• Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Register for our forum. Even if you don't want to post, you can still 'Like' and react to posts.

seats


Hi everyone! I'm new here so I'm not sure how everything works. I'm working on an '87 Ranger XLT Zimmer Package and I'm trying to replace the seat brackets as the ones on it currently have rusted out and are no longer bolted to the floor. Does anyone have any suggestions on what brackets I could use as a replacement? Thanks for your help in advance!
Three questions need to be answered here.

1) Is it a regular cab or extended cab?
2) If it's a regular cab, is it bench seat, split bench seat, or bucket seats?
3) If the seat brackets are that rusted, what does the floor pan look like? If those are that far gone is there still anything to bolt them to?

Regular cab and extended cab used different brackets. Same for bench seats and bucket seats. The DS bench seat bracket/slider in my 85 is/was rusted beyond use, turns out that the floor pan on that side is just as bad. Actually I discovered the bad floor pan first, then that the track and slider were rusted up so bad.

Oh, when you have time make a thread with pictures and info about your Zimmer. There aren't a lot of those out there and it would be nice to document another one. There's a subforum just for showing off rare Rangers & BIIs.
 
Thanks for getting to me! I'm sorry for the late reply, it's been hectic right now. To answer your questions:

1) My best guess is regular cab as there's no backseats, just driver, middle, and passenger.
2) Split bench is my guess; that's the one that has the middle section with the driver and the passenger has a separate bracket, right?
3) I didn't look at it yet, I've been working on some of the smaller details but I'll have a look at it this weekend!

The bad floor pan should have been where I looked first, thank you for pointing that out to me! The track/slider on the driver's side was inoperable on one side yet the other slid fine albeit with some effort. The actual point where the bracket bolts to the floor pan was pretty much gone, it had rusted away. Previous owner just threw a 2x4 to stabilize it and called it a day.

I'll definitely also get around to posting pictures of the Zimmer this weekend as well!
 
Not all extended cabs had rear seats.

Does it have windows on the side of the cab, behind the doors? If so then you have an extended cab. If not you have a regular (or standard) cab.

Yes, you have a split bench. That means that you have the mounting locations and tracks for buckets. You need tracks from a bucket or split bench seat truck.

If you have a regular cab, they have to be from a regular cab Ranger. 1983-1988 for sure, but I think that up through 1992 can be used. Maybe even 1997 with a little effort to adjust some holes ont he brackets. The floor pans were largely unchanged through that range.

If you have an extended cab, you can use brackets from the same style ranger or from the BII and Explorer. That portion of the floor pan is common between all three. Again, 1983-1988 for sure, I'm almost positive that up to about 1997 can be bolted in with minor effort. For floor mounting I think that you can go clear through to 2011, but that the seat side of the mounting changed in there somewhere. I think it was a change from them being bolted together to being welded or rivited together, but I'm not sure about that.

Defnitely check on that floor pan. Wouldn't be good to go through the effort of getting mounts, and not have anything solid to attach them to.
 
I was able to look at it, it's a regular cab. The floor pan isn't too bad, the places to bolt down at seem fine. Any ideas on where I could source the brackets that would fit? Worst case, any alternatives I could use?
 
I was able to look at it, it's a regular cab. The floor pan isn't too bad, the places to bolt down at seem fine. Any ideas on where I could source the brackets that would fit? Worst case, any alternatives I could use?

See last post:

If you have a regular cab, they have to be from a regular cab Ranger. 1983-1988 for sure, but I think that up through 1992 can be used. Maybe even 1997 with a little effort to adjust some holes on the brackets. The floor pans were largely unchanged through that range.

97 is likely the latest you could easily use. After that the cabs grew in length and the tracks may have changed as well.

Anything can be made to work with elbow grease, grinding, and welding.
 
Figured id keep another seat thread going instead of starting new. Im a little confused. My old 60/40 bench seat (96 extended cab) was in terrible condition so i got some bucket seats and center console from what i was told was a 97 ranger. But the mounting positions and seat pans arent even close. It doesnt look like i can rail swap these because the new seats have lumbar adjustment too. And also the seat pan design is completely different. I need some help.


Old seat.
IMG_6517.JPG





Replacement seat:
IMG_6516.JPG



I was told these were from a ranger.
Ranger 6.jpg
 
I'm going to say that seat pan difference doesn't matter, what is important is the mount locations for the rails being same or similar enough to use/adapt.

They could have been right about them coming out of a 97, but that's only part of the story. Regular bad and extended cab use different rails. I would imagine that some of the differences are regular cab to extended cab.
 
Figured id keep another seat thread going instead of starting new. Im a little confused. My old 60/40 bench seat (96 extended cab) was in terrible condition so i got some bucket seats and center console from what i was told was a 97 ranger. But the mounting positions and seat pans arent even close. It doesnt look like i can rail swap these because the new seats have lumbar adjustment too. And also the seat pan design is completely different. I need some help.

