The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Thought it would be a good idea to make a tutorial on how to fit L series seats to an MY car, since they don't fit straight in and need some modification, but they do fit!
But a word of warning: don't do this if you aren't sure, you will be making irreversible modifications to the MY seat frames and if you back out half way through, you'll be stuck with no seats. Also, once the L seats are in they are a lot lower than the stock seats, this alters driving position and view out the front of the car.

So, to start, take the MY seats out of the car, we will be prepping them first.


Take the back rests off of the MY seats so you are left with the base and runners. You can discard the back if you want or keep it. Flip over the base and cut all of the metal rings holding the vinyl seat covering onto the frame, and peel back the covering on all 4 sides so you are left with:


Still on the underside, you will see all of the seat springs embedded in the foam and attached to the frame. We need to remove the old cushion and I found the easiest way was to Cut all the springs I could see until it all came loose. Be careful not to set the foam on fire if you use an angle grinder.


After you've cut the springs, grab the front of the cushion with one hand and stand on the frame, pull back the cushion tearing it from the frame until you get to the back, where the springs again attach to the frame. Cut the springs again and you should be able to cut or tear the whole cushion free. Use an old bread knife to clean up as much foam as you can. You should be left with a clean frame.

continued:

Now do the same to the L series seats, except keep the backrest, also you will not have to tear or cut any foam to get the cushions off of the frame, just cut the clips holding it to the frame and the cushion comes right off. You will now see the L series seat spring arrangement:


We want this whole spring setup to be transferred onto the MY seat frame, which is easy since the dimensions for the sides are almost exactly the same. Mark where the springs hold onto the wire frame, and emove the springs from the L series seat frame and you are left with 8 holes. Measure how far from the front each hole is, and then measure on the MY seat frame, and make a mark/centrepunch. It is best if you make the holes as far to the outside as you can, so there is a decent amount of tension on the springs when it is assembled. You might not be able to see it but the holes are drilled here:


Now simply transfer all 8 springs over to the MY frame, and attach the wire rack by stretching the springs to attach to where they did on the L series seat. Voila! seat base ready to go:


Assembly is basically the reverse of disassembly. Put the L series cushion back onto the MY base frame, and put new clips all the way around to secure the vinyl. Make sure the cushion is sitting correctly on the springs.

Continued:

Now comes the hardest part: putting the L series backrest onto the MY base frame. The MY frame is slightly smaller than the L series, so where the two cushions meet in the middle it will take alot of force to squash them together so you can secure the two sides of the backrest. But first you will need to remove this plastic box covering the spring:


Then attach this side of the backrest first, the one with a single screw. This is a pic of the assembled original My seat, but the L series seat uses the same system and the threads are the same.


Stupidly I didn't take a decent picture of the hardest step But basically, when you remove the plastic box over the spring, there is a shaft in the middle of the spring that stands out by about 5mm. This stub will slide straight into a hole that's already on the MY seat frame, but this requires alot of pushing, shoving, swearing and hitting with a hammer I can only show you what it looks like when it's in:


Bottom of the picture is the seat, that black/grey thing in the middle is the spring with its stub in the hole of the MY seat frame, and top is the backrest adjusting mechanism.

Now you're on the home stretch!
...almost

I couldn't take a picture of the next step since I haven't done it yet, but basically the there are two holes near the backrest adjusting mechanism that are supposed to bolt directly into the bottom frame. Without these the seat flops back and forwards freely. But, because the L series backrest is slightly (about 5-7mm) wider than the MY, the original bolts aren't long enough to make up the gap. Also, the holes in the bottom frame aren't in the right place, so you will need to drill two new ones for each seat, and put 2 longer bolts through with washers in the middle to fill up the gap.

And that's it! Now with the original MY seat frame and runners, the new seats will bolt straight into the old holes, whilst still being able to slide back and forward and once the seat back is secured, that will still adjust back and forwards also. Also they're more comfortable

Just remember, these seats are alot lower than the stock ones and you might not like the change in height for driving. I'm thinking of ways around this right now, I will post pics of my solution when I think of one

This is what I did to my seat as it was low.
I fitted a section of 30x30 SHS to the runners.
I cut the SHS to lenght and used the runner as a template to drill the holes
and I also used 12.5x12.5x1.6 SHS as compression tubes.
the longer bolts required to fit it all back together I used allen head bolts,
but any bolt of sufficient strenght grade and head to fit in the slide will do.








Hylton:twisted:

Thanks Hylton, I was just thinking about what I could do while I was walking the dog Came up with pretty much the same solution, do you know what thread size the original bolts are? would just make life a bit easier if the new bolts went straight in.

Cheers!

do you know what thread size the original bolts are? would just make life a bit easier if the new bolts went straight in.

Cheers![/QUOTE]

Not sure but I'll go and check as soon as I finish my dinner but I somehow think that they are 8mm with a 1.25 pitch but will check
Hylton:twisted:

Yep the size is 8mm x 125 pitch the ones I used are 50mm long allen head
Hylton:twisted:
Ps if you are satified with the seat height after you add the riser just use a mig and run a couple of welds to the runner then give it a coat of paint. Use about a 2mm wall thickness SHS

olddog642 wrote:Yep the size is 8mm x 125 pitch the ones I used are 50mm long allen head
Hylton:twisted:
Ps if you are satified with the seat height after you add the riser just use a mig and run a couple of welds to the runner then give it a coat of paint. Use about a 2mm wall thickness SHS

Ah thankyou! Will do with the weld as well.

those seats look familiar =D

yeah im quite surprised how much work you did personally i would just make an adaptor plate for them

Can't the runners off the MY seats just be removed and transferred (modded) to the L series seats. ????

yes, seen it done with some sideways adaptation in Brumby and as a tad under 6'2" i felt the thicker l seat back put me further forward of comfortable

subybrumby wrote:Can't the runners off the MY seats just be removed and transferred (modded) to the L series seats. ????

I had a look at doing that first. The MY runners are longer than the L's so you would need to drill 2 extra holes (one for each runner) and put a nut and bolt in. But you couldn't leave it at that because the L seats are considerably wider than the MY and the 4 bolt holes in the floor wouldn't line up with the rails.