73-75 K5 front seat conversion to 99-05 Silv seat questions.

[Malathion]

Picked up some 01 Silverado seats and trying to figure out how to mount them in place of the stock seats. I searched but didn't really see an answer for the topless 73-75 K5's.

Obviously the holes don't line up and with the 73-74 having the rocker boxes I don't believe you can access the existing holes or new holes from the bottom, at least not on the rocker side, not sure about towards the transmission tunnel.

Unless there is any easy way to mount the seats, I'm thinking of making (hoping some one has already made them (Kurt )) 1/4" thick brackets that tie into the original floor holes.

For the driver side I'm thinking the rear outer mount would curve up the floor to the outer seatbelt hole. The others would be some sort of triangle shape that uses the original seat holes and have a stud welded onto it or a bolt through it for the new seat to mount to. May need some bracing in-between the pieces.

Passenger side would need something different as there are only 3 mounting areas due to the original tilt seat. Thought of a 1/4" steel plate with studs may work if it was bolted to all three hole locations.

Thoughts or ideas on how to mount the newer seats due to the limited access under the floor?

I do not have full roll cage. Not sure if I will in the future. Just trying to get the K5 street drivable.

Possibly adding a Silverado center console in the future which I think shares the same bolt holes as the seats (would have to pick on up) or may go with reproduction original style console.

Thanks.

 

[cyclic]

With the flat floor of the K5 the seats would sit pretty low anyway.
So......................get some pieces of 1.5 or 2 inch square tubing a little longer than the new seat tracks. Bolt the seats to them and then either weld or bolt the tubes to the K5 floor. Should be pretty straight forward.

 

[89yimmiJ]

I've never compared the floorpan of a 73-75 to my '89 but I installed some '06 seats in mine about 8 years ago.

In my experience, they were very close in height with the originals having room underneath and the new seat being filled with electronics, motors, etc. so in my case they had to sit basically on the floor with very little room for brackets. I welded 2" wide and probably 1"4 thick flat stock directly to the tracks of the new seat and drilled mounting holes to match the floorpan and bolted them in.

The new seats are also much wider, mine have the inboard armrest as well. I had Tuffy's widest center console which made it a bit difficult. To center the drivers seat with the steering wheel, I had to shift the console and pass seat over about 1/2" and basically up against the door. I would recommend a narrower console then the one I bought.

There is a company out there, I think in Seattle, that only makes really high quality brackets. I can't remember their name so you'll have to search but they had brackets in stock to put Recaros in my '63 nova so maybe they'll have your application.

 

[Malathion]

Thanks for the replies. Both gave me some good info.

I think I'm going to go with a seat bracket fit to the seat track dimensions and then have some legs go out to the original bolt holes in the floor pan. I looked up some seat tracks for aftermarket seats and many are like this. Not sure how high I will go. I think I'll mock it up with 2" to begin with. I like to sit a little higher than what the seat felt like on the floor. Thanks for the material suggestions.

I'll also have to trim part of the seat track off as one side is longer than the other. (Manual sliders). The side closest to the door is longer and I'll cut that off so both tracks are the same length. This will help the seat slide back farther. When I install I'm going to have the seat slid all the way back in the tracks if I can so the sliders don't go back and hit where the floor pan curves up. I'll see how it goes, may not be able to do that but I will likely need as much leg room as possible. I forgot how much the steering wheel stick out on these trucks.

I will probably have to get a center console first so I can determine total seat with. I really want the center jump seat so I can leave the rear seat out most of the time as I don't have a need for one.

Thanks.

 

[Blk87blz]

I'm working on a 73 myself and looking for a way to get the same seats mounted with the center fold down jump seat. Did you take pictures of your project?