Bucket seat ACCESS

[ParadiseMJ]

I've searched and read posts all morning about swapping XJ bucket seats into my MJ. I know how to mount XJ seats onto my MJ brackets. I've also looked high and low for seats from a 2 door or aN MJ all to no avail.

 

SO, who has put XJ 4 door seats into their MJ and is getting to the very limited space behind the seat all that difficult. I have a line on some really nice XJ 4 door buckets that would drop right onto my brackets and into my truck. Is getting behind the seaty forthe 9" of storage area all that difficult??

 

I'd rather have nice seats than be able to get to my sub box (not).

[Red 1989 MJ]

I put bucket seat from a 4 doors XJ.

 

I am 6'1", have enought space. 8)

 

I am pretty sure have as 9" space at the back.

[terrawombat]

It's manageable, but not ideal. In my '88MJ Sportruck, I did some test fitting with seats out of a 4-door '98XJ. Granted, they are the newer style seats so I don't know how they would compare to the older style (and since you didn't mention the year of the donor seats, I'm assuming they are from an older body-style XJ). If you put the seat ALL the way forward and recline it in its most upright position, you can get back there, but there isn't a ton of room. If I had anything back there, like a sub or amp, that needed to be accessed occasionally, I could see it becoming a real pain in the rear, but like I said earlier, I was just doing some brief test fitting.

 

Now, on my '88MJ Pioneer, I have a set of older style XJ buckets out of a 2-door. The difference is night and day. They fold down flat and allow for excellent access to the rear. So far all I've needed to get back there for was to install my factory jack and the other misc. stuff that goes with it. Easy access that didn't require me to move the seat up, just fold it down. Another thing that was handy about the fold down seats was that I was able to fold down the passenger seat and fit a dog cage over top (back was full of stuff and was afraid the cage would bounce out over the side of the bed). It wouldn't quite fit with the seat up because of the length, but just fit with the seat folded down.

[glundblad]

I was always too lazy to put the jack away correctly when I could get behind the seat. It makes me no difference if the seat tilts forward. If I need to put something behind the seat, I put it behind the passenger seat. No problem.

[HOrnbrod]

Stick the 4D XJ buckets in there for now, it's not bad and beats the he!! out of the bench. But in the meantime keep an eye out for a donor 2d XJ. I had the 4D XJ buckets w. the large bolsters for a year or so before I found some buckets from a 2D. The upholstery was better on the 4D seats, so I swapped it to the 2D seats. Any buckets are better than the bench IMO, but the 2D folding seats are the best. :D

[Rymanrph]

I had 4dr. buckets with the big bolsters before I swapped to the tilt seats. I liked the bolsters, but don't miss them because of the added convenience of the tilt feature. I had to get the seats and then had to have them recovered and it was completely worth it. I'm doing a '97 swap and I'm going to keep my old seats simply because of the tilt feature.

[ParadiseMJ]

Stick the 4D XJ buckets in there for now, it's not bad and beats the he!! out of the bench. But in the meantime keep an eye out for a donor 2d XJ. :D

 

..I think that's the way I'm going, the 4 door seats are just too nice to pass up. The whole donor XJ ( a 1990 Laredo) is worlds better than the interior of mine, so I'm grabbing the door panels too.

 

I'll keep you posted, these will end up in my build sheet, whenever I get around to updating that.

 

...and the final question is: Is there a way to modify (like grinding down a nub or catch) the 4 door seats to fold forward or is it a single direction hinge??

[terrawombat]

...and the final question is: Is there a way to modify (like grinding down a nub or catch) the 4 door seats to fold forward or is it a single direction hinge??

 

I've thought about doing this to my '97+ 4D seats, but they're in such good shape I fear that I may screw it up so bad that I can't even use them anymore. If I can get my hands on a crummy pair of 4D seats, I may try this to see if it's even feasible.

