[oman]

A question.....my car (72 Monte Carlo) was very lightly optioned and my seats are done over with the CARS supplied cloth like interior material. The seats are in VERY good shape but I am gettin old and crusty and there is not much adjustment potential with the non power bucket seat.

Soooooooooo here are my questions.

1. What options did Chevy offer for power buckets on the 72 Chevelles and Chevy Monte Carlo? I did not care about that stuff when I bought the car (1973) but that was then and this is now. Assuming that they offered power seats: Where are the controls located...I must assume they are in the cushion ( lower seat part under your rear end) down in the plastic facia. Anything ya can add about the option itself and the location of the ctrls is appreciated.

2. If Chevy offered such an option I am thinking I could get an old drivers power bucket and use the motor / track / frame whatever assembly with my seats. Since the covers are not specific to power or non power seats I gotta think that I can find a way to make this work. Anyone have such a seat frame in a parts car????? Anyone tried this???

If Chevy did not offer power perhaps Pontiac or Olds did. The seat frames are interchangeable, I know that because I worked in an upholstery shop as a kid. Interchangeable is a loosly taken word but I think ya could use Pontiac or Olds or Buick parts on any GM bucket in a given model year.

Thanks for your help.

[EkS]

I have a power bucket seat tracks, but it is not installed yet, I will soon. The controls are on the bottom left hand side on the plastic piece. They are four way, up, down, forward and back. I have not seen many Chevelles / Monte Carlos with the power seat option. Mine is going into a 72 Chevelle.

If there is anything specific you want to know, just ask and I will try to answer your question.

[oman]

So there is really no way to "tilt" the seat? I hate the bolt upright seating position and would like to eather "lay the back of the seat" down a little toward the rear seat and / or tilt the front end of the seat cushion up just a little to support the backs of my legs. I guess ya can't get there with the factory power seats???

All this is relatively standard stuff these days in luxury interiors. Problem then become (after buying the later model luxury seats) is all the effort to match the new seat upholstery to the back seat or redo the back seat upholstery to match the new seats up front.

A lot of money can change hands getting it all to look right and I am not about to have front seats with one pattern and a back seat with another.

I considered just tilting my non power seat back (raise the front a little and leave the back in the std. position thereby achieving a little recline angle. I may still do that. Trouble is the bolts that secure the seat to the floor are welded to the floor brackets. That means cutting the bolts out of the factory brackets then reinstalling new longer bolts to raise the heighit of the front seat. Not easy, not really difficult eathe: it could be done.

Any ideas on the feasibility of converting my driver seat to power using a donor Chevelle Monte Carlo Seat from a 1970 /1972 car would be appreciated.

Thanks

Oman

[EkS]

Yep, that's right no tilt feature on the factory power bucket seats.

Converting your manual to bucket should not be difficult. All you need to buy is the bracket for the power bucket. They use a different bracket than the std manual bucket seats. I believe the bracket is 55$ from true connections. Just remove the old bracket and weld the new one in, making sure that everything is straight.

Mine should be going in the car in about a week or so. I just got my buckets seats back from the upholster and they look great! My interior is tan.

Well let me know if you want to know anything else.

[oman]

Might be I am missing something. You are saying that the bracket that is attached to the floor is different for non power and power seat cars. Ok? Is that right?

Now given that I have a good set of non power buckets you are saying I gotta transfer all the upholstery from the old non power bicket over to a power bucket frame? I was thinking I might be able to just change the tracks over and use the power seat tracks and motor and what not on my existing non power seat. Rather bolt on the mechanical from the power seat as opposed to moving the upholstery from the non power seat tot he power seat.

I thought that might be too easy. Hoave I got it right in this post...change the upholstery over to the power seat and weld a floor bracket into the car?

[EkS]

First, yes the bracket that is attached to the floor for a non power bucket seat is different than the one for a power bucket seat.

And yes, the tracks come off of the power bucket seat. You can put the power tracks onto the non power bucket seat. It's just like taking off the non power seat tracks.

So what you need to do is, put the power tracks onto the non power bucket seats and weld the bracket. True Connections has the power bracket Part # PS-6472 $55.00. And that is it.

[oman]

I sorta suspected that this was the answer. Sorry to bother you so many times. Now all I need to pull this off is a seat!

Certainly this is a streatch but .........I dug out a Fisher Body service manual last night. Found it burried in my tech libray "archive" They made a 6 way seat for the Impala series cars. Now I think, I wonder I wonder if the same "bolt on the motor and the lower frame idea could work on the 6 way. If I think back the Impala "Strato Buckets and the A-Body buckets sure look the same. GM might have used the same seat and offered the 6 way only in the big cars as a "buy up" incentive for customers. Their marking has always worked that way. "Oh you want.......well ya gotta buy the ........that option is not offered on ...........". Hmmm ?

Since I am gonna have to weld some brackets anyway. Gonna look into this 6 way seat deal. Care to fooer a guess? It just seems so logical. They never designed more than one of anything when they could substitute so I just bet the seat itself up above the actual power mech is almost a "universal" bucket seat frame.

Will advise as the research continues.

[EkS]

I think it might work. But you just have to see how the 6-way power bucket seat works and the design. I am trying to keep the options on my car as original as possible so I don't know about the 6-way power bucket seat.

Let me know if you find one, I have never seen one before.

[oman]

Well actually I have a guy who says he has a 6 way from an Olds Cutlass...don't yet know the year is. I am skeptical. My Fisher Body Book does not say anything about the 6 way on any car in 1972 any A-Body car that is. The only reference to 6 way is for the full size cars like Impala. If the seat "above the 6 way mech is the same between Abody and Impala then all I need is an Impala 6 way chassis. The book covers Olds Buick Pontiac and what ever so I am going to look a little closer tonight.

As for originality: admirable if that is what floats your boat. I have been changin things since I could discern that there was a difference between A and B. I am way past worrying about that stuff.

More or less got outta the Vette part of the hobby because of the Originality Fetish / Originality Neurosis that exists over in that zone.

I want comfort and for me that means some reclining. Power seats out of a Camaro or F-Bird are very expensive and so are Lexus / Acura seats. I have seen junk yards wanting $2k for the seats. No way I am gonna pay that kind of money then have to reupholster AND adapt the seats and possibly do over the back seat. Soooo the answer is save my seats and get the 6 way if I can.

I will let you know what I can find out I have an idea for a source of data.

Oman

[wrencheadblues]

TRY THE 66 67 68 OLDS TORONADO AND RIVEIRAS they do fit in A-BODIES , 54 inches wide , , and they have both buckets and astro bench , a split bench with the bucket seat backs , in regular and electric and they look like chevelle seats !!!!!! have a friend with them in a 1967 convert and they are really comfortable . mark