Seats for the large driver?

I need a driver's seat for my '72 Dart. The old bench seat is in bad shape, looks like crap, and is extremely heavy.

Something a bit more comfortable than the plastic "racing seats", for street/strip use, but don't want to break the bank either.

Unfortunately I'm somewhat gravitationally challenged (6' tall but 46 waist, 54 or 56 chest). The sport seats I see at Summit and others look like they'd be awfully snug on the sides.

What are the bigger guys/gals sitting in?

You might want to check out the local junk yards to see if you find something comfortable and go from there. I'd suggest vans or trucks. What ever you find you will probably have to make mounts to fit.

i like those intrepid seats....find one and sit in it....

For my more street friendly cars, I like the Chrysler Sebring seats with the built in shoulder harness, I have a set of Caddy seats also with built shoulder harness and they are slightly larger, I'm a full size driver.

Too bad you can't slide in the seats from an Imperial. I really like the super cushy split bench in mine. It's more than roomy enough for a guy your size.

I put a complete interior out of a '69 Mercury Marquis into my '64 Polara. It was a hassle...the floor had to be cut out of the Mercury to handle the seat mounts (Electric split bench for driver & manually adjusted passenger), but when it was done it looked factory and I was comfortable. The rear seat looked great and the door panels looked great and almost stock. But of course it was not numbers matching...as if I cared!!

Look at Empi race seats. They have seats that are wider and look like race seats....

www.jeepswag.com

Call them as they are updating the website. These are suspension seats.

Dodge Shadow seats fit surprisingly easy in the 72 Duster I had. I drilled mounting holes for them and reinforced the holes with some homemade sheet metal washers. They reclined, and moved much farther back than the stock bench seat. I took that car on several road trips 3+hours and it was very comfortable. I'm pretty close to your size, a bit taller and a bit bigger up top lol....

Went to the local junkyard today and found a nice pair of non-power, cloth seats from an Intrepid (low miles car with supposedly one lady owner, and no visible wear). They fit me quite comfortably. Thanks for the suggestion!

Going to drill mounting holes tomorrow. Probably won't even need to make brackets.

I bought a set of Corbeau seats from Racing Seats USA. They are the wider version of their race seat. I absolutely love then. I opted for the leather version, and ordered the mounting brackets for my car. I did cut about an inch out of the brackets and re-welded them with a bit more reward tilt. They recline, slide forward and back significantly and are super comfortable with my 6'2", 260 lbs body, even on day long drives. Everyone who rides in the car wants them for their cars too.

I also ordered the shoulder/lap belts for the car, but they are not shown in this picture. They attach to the rear seatbelt mounting bolt with a single removable strap that splits into a double shoulder restraint before passing through the holes in the seatback. They connect to the lap belt. They do not have the anti-submarining strap that goes between your crotch, which is an option.

Looks nice! How much did the seats + brackets + shipping end up costing you?

The Intrepid seats aren't even close to fitting the Dart floor pan. Looks like I will have to get some 2x2 1/8" angle iron and make some brackets.

The front outer hole on each seat could possibly bolt to the existing bench seat hole, and more or less centers the seat in front of the steering wheel, but the height may still be a bit low. I've got some fabricating to do!

That is the name of the game... fabricate. I got a pair of 2002 Durango buckets from a yard for $60.00 and they are going into the Ramcharger. I already have the rack that is used when fitting factory buckets in the trucks and the adaptation will be easy.

Dodge Neon seats fit great also, all you have to do is bend the front mounting pads on the seat frames and drill new holes in the floor. They are comfortable too.

My Procar seats are very nice and fit the road runner perfectly! You might look into those. The pair was about $800 with brackets.

Thanks Stu... but this pair of also-nice seats only cost me $150 For that difference in price I'll make the brackets already

I put these Corbeaus in my GTX. They are not leather. I bought the wide version cause I'm 6' 3" 250 lbs. With brackets and submarine belt holes $1265 delivered.

http://corbeau.com/reclining-seats/cr1.html

OK. Finally got the driver's seat in, after fabricating a beefy pair of brackets from 2x2 1/8" angle. The front is as low as it can go (due to the original bench seat mounting location on the floor pan) and they still sit a bit high. But I've never liked the low-rider look anyway, and getting them lower would require cutting and rewelding part of the floor pan. Will repeat the process on the passenger side.

Now, what do I do for seat belts?

The Intrepid seat has the female end of the buckle attached to its frame and I didn't get the belts with it (although I could). I would prefer the belts to be fastened to the body, not the seat, so that my homemade brackets aren't part of the structure under load in the event of an accident.

I think I've got all the original Dart belts in the pile of boxes/bags, although 44-year-old webbing may not the safest choice!

So - do I:

Adapt the Intrepid belts to the Dart body?
Use the original Dart belts?
Buy new reproduction Dart belts?
Some other kind of restraint system?

Suggestions please?
thanks
Charles

Pop the buckle off the seat and use reproduction belts.

A belt that keeps you in the seat is the better design, rather then merely attached to the floor, IMO. The theory being, if the seat moves, and the belt does not, the belt then becomes loose.

That sounds reasonable, but more likely I (and the seat) will be moving forwards in a crash as the front of the car crumples in deceleration, so the belt will become tighter...

It doesn't do any good to stay strapped in the seat if the seat doesn't stay attached to the floor.

