Dear All,

Front seats on my 86 244 are in bad shape and rather than rebuild them, I want to bolt in some newer ones from junkyard .. (nice not to be concern about airbags and such ;) Have someone done this ? what donor cars should I consider ?

I would appreciate any tips !

I'm all for keeping Volvos "all Volvo" if that's what you want, but a seat retrofit does not have to be unsafe or even require any welding.

A simple block made of plate or rectangular tubing is all that is sometimes required to fit the Volvo bottom bracket to the donor seat. Use the proper grade bolts and the assembly will be at least as strong as the original..

As far as legal worries in case of accident, a sharp lawyer is gonna get ya on somethin' anyway if it is worth their while...

This is based on my own experience and is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Bob.

Thanks to Mat (TheBrickTank) I was able to get my hands on a good used passenger seat from a pick and pull to replace my tattered driver's seat. I did the "refurbishing" that has been well documented on this site: shampoo fabric, reinforce foam, tune up seat heaters and I added a thin layer of polyester batting between foam and fabric and sprayed on fabric protector. Here is a picture (taken today) of my 23 year old seat.

Rebuilding the old ones is not all that difficult.

Why do you seek to avoid doing this?


--
'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

for me it will be more fun per dollar/hour spent to get a 21st century
seats in... rebuilding the seats is just not the kind of work I am looking
forward to master ;).

Someone out here put S60 seats in his 122. That included power and butt warmers. The only difficult is getting a stable track/platform and extra fuses/relays for the electrics.

Just measure everything on the 240, including the 4 bolt holes, and then go 'shopping'. But some of the Japanese seats are pretty thin and you will get butt fatigue quickly.

The rear seats will present a problem. Nothing else will match.

I would have looked for 90-93 seats from a 240. If you change the color, swap out the rear seats also. My P&P charges $20/seat.
--
My back feels better when I sit in a Volvo seat

If it helps---and the reason I started owning/driving Volvos was because of my back--in 1975 ('65 544 first)---I recently did some suspension work on a 2004 Kia Elantra GT with (real) leather seats--fully adjustable manually and found them to be very supportive and comfortable -- however I only drove locally - no long spells in the seat. -- Dave

As far as I know you can pick any car from 1985 and up and they will all bolt right in.
1985-86 era cars saw quite a few minor or subtle changes from the 1984.
Watching the headlights and engines gives you the first heads up to look closer to what was going on!

The earlier years will also bolt in but there is a height difference of back support by a couple inches.

The latter years are either taller or shorter, I don't remember which.

I suggest you take pictures of what you have and reference the picture with a scale in the photo.
The under railing, I believe did not change but don't trust me on that either!

About 15 years ago I had both of my '86 front seats reupholstered for about $220 a piece. He was able to match the tan vinyl almost perfectly.

The only difference for him was he could not do the double row of threads, on the raised seam, type stitching that a factory does. These have held up fine and besides its a classic no longer a show room floor model.

When it comes right down to it, it doesn't matter. Most mid priced cars of today are "cheap-ing out" and young customers don't even notice, " what was, ain't no more!"

I wish you happy hunting but most good are gone from the yards as they get picked off by the auto dismantle people. They clean and vacuum bag them.

I don't know the pricing. I'm sure it varies by location and restoring demand. Guessing $150-300 might be a ballpark range for most any cars.

PNP are like $50 apiece on special "tool rewards card sales" for seats and doors. I know I bought the guts of an interior and four doors of a silver '90 about three years ago. I have learned it's cheaper to buy a whole big item than just go get a piece of it!

I had an offer/phone number note, on my car, in the PNP lot, wanting to buy them. I know who it was as he saw me inside and we talked. I had already took the fronts and was getting the back seats. Not many people want the rear seats, right now!

I have two sedans and grey will maintain one and convert the older tan cloth to grey cloth.
The doors will have to get painted or sold later but it was now or never at the time!

I say good luck on finding an upholstery shop, an auto recycler or one of those auction stealer/dealers you see on TV scrounging for a few nice estate cars, out there!

But they're all dying away too!
Probably waiting on all of us, like vultures! (:-)

Phil

I expect good one will run up behind or equal to an upholsterer. I would price getting them redone so you know a comparison.