[ParadiseMJ]

I've thought about doing this to my '97+ 4D seats, but they're in such good shape I fear that I may screw it up so bad that I can't even use them anymore. If I can get my hands on a crummy pair of 4D seats, I may try this to see if it's even feasible.

 

I'm also looking at new (JY) seats for my XJ, different color. when I get those and take the present seats out of the XJ I'm going to tear them apart and see if there is a way to tweak them to fold forward. If I screw them up, no harm, they're going to the dump either way.

[WBKrazy]

i swapped 4d buckets into mine.... i don't really keep anything behind the seats tho save for a sweatshirt and a bottle of brake fluid to fill the clutch m/c up every so often, which i don't even need anymore cause i swapped in a aw4.. so the non-folding seats don't really bother me, but it would be nice to have the option

[jpnjim]

I modified one of the 01' XJ seats in the trail-MJ (pass side).

 

It was a while ago (so details are fuzzy now), but I had to cut out a piece of the seat back support, and IIRC I welded something back in to make it fold/stop the way I wanted it to.

 

 

When I ever get around to doing the drivers side, I'll take some pics.

 

The only negative is there's no latch to keep the seat from folding forward (not an issue/problem for me tho).

[johnj92131]

I had 4 sets of seats, bad 2 door seat and good 4 door seats. Had a shop disassemble the seats, pick the best of the parts and put them back together. One of the sets of buckets came from a Commanche I found in a yard were 4 door seats - took those for the seat mounting brackets. Found a great set of 4 door buckets, then all I had to do was scrounge for 2 door seats in any condition. Took a while, but it can be done.

[ParadiseMJ]

I modified one of the 01' XJ seats in the trail-MJ (pass side).

 

It was a while ago (so details are fuzzy now), but I had to cut out a piece of the seat back support, and IIRC I welded something back in to make it fold/stop the way I wanted it to.

 

 

When I ever get around to doing the drivers side, I'll take some pics.

 

The only negative is there's no latch to keep the seat from folding forward (not an issue/problem for me tho).

I saw an MJ with XJ (apparently) seats at the junkyard. It really wasn't that bad getting to the back with the seats upright.

 

Not having the seats locked in place in the upright would not be an issue for me either since my butt/back would be holding them down. I flipped over an MJ seat and saw the little locking tab. wouldn't seem too hard to grind down the nubbin and weld in a tab (maybe with a little rocker spring (not stock, but workable). If I get to trying it first I too will run a write-up w/pics.

 

Anyhoo, I did get the seats (and matching door panels) for $65 total.

[shelbyluvv]

This works for 96+ XJ seats too

 

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16295

[btm24]

Stick the 4D XJ buckets in there for now, it's not bad and beats the he!! out of the bench. But in the meantime keep an eye out for a donor 2d XJ. I had the 4D XJ buckets w. the large bolsters for a year or so before I found some buckets from a 2D. The upholstery was better on the 4D seats, so I swapped it to the 2D seats. Any buckets are better than the bench IMO, but the 2D folding seats are the best. :D

 

what is so bad about the bench any ways? to me a bench is just the thing to have in a truck. I just want head rests :yes:

 

Brandon

[glundblad]

My bench didnt have a headrest. I didnt like that. I also didnt like adjusting the seat, especially with passengers. The thing I disliked the most was it always seemed too soft or broken down. Even when it was new. It was just very uncomfortable.

[1987Comanche]

I'm gathering a parts list for my next jy run and am going to seriously look for the necessary parts for the bench to bucket/console conversion. The bench in the '90 is a lot less comfortable than the one in the '87...less padding I think. Based on the searching I've done I need '94 or earlier seats and will use my bench brackets, correct? If I find good 4 dr seats can I add the hardware to convert them into 2 dr seats later on? I found a few pics of consoles with cup holders but most don't seem to have any. What donor(s) have the cup holder? Finally if there are no decent pre '94s in the yard is the center console from the 95-96 or 97+ bolt in? Will newer seats work with an older console and vice versa or do the interior generations need to be matched?