moparcyco Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Man I hate to start another seat thread.But I can't find a direct answer.So I found a set of mj buckets today for almost free the tracks are good but the seats are hammered.The question is will zj seats bolt to the mj tracks?The local salvage yard has a perfect set of cloth buckets if they will.Or whatr else works with the my tracks?Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadiseMJ Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 The 'tracks' are not as important as the brackets themselves that bolt to the floor. If you have the brackets, you can make almost any comparable sized bucket seat fit. Width is an issue, height is an issue. ZJ seats should fit, but you need to save those brackets. You'll find that the brackets for the bench seat and on the MJ buckets are basically the same I used XJ 2 door buckets, because the seat folds forward. But I had to grind the screws/rivets off the old MJ bench seat bracket and bolt it to the XJ seat. It was easy once I wrapped my brain around it. The XJ brackets will not fit the floor of the MJ. If you wanted to put a different seat in it you would need to fab up some crossbars with flat steel stock to bolt (or weld) the bracket to the seat runners (tracks). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Following this topic because I have been wondering the exact same... junkyards around here have PLENTY of good ZJ seats but no good XJ ones. I just am worried about the width and everything being off. I have about 12 feet of 3/16"x1-1/2" angle iron to work with to make them mount on the brackets, but I don't know anyone with a welder so I need to do it with bolts. Only people I have seen do it have welders or just cut up the floor to make it work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Following this topic because I have been wondering the exact same... junkyards around here have PLENTY of good ZJ seats but no good XJ ones. I just am worried about the width and everything being off. I have about 12 feet of 3/16"x1-1/2" angle iron to work with to make them mount on the brackets, but I don't know anyone with a welder so I need to do it with bolts. Only people I have seen do it have welders or just cut up the floor to make it work... Paradise MJ is exactly right about how important the MJ seat brackets are for installing ZJ seats. I have bolted in the ZJ seat in place of my MJ bucket on the drivers side. While the ZJ seat is larger and a bit wider, it does fit with no issues for me. My son borrowed the MJ for a couple of weeks, so I can not take some pictures. Will look to see what old pictures I have stashed on the work computer or the home computer. (Lost the phone because I dropped it a week ago. Only able to salvage a couple hundred pictures). I used the stock MJ bucket seat brackets, then got some steel from Home Depot. Ran 2 pieces of flat stock (1.25 x .25?) from the front bracket to the rear bracket. On the ZJ seats, I cut the entire floor brackets with a grinder. Think there were about 5 rivets on each floor bracket to grind. This left me with the stock ZJ seat adjustment track/mechanism intact. I drilled the former rivet holes oversize. Then used 2 more pieces of same flat stock to go from one side of the seat adjustment mechanism to the other side. The flat stock was bolted to the seat adjustment track/mechanism. So with flat stock bolted to the MJ seat brackets and flat stock bolted onto the ZJ seat adjustment track, I started to test fit the seat in the MJ. I used a couple of clamps to hold the seat in place while I sat in the seat and tested the position. When I found the "right" position, I marked the flat stock where I needed to bolt the ZJ seat to the flat stock on the MJ seat brackets. Then drilled and bolted in place. Now, I drilled all the holes in the flat stock oversize so I would have some wiggle room when the bolts were in place. I also needed to shim up the back of the seat in quarter inch increments till I had the seat level the way I wanted it. Because the MJ seat brackets are not level front to rear or left to right, I used a different number of shims on the left rear compared to the right rear. A lot of trial and error time was spent shimming and adjusting the seat position before I finally bolted it down. Since putting the ZJ seat in the drivers position, I have taken a couple of long day trips (325 miles total) and one 3 day trip to San Francisco area (1100 miles total). The ZJ seat is a big comfort improvement over the MJ bucket seat. Before I install the passenger side ZJ seat I want to have the the foam replaced in both seats and add the fold forward mechanism from a 95 XJ to the ZJ seats. And I am still toying with the idea of finding some ZJ power leather seats for the final installation. The 93-95 Grand Cherokee leather seats to not seem as tall as the cloth, manual seats or even the cloth power seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moparcyco Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 The 'tracks' are not as important as the brackets themselves that bolt to the floor. If you have the brackets, you can make almost any comparable sized bucket seat fit. Width is an issue, height is an issue. ZJ seats should fit, but you need to save those brackets. You'll find that the brackets for the bench seat and on the MJ buckets are basically the same I used XJ 2 door buckets, because the seat folds forward. But I had to grind the screws/rivets off the old MJ bench seat bracket and bolt it to the XJ seat. It was easy once I wrapped my brain around it. The XJ brackets will not fit the floor of the MJ. If you wanted to put a different seat in it you would need to fab up some crossbars with flat steel stock to bolt (or weld) the bracket to the seat runners (tracks). I have the entire seat "assembly" tracks bracket seat etc the seat part the part you sit on is obliterated but the base or track bracket assembly is perfect so if I unbolt the seat is there a factory jeep seat that BOLTS to the factory mj bracket assembly.