Did you try setting the new seats in? If you did and they didn't fit, what part didn't fit. It's hard to tell from the photos why they wouldn't work even though the feet are a little different.
 
I see the feet as drastically different at the back.... At first I was thinking we were comparing drive new with passenger old (or at least a guess since 2nd gen the one rear foot goes way further back and much taller in the passenger seat)...then I saw the lumbar knob and figured both driver. But I don't know enough about 93-97 and 98+ to comment so I didn't say anything, waited for someone who knew... At this point I would just ask, even if they aren't ranger seats, they still look to be Ford - can't you swap the brackets? (4 bolts per seat have to slide the rails all the way forward to get to back bolts, all the way back to get to front bolts).

1742863724663.png


Seems like everything "bucket-ish" Ford from the 80's and 90's is all on a ~14.5" square and so by swapping rails you can use just about almost any Ford seat.
 
Those are the same as Explorer seats . I posted pictures long ago when I put them in a BR11. Bolt the rear in and make adapters to mount to the floor . MiG welder makes it fairly easy . I used the 2 door Explorer seats tracks which go back a lot further , Now my 6 foot 4 inch grandson isn’t in there like a sardine .
 
Did you try setting the new seats in? If you did and they didn't fit, what part didn't fit. It's hard to tell from the photos why they wouldn't work even though the feet are a little different.


Fronts almost work but the inside height is a little different. Rears are even close to the holes or heights.

Those are the same as Explorer seats . I posted pictures long ago when I put them in a BR11. Bolt the rear in and make adapters to mount to the floor . MiG welder makes it fairly easy . I used the 2 door Explorer seats tracks which go back a lot further , Now my 6 foot 4 inch grandson isn’t in there like a sardine .


Rears arent even close to bolting in.
 
I see the feet as drastically different at the back.... At first I was thinking we were comparing drive new with passenger old (or at least a guess since 2nd gen the one rear foot goes way further back and much taller in the passenger seat)...then I saw the lumbar knob and figured both driver. But I don't know enough about 93-97 and 98+ to comment so I didn't say anything, waited for someone who knew... At this point I would just ask, even if they aren't ranger seats, they still look to be Ford - can't you swap the brackets? (4 bolts per seat have to slide the rails all the way forward to get to back bolts, all the way back to get to front bolts).

View attachment 125625

Seems like everything "bucket-ish" Ford from the 80's and 90's is all on a ~14.5" square and so by swapping rails you can use just about almost any Ford seat.


That was my original thought, was to just swap seat frames over. The original seats can unbolt, but the "new" ones dont have bolts. Second, on the "new seat" its doesnt have a flat rail all the way back. It stops half way. I think ill be cutting/welding mounts to make them work.
 
Fronts almost work but the inside height is a little different. Rears are even close to the holes or heights.

For the Ford Escape seats I swapped into my Ranger I separated the tracks by grinding off the stops and tabs and sliding the two rails apart. Then put the rail-half with the Ranger feet onto the rail-half still bolted to the Escape seat.

For that swap, the Escape tracks were positioned wider on the seat than the Ranger's so I had to add a little bit more foot onto the outside feet to make them work. But if your rails are the same distance apart it should be a straight swap.

What I finally figured out is that the black track with the feet can be separated from the silver track with just a little work. There's one stop riveted in on the silver track side, and then the black tracks have two little tabs at the front. Grind down the tabs and grind off the top of that riveted stop and punch it through with a hammer, and you can remove the black track through the back of the silver track. Maybe I'm just dense but up until this point I was originally trying to figure out how to cut off the feet and get them on the new seat track.
 
I did not want a replacement. The Ranger seats were not very comfortable, just slabs of foam rubber inside metal pans. I wanted an upgrade so I put two Suburu seats in mine. I cut off the old Ford seat brackets and welded them on to the bottoms. Almost anything which is roughly the same size can be made to work.

I'm no expert on Ford parts. Maybe Explorer or Mustang or Edge are more comfortable.
 
Last edited:
See last post:



97 is likely the latest you could easily use. After that the cabs grew in length and the tracks may have changed as well.

Anything can be made to work with elbow grease, grinding, and welding.
Update: I was able to fit some from an 89 with some adjustments! Project was complete and I got it turned in!
 

Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

TRS Events

Member & Vendor Upgrades

For a small yearly donation, you can support this forum and receive a 'Supporting Member' banner, or become a 'Supporting Vendor' and promote your products here. Click the banner to find out how.

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

Ranger Adventure Video

TRS Merchandise

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Sponsors


Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad


Amazon Deals

Sponsored Ad

Back
Top