I'll notify the OEM's as soon as I get a chance.

Actually I think you missed the point, no big deal, its not me in the seat.

Then how about explaining it another way, instead of being snarky?

He already explained it...^^^

All the seats mentioned in this thread are awesome, I needed to find something more affordable for my big block Duster so I bought sport seats off ebay for a total of $200 shipped for the pair, even came with slider brackets which I always bolt straight to the floor for head room.
I think for the money they are great, I'm 6'2 230# so I wish they were a little wider but they're fine and they hold you in place very well if you do any cornering.

And I implied a question, which he (and you) have not answered so I will ask again explicitly:

If the seat and the driver are moving forward, and the belt is not (because it is fastened securely to the body), why does the belt not become tighter?

Just an observation. They do look good in that A body vert

It will become tighter when moving forward as long as it is secured correctly and doesn't rip out of the floor. But if you bounce off a wall or guardrail and end up going backwards it will become real loose. It's also very possible to back it into a wall or object during an incident.

With that said, my Duster has 3" lap belts just bolted to the floor with large washers. I need to decide on a factory shoulder harness or something else. This is my first street only build, I'm use to having a 5-way harness mounted to a roll cage.

True, it only gets tighter going forward... although the frontal impact is most likely, at least on a street car.

I suspect another reason for having the seat and belts attached together is that it's quicker on the assembly line!

Anyhow I think I'm going to buy new shoulder/lap belts, manual adjust, that fit the original mounting points (on the floor and roof). 3" sounds like a good idea, to reduce the loading per unit area on my body...

I have never liked retractors since they eventually get "sticky", and I worry that they may not lock when I need them to. I ran a car off the road once at 55 mph and went through the median ditch, flew up in the air and hit my head fairly hard on the roof. The belt never locked with the vertical acceleration, so fat lot of good it did me for that impact!

Incidentally, is there any value to the old bench seats? The driver's spot is, of course, worn out, but the rest is OK. Maybe they should just go to the dump...

"succintness" is sometimes misinterpreted as "snarkiness". The strongest counterpoint to your stated conclusion has been addressed by others already, ie accidents happen in 3d, and can have have multiple impacts. My main original point, ANYTHING that allows a restraining seatbelt to loosen, has a bad outcome.

And which category do you think that remark belongs to?

Yes, of course if the belt loosens there is a bad outcome! And MY main original point was that I don't want to rely on my homemade brackets to restrain my weight plus that of the seat.

I plan to use "old-school" manually adjustable belts as I mentioned previously. No retractors or other inertial-locking devices. One less thing to worry about loosening.

I had a set of L-Body (Charger or Daytona/Laser) seats in a 67 Dart and they were very comfortable, but probably not easy to find nowadays.

Don't pitch the old seat as guys are looking for them.

I agree, bolt the belts to the original floor mount locations . choice of belt is up to you.

I'm not sure, extreme soft sarcasm or maybe borderline snarky, does it really matter, because I think it made my point loud and clear. If it hurt your feelings, that was not the intent.

Might I point out that if you are concerned about your homemade seat brackets supporting you and the seat with the seat belts attached to the seat, how are you so sure the seat brackets will keep the seat in its proper location in a crash? If the seat moves, belts attached to the floor pan are worthless.

How did you make your seat brackets?
If the seats are attached to the homemade brackets with bolts in the original location on the seat, and the angle brackets are bolted to the floors with at least 2 3/8" diameter grade 8 bolts per side, a 3" diameter washer or 1/8" flat steel plate on the bottom side of the floor pan will keep the seat from moving, provided the floor pan remains intact. Modern day seat mounting brackets are attached to the floors on reinforcing plates that run from door to trans tunnel. 2" x 2" x 1/8" angle is heaver gauge metal the the seat frame is made of, and is thicker material then the floor pan is, unless its at a reinforced pan are.

The seat belts have been added to the seat frames because it is safer. Belts attached to the seat keep you in the seat, and don't loosen up nearly as easily. Seat mounting brackets properly secured to a solid floor pan stay put in most accidents. Given a choice, if things fail, I would much prefer the added protection of me and the seat staying together rather then having a loose seat beating me up as well as me flying around inside the car.

As a side note, modern day (since the early 90s) seat belt retractors are much more sensitive to locking then the earlier versions were. Modern ones lock with a swinging weight on a lever. If it gets the least bit off center, it locks, until then its pretty easy.

I've been involved with a few rod builds that have been real life crash tested. Gene

You realize that very few cars have the belts attached to the seats, right?

The Intrepid seats he is using only have the belt buckle attached to the seat. The retractor is attached to the car. If his seat breaks free it will simply spin around backwards and spit him out. A big lot of good that will do him.

The other thing to consider is that the belt he uses may not be 100% compatible with the buckle. It might click but will it fit properly?

I'm either going to remove the Intrepid buckle end, cut it off, or just pretend for a while that it's not there... but won't be plugging a possibly incompatible tongue into it, definitely.

I also don't want one end of the belt attached to the seat and one or two of the other points fastened to the car. I'm planning to use the factory original mounting points (which are all on the car). And not an $8 Chinese seat belt either.

Anyhow, any system is only as strong as its weakest point. I may upgrade the fasteners and floor pan reinforcements. Gene, thanks for the info, can you tell me more about those "real world crash tests"?

Some day I'll have a roll bar or cage, then a whole new set of issues arises.