Actually, I meant seats from newer cars than 240s.
One can get a leather bucket seat on pick-n-pull for $40.
I would even go for electric adjustment...

I put 1999 Subaru front seats in an '86 244.

Used the Volvo brackets and built adapter blocks to match up to the Subaru seats.

Worked out well.

Bob.

Thank you, Bob! I guess I should take the measurements and just go explore
what they have on junkyards ...

The reason you are not getting too many responses is that most of us would not give up our properly functioning Volvo seats for just about anything...except maybe newer Volvo or Saab seats. Actually, I am more a fan of the late 240 seats than the electric "wide-butt" seats in my 1993 940.

And one more reason beside the fact many of us think there is no better seat alternative: Adapting another model's chair is only superficially a problem of nuts, bolts, and brackets. Get into a wreck with some DIY mods just to have modern looking leather and see whether your medical payments case goes smoothly. I assume you are not doing this for Lemons.
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. -Robert A. Heinlein

I hope that was enthusiastic enough, Art.

I was thinking earlier that those of us whose 240's have been rear ended while we were driving them know that the driver's seat stands up to it pretty well. But you will be buying a new adjusting mechanism. I was just looking at the one from my '79 242 that got maladjusted in 1993. Both tracks were bent but they held. Had they not, what good would the harness or the head rest do?

Why add a potential weak spot?


--
'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

... with the sisal fiber padding, and not the foam rubber, were my fave.

As Art B. says here, also ... !

Those older 240 seats seemed much more durable at the frame. Yes the seat and seat back (& lumbar support) could fail, with an easy fix. I'd rather have a firmer, stronger seat frame meant for the car body.

I gave the seats from my broken olive-like-green 1976 242 DL to a family member as he was not so keen on the brown vinyl foam padding seats in his 1979 245 DL (rodbrun [pumpkin pie color], BW55).

If you do weld something in, be certain it is a quality weld that does not reduce the strength of the seat assembly union with the floor pan.

I've seen folks do this ...

An acquaintance put in like old Recaro seats from their 1979 VW Sirocco into a 240. He arc welded the mess together, badly. The brittle weld failed after some time when my not-as-yet so portly countenance was in the the seat and he was hot dogging his 244, moving us around, after we did (I) did some of the usual suspension repair with heavier stabilizer bars.

All the sudden the narrow-arse Recaro seat I was in start moving around in very wrong ways. I was grabbing the seat belt to force it to lock and grabbing the oh-sheeeeeyat handle, and shouted at him to stop. What was fun for us, more for him. Which he did. I pointed to his brittle welds and likened his welding effort to being inferior to using Super Glue for the same application. (I'm no welding expert, yet can see a brittle, poorly applied weld. MIG/TIG may be better to meld the carbon steels together with the weld? I dunno.)

And then somehow I end up rebuilding his 240 seats he was going to trash! I tightly tied up the seat web (as if I was to sit in it like I do) and the seat back and we replaced the broken lumbar support. We also washed and cleaned and stitched up the cloth seat covers, and he was both comfy and safe and apologized for freaking me out.

I do not like driving fast or recklessly. The heavy duty suspension mods I make on these care are more for safety margin and less for spirited motoring. (I'd prefer Michelin tires, please.)

Same thing with proper seating.

You may be able to research and find after market and other replacement seats that are total bolt-in like OEM is meant to be. Safe and protects you in a time of crashing. Which we do not ever want to do with the ever small numbers of RWD Volvo on the road. (hates tailgaters on the I-5 north from portland to the 'couve over the stupid I-5 lift bridge over the radioactive Columbia River, courtsy of the Hanford Nuclear Heck Hole Site [keepin' Portland WEIRD]. let me at least see your headlights, and you see the rear tires on the ground of the car in front of you, as that is me and my Volvo 240, PLEASE.)

Hope that helps.

Seeking Freedom and Civility MacDuff. (Finland?)
--
The Volvo 164: The Mightiest of All Volvo Automobiles in Perpetuity

Fresher/better 240 seats will always be your best bet. Matching the colour and material will also be possible and best for value in the long term.