I used the original 2nd gen tracks and some washers as spacers. I dont think you can use the power seat track feature as it raises the seat to close to steering wheel at least the 3rd gen were like that. If you are tall I would say forget about it. As you know head room is limited in 2nd gen f-bodies.

Thank you for the input

I am working on fitment for the driver side Gen 4 power seat tracks. These are 4th gen camaro seats.

Test fit is as follows.

The Gen 4 track bolt pattern front to back is approximately 3 inches shorter than the gen 2s and approximately 1 3/8 inch shorter side to side. So my option is to use only one of the 4 existing mounting points.

I hooked up the power to the power tracks and started with mounting to the front left mounting location which would have the seat most forward and offset closer to the console away from the door. After operating power stop to stop I found that I had pretty good leg room all the way back but all the way forward was jambed into the steering wheel.
Next I tried mounting to rear right mounting location and found that full forward was close to the steering wheel and all the way back was more leg room than needed. And that the furthest inward mounting would best center to the steering wheel and allow for door panel clearance.

After sitting my wife in the seat we determined that the furthest back setting would be best and most universal for both of us- keeping in mind that we have a pretty good range of movement on the seat if we happen to have rear passengers.

I had to block up the rear with a 1-inch wood shim for testing height and I will check clearance but will likely have to elevate 3 of the 4 mounting points. Once I get the 3 other mounting locations established and drilled, I will test fit blocks of wood to get the right seat height and full range of movement for the power.

I plan on using 1" square aluminum tubing to cut to the right height for each mounting location. I will run the mounting bolt through the tubing as a shim for each location. The tubing can be painted black to match the new black carpet or I might decide to just cover the shims with left over carpet.

I think just hardened bolts and nuts will work through the floor pan. However, I may decide to weld a nut on the floor pan at the bolt locations for more reinforcement and easier mounting.

I am in the test fitting mode right now so this all could change.

I will keep posted and any help will be appreciated - It may be a while before I get back to it - stay tuned.

Instead of making new floor holes you could make some custom adaptor blocks for each location, similar to the seat track extenders you can buy. These would essentially make the seat taller by the thickness of the plate when already tall but could be tailored to suit where best location would be. May not suit all seats, I did it once and they were similar GM seats from a different model way back. Common swaps mounts already, or maybe able to adapt those if similar.

I was going to make the adapter blocks as you mentioned, however, with using the furthest back mounts that are always below the seat the front bolt holes are out in front of the seat by 3 inches when seat is in nominal position. This means I would need to have the adapter below the carpet adapting rearward to the new track location. I believe it will be harder to line up all adapter holes and mounts with carpet installed.

I believe the front right mount will need a 1/2' spacer / shim and the rear mounts will need upwards of an inch. I believe I would need to still elevate more than just the thickness of adapter plates.

I am still in the trial fitment stage - so I may find that I need to change my approach once I get into it.

No holes have been drilled yet- I have to work on getting out a broken bolt first that the previous owner left for me.

I will know more as I measure 20 times to drill once.

Thank you

EDIT:
I missed reading the info in post #6;

I have read that the fourth gen was essentially an updated third gen;
I believe that looking for interchange is key;
I believe that late third gen seats are the same units as fourth gen seats (albeit with different head rests);
I have swapped late third gen seats into a second gen car;
I used the second gen seat tracks correct to my car, and mounted them (without modification) to the third gen seats.

Attached is the style seats I had installed in my car.