Disco II seats in Disco I

Pacopico

Member
Mar 5, 2011
10
0
Wa
I know the question has been asked to death all over the web, I just finished the conversion and wanted to put it out there that it can be done with minimal fab.

I used 2001 D-II seats so I could re-use the console mounted controls, got front and rears for $150.00USD. Make sure you take the bench seat floor anchors from your donor.

I installed the bench seat first, drilled new holes for the pivot brackets, hardened washers for backing under the body. Make sure to cut the carpet insulation out from under the pivot points so they can be mounted straight to the metal. I did not make backing plates for the pivots since the area the bolts go though is already reinforced in the body. Then, you can pivot the seats to the normal position and mark the carpet for trimming. I cut out the carpet and insulation as needed to low the latch to fully contact the anchors, drilled holes and mounted the anchors. Since the floor in the DI is not reinforced, nor the right height I installed spacers between the anchor and the floor, as well as building and installing backing plates for reinforcement under the body. The original anchors on the C-pillars were left as is, they serve no purpose now and though they hit the seat backs they do not inhibit functions.

The front seat bases were trimmed to the rails. The distance between the rails is smaller on the DII vs DI. After cutting down to the rails, I notched the front of the rails back about 1", trimming off the vertical portion of the outside portion of the lower rail...think of cutting the outside leg off the "U". I then made a tab out of flat stock, and welded it to the lower rail to increase the width enough to drill holes corresponding to the DI bases. The reason I did it this way was to keep the DI storage bins under the seats. I did have to shave the tops off the front bolts to allow the inner rail to pass over them when the seat moves forward. In the rear I bent some more flat stock to make a 90-degree angle bracket. I drilled though the lower rails, and bolted the rear of the rails to one leg of the new angle bracket, using the original bolt horizontally into the base. Note that the brackets need to be about 1.5" wide so accommodate the offset needed to go through the rails and mount to the base in the stock location. As well, make sure the holes drilled into the rails are centered so the upper rail can bypass the nuts/bolts when it travels back. I wired up the fore/aft seat control during installation to move the rails for access and to check that the rails would pass my fasteners as installed.

The new front seats sit lower than the originals, which makes seeing through the windshield easier for me as I am 6'2". The only thing I might re-do is to offset the drivers seat tabs to allow for 2" more rear travel as with the seat lower now I feel a bit crunched...not horrible but not perfect either. If I raise the seat all the way "up" it is as high as the original DI seat, and the legroom is the same, therefore if you like your seat travel with the DI seats the DII seats end up in the same place.

Out.
 

fishEH

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2009
6,927
201
Lake Villa, IL
Anybody put a D2 rear seat into a D1 lately?
I picked up a D2 rear seat and the floor brackets yesterday. Mounting wise it seems pretty straight-forward. My only concern is the seatbelts.
Will the D1 male end(retractable) work in the D2 female receptacle?
 

squirt

Well-known member
Nov 13, 2008
824
13
Los Angeles
How are they going to explode without a 12v pulse?

I was going to post about the same misinformation further up in the thread.

Take it from someone who has installed airbag seats in non-airbag-seat vehicles multiple times. If it's not connected to anything, it won't fire.
 

ERover82

Well-known member
Nov 26, 2011
3,899
450
Darien Gap
I've had an explosive core banging around my toolbox for a couple years now (waiting for the right time) that I cut out with an angle grinder. They don't go off easily.
 

fishEH

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2009
6,927
201
Lake Villa, IL
To bad you're not closer. I would be happy to give you the DII leather seats.

That is too bad. I sweated my balls off pulling the rear seat out of the junkyard truck. Breaking a T50 torx socket and having to run to Harbor Freight right in the middle of the job was fun.