Bench Seat Upgrade Land Rover Edition

[brianzero]

Hi All,

I got tired of the damn torture device they call a bench seat and decided to make a little change, and I cant believe how well this turned out, and I wanted to share it with you all. This all happened somewhat accidentally, as I bought Montero Sport seats, which I didnt like enough to take the time to install. I disliked them so much I just tossed them in the trash. I realized the truck was designed around a bench seat, but all bench seats suck, right? NO!

Enter the Land Rover Discovery rear passenger seat. Its mechanical. No motors. Perfect styling for adventure rigs such as ours, and since its a rear passenger seat, they see little use. I saw many Discovery seats that were 100% perfect and without wear, and still had the new car smell. Many were beige, and I didnt want that. I wanted pewter (grey) for the ultimate match.

The Upside:

• Its a bench seat.
• The width is perfect, at 54".

• Nice fake leather material.
• Its a perfect design for the MM.
• Great head rests.
• It has an internal frame making it stand alone.
• The center seat folds down and is an arm rest and drink holder.
• Installation isnt too hard, as long as you have a angle grinder and a welder.
• The seats have flat bottoms after you cut off all the mounting parts.

What's the Downside?

• There are wheel well cut outs, but I figure I can put tools there.
• The seat does ride higher.
• The forward and backward movement is limited, but can work better if you engineer a solution.
• Its heavy, at 85 pounds or so.

[Chargerx3]

Actually a pretty genius idea. Love the food down center with cup holders!

[tortron]

did you guys not get the 1/3rd/ 2/3rd benches like we did over here?





in anycase that looks like a great swap! the colour even matches the rams door cards

a spare seat for donor material and you could make "bolsters" to fill those gaps no problems

[dash]

looks oem.... well done

[brianzero]

Right, this whole thing looks the way the MM should have looked, and not with that thing thats barely a seat. If anyone wants to do this swap, Ill give more details.

The install is simple, you use the original seat rails, and weld two 46" rectangular steel tubes to support the seat. I welded the seat to the support tubes.

[geezer101]

that...looks...AWESOME. The cut outs for the wheel wells are a little distracting, but with the end result you could live with that easily. Did you take the seat belt retractors and buckles from the donor so you don't have to monkey around with the belts?

[SubGothius]

Does the back tilt forward for access behind the seats? If not, at least the wheel well cutouts help with that somewhat.

[brianzero]

Yes! That seat tilts fully forward in two parts, the driver seat and the center and passenger seat together.

[brianzero]

that...looks...AWESOME. The cut outs for the wheel wells are a little distracting, but with the end result you could live with that easily. Did you take the seat belt retractors and buckles from the donor so you don't have to monkey around with the belts?

Thats the next mission, getting the seat belt assemblies straightened out. As of now, they dont work. Im going to save those seat belt parts for the next junkyard visit.

[brianzero]

Its time for an update on this mod, we'll call it the '2000 mile test'.

1. It's a generally comfortable seat. Its firm, and that might make some complain that it isn't spongy enough. For me its perfect.
2. The double sided drink holder is great, and a welcome modernization of the truck. The drinks sit in such a way that they don't interfere with shifting.
3. The arm rest creates a straight line from the bottom of your right arm, right to the shifter, and seems that the arm rest was designed to match the drivers arm and allow best posture when shifting.
4. Its a heavier seat, and somewhat reduces interior noise, maybe because its more dense.
5. You sit higher, maybe because you're used to that broken down bench seat, and you sit so low. This is a bit of a surprise.
6. The material is very washable.
7. The head rests sit a bit aft, but its still an acceptable position.
8. both sides of the seat still pivot forward giving you access to the behind the seat area, for tool boxes, etc.

[brianzero]

Lets take a look at the seat belt situation, where cutting and welding was required to make the reels work. All of the Land Rover to Mitsubishi bolts fit perfectly. Maybe there is another way to do this, but I dont know of one. Pictures will explain this better:

[Salteen]

This here is pretty awesome. What's storage like behind the seat?

[brianzero]

Its good (surprisingly)! I can store just as much as I could with the stock seat. Under the seat has more storage, just because its higher.

[tortron]

before you weld that seatbelt, does it have an explosive charge in it?

i guess you already did and are alive to tell the tale lol

another thing to consider is if they have a section that is designed to rip (slows you down a little and then tears so you fall into the airbag) if your truck doesnt have an airbag all it does is let you headbutt the steeringwheel

[brianzero]

I'm alive and and still welding next to all sorts of explosives, but that's pretty normal in rural Texas, as you might imagine. You ought to see the experiment shop over here.

[tortron]

you guys get away with too much in the states haha, that would be major verboten here.

Id alter the trucks seatbelt mount to match the new belt, then if you need to replace it it just bolts in (which would require certification here, oh and replacing the seat would need certification as well... the list goes on)

[geezer101]

...wonder if you could simply swap the clock mechs over from the different retractor carriers without butchering them

[brianzero]

you guys get away with too much in the states haha, that would be major verboten here.

Id alter the trucks seatbelt mount to match the new belt, then if you need to replace it it just bolts in (which would require certification here, oh and replacing the seat would need certification as well... the list goes on)

These are things we definitely take for granted in the states, thus you have my condolences. Youre 100% right about that, we can get away with so much shit here, but I fear that wont be for too much longer.

[brianzero]

Honestly, I didnt look that close at that option. It looked to me like the reels with swapped housings wouldnt match at all, and most probably the guts would be included with that. I just imagined opening them up and having springs and parts exploding all over the shop.

Cutting and welding those brackets 'seemed' a shorter path.

[tortron]

...wonder if you could simply swap the clock mechs over from the different retractor carriers without butchering them

Pretty sure they are not made to come apart again, and if theres an explosive charge in there id suggest squinting pretty tight, its built into the spring i believe.

I think the best option is either a bracket adaptor made from beefy material, or modifiy the truck. Over here you would use some 3mm doubler plates about 50mmx50mm welded in to the sheet metal

[geezer101]

Oh damn, exploding clock springs aren't something I want to mess with. I had a pair of exploding gas charges in the crap seats out of my donor truck - I quickly removed those.
No thanks...

[B-Line]

Those almost look like they belong there from the factory. Well done!

[brianzero]

Thank you! And the fitment seems like they belong too. If it wasnt for the wheel cutouts (which no longer bother me) these would be perfect.

[hazzard03]

What year Discovery did you get the seat from? I want to do this with my truck, I love how it looks and imagine it has to be far more comfortable.