DIY Seat Mounting Brackets

A lot of pics for a really simple project compared to what a lot of you are doing, but this is the first Jeep-related welding project I've undertaken since I took a class at the local community college a few months ago (I've built a welding table and cart so far) and I had a lot of fun.


I found a guy willing to trade a tire carrier for 2 seats online up in Winston-Salem. I had a tire carrier I paid $20 for last year at a swap meet gathering dust in my garage. I contacted him and made the trade Memorial Day weekend. The only catch was that I had to make seat frames so they would fit in the Jeep.


Here is one of the seats that was in the Jeep when I bought it. Not very nice.



The driver's side frame was easy. I just modified the one I already had by welding some steel across the middle for the new seat to mate to.



I painted it and it was ready to go in.



The passenger side took a little longer. If I wanted to keep using the toolbox I'd have to make a mount that swiveled up. Here is what I started with. The front bar was the only original piece I had.



Here it is tacked up.



Test fit.



Gratuitous welding pic.



The welds came out pretty good for a flux-core, in my opinion.



Another test fit. I did this a lot, actually.



Disassembled for painting.



Fully installed. I used Grade 5 bolts to hold everything down.



Clear access to the toolbox.



Toolbox opens easily. I cut a small piece of wood to prop the seat up for those long repairs on the trail.



The passenger sits a little higher than the driver, could anybody tell me if that is normal? I recall seeing another 74 with the same height differences, but maybe we both just suck at making seat frames.



All-in-all, I am satisfied with these. I love this little Jeep, and I'm glad it has needed a lot of work since I've bought it. I'm learning how to do a lot of stuff I've always wanted to learn, and I'm actually dreading the day that there aren't huge projects waiting on it. Next up, Rock Rails.

 

Nice work! I had to do something similar to mount my seats. These are fun little projects and being able to make a decent weld makes these kinds of projects doable. Sure beats running to the welding shop for every little thing.

 

good looking seat frames. i like the way they turned out. when i did mine i lost easy access to my tool box. i can still reach it, just a pita. i might borrow your idea. oh by the way i don't think the projects ever stop.R)

 

good work

 

Nice job.

I just put some cheapo high backs in mine and the seat pivot deal wouldn't work. My solution was to just take out the entire seat by removing four hitch pins. I didn't want a full-scale project so I just adapted to the PO's seat mounting. Turns out I probably should have just started from scratch.

 

very nice. I just picked up a couple dodge van seats I pan on using in mine. I don't have the tool box anymore but I was thinking about mounting an optima under there.