60/40 to Bench Seat Swap Issue

[CTScott]

Ferry.jpg

This weekend I drove/ferried down to Long Island for the awesome opportunity to trade Crashy #2's rear bench seat for AuxMike's 60/40 rear seat. I know it sounds like a crazy deal from his stand point, but his reason for wanting the bench was that he purchased a set of Katzkin leather seat covers, and opposite the Clazzio ones, the Katzkin ones are made for the bench only.

Mike and I were in communication before hand to verify that there would not be issues with the swap. People on here have swapped 60/40's in place of benches with only needing to pop some plastic covers over existing holes and punch a couple holes in the carpet. But, since no one has gone in the opposite direction, Mike wanted to be absolutely sure that he wouldn't have any issues. As it turned out, he was correct in being concerned.

We both pulled our rear seats ahead of time. My concern was stuck bolts, and in my case one of the rear most bolts turned a couple of revolutions and then the star portion of the head sheared. I couldn't get a wrench on what was left, so I ended up welding a 17mm nut to the bolt and then I was able to crank it right out.

After removing the seats we shot pictures of the mounting holes to compare. All of the seat mounting holes were present on both cars, but Mike noticed that his car lacked the two holes where the buckle portions of the seatbelts mount to the floor for the bench seat. With the 60/40 the buckle portions mount to the seat frame, rather than to the floor.

Here is how the buckle portions were mounted to the floor on my bench seat equipped car:

Bench Seat Belts.jpg

Here is Mike's floor with no holes present where the seat belts are mounted on mine:

No Hole.jpg


At this point it was looking like we were going to have to cancel the swap, but then I put my 09, which has a 60/40, on the lift and noticed that even though it lacked the hole in the floor, that there was a nut and plate welded to the floor below that area. Mike took a look under his and snapped this picture of the nut:

Nut.jpg


I made a template off my bench seat holes and headed to Long Island with a drill in hand. I marked the floor of this car using the template and drilled a small test hole. Sure enough I could see the bottom of the crown nut through the hole, so drilled the hole to proper diameter and we bolted the seat belts in place.

Drill Hole.jpg


I doubt that another swap like this will ever occur, but in the event that it does, it is now documented.