Floor pans

[glenny49]

Hello again fellow members, I have another question about floor pans for a 1984 ranger regular cab. The original seat is a bench seat. I want to replace it with my bucket seats that came out of a Bronco. My question is the following, did ford manufacture the floor pans with the provision so a person can do this, in other words if I went to the trouble of removing the bench seat that is there now and rolled back the floor mat will I see 2 holes in the floor pan with say plugs that can be taken out to install bucket seat seat brackets? Let’s just say I’m lazy about doing the seat removal thing to look for myself.

 

[franklin2]

I do not know about your particular model truck, but Ford never did this for any other vehicle they made. So I will venture a guess and say no, you will have no threaded holes for the center part of a bucket seat. They usually welded in re-enforcement in the floor pan along with welding in the mounting nuts.

That's the problem you run into, the floor is not really made to mount a bucket seat to it if it wasn't designed for it. People use large washers and get away with it though.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Don't used the same size washer above and below the floorpan. That will have a tendency to act like scissors with vibration. Also washers have a sharp edge. Keep that edge away from the pan.

 

[glenny49]

I do not know about your particular model truck, but Ford never did this for any other vehicle they made. So I will venture a guess and say no, you will have no threaded holes for the center part of a bucket seat. They usually welded in re-enforcement in the floor pan along with welding in the mounting nuts.

That's the problem you run into, the floor is not really made to mount a bucket seat to it if it wasn't designed for it. People use large washers and get away with it though.

Thanks franklin2. You’ve been quite helpful here. I’m going to go for it.

Don't used the same size washer above and below the floorpan. That will have a tendency to act like scissors with vibration. Also washers have a sharp edge. Keep that edge away from the pan.

 

[glenny49]

Thanks for your input. Ranger Station members rule and i have found them to save the day for me time and time again.

 

[JoshT]

Not sure how I missed this for a week. My first truck was an 84 regular cab (RC) w/ bench seat, I've also got an 86 RC W/ bench, and an 85 RC that was factory buckets and center console (but swaped to bench by a PO). I can confirm what Franklin said, if your truck shipped with a bench seat, the holes for the inside bucket tracks weren't drilled and did not have the nuts and reenforcement plates added.

Having said that, the floor pans for the 83-88 RC (maybe 89-92 as well) were the same stamping, they just didn't do the extra steps to drill the holes and add the hardware. That means that the floor pan should be dimpled where the holes for the inner tracks would be located. Drill those out, then add reenforcementplate and a nut to the bottom side.

You will have an additional challenge for your stated goal. The front portion of the BII floor pan's shape (where the front seats mount forward) is shared with the extended cab Ranger. It is shaped different than the RC Ranger. The seat tracks will not interchange. Your best solution for using the BII buckets in your Ranger is to track down RC seat tracks from an 83-92 truck with buckets or the 60/40 split bench. The tracks will swap between those seats (even some newer), but not between cab types.

 

[glenny49]

Thanks Josh for all this good information especially about the dimples on the floor pan. What you’re talking about here is what I thought had to be done as well. The bucket seat brackets for a regular cab from 1983 to 1992 are hard to come by if you want to stick with the original stuff. There’s after market people like LMC or Corbeau that have them too you see. I’ll keep looking for original seat brackets. It’s all a bunch of fun isn’t it.

 

[JoshT]

The bucket seat brackets for a regular cab from 1983 to 1992 are hard to come by if you want to stick with the original stuff.

Don't I know. As mentioned in another thread I'm swapping my '85 back to buckets when I fix the rusted floor pan. Scored a set of T-bird TC sport seats on eBay over the weekend and needed to round up some brackets to go with. Just so happened that the local u-pull-it got in two 89-92 trucks and both were split bench, o.i went and got a set yesterday.

If it's still there and I have time on my next visit, I.may grab the other set to shelve for future needs.

Got aftermarket seat mount for the '99. I need to find a set for a first gen RC. If I ever go to install the flo-fit seats in it, I'm not sure the stock brackets will work. I've heard that the Corbeau brackets aren't a great fit. What LMC offers is really only for the TMI seats that they sell, even there it's more like here's some metal pieces, cut and weld to make it fit.

 

[glenny49]

Yes I’m back again. I just wanted to say how I thought I could get the seats done by using 1/4 flat bar for seat brackets. I don’t need the sliders, with the regular cab you don’t need to slide the seat back and forth. The final mounting will be with the seat as far forward as I would need it. Wish me luck.

 

[JoshT]

Yes I’m back again. I just wanted to say how I thought I could get the seats done by using 1/4 flat bar for seat brackets. I don’t need the sliders, with the regular cab you don’t need to slide the seat back and forth. The final mounting will be with the seat as far forward as I would need it. Wish me luck.

Well I'm not going to tell you how to build your truck and a lot of them ahve been installed that way in various vehicles over the years. That said, sliders do make it a lot easier to access the rear seat mounting bolts, especially in a regular cab Ranger.

Good Luck!

 

[SenorNoob]

Do the bench seat sliders unbolt? I wonder if you could use them with some cross members to mount buckets on?

 

[glenny49]

Thanks for your opinion here, it just may have saved the day. I’m putty sure I’ll continue to look for factory seat brackets to get it done right after hearing this.

Well I'm not going to tell you how to build your truck and a lot of them ahve been installed that way in various vehicles over the years. That said, sliders do make it a lot easier to access the rear seat mounting bolts, especially in a regular cab Ranger.

Good Luck!

 

[glenny49]

Do the bench seat sliders unbolt? I wonder if you could use them with some cross members to mount buckets on?

I’m not real sure whether they unbolt or not but I have somehow come up with a photograph of a factory seat bracket and you can see how it doesn’t unbolt but is fastened to the seat bracket with what looks like a huge ribit, a button like thing, that would have to be taken off there with a grinder. The problem here is that I’m going to be paying someone to do this at over a $100.00 per hour. Doing all of this becomes quite expensive. The proper seat brackets cuts back on the labour so that’s the way I’m going. I’ll just have to keep looking. Thanks again Josh. I appreciate the help from all you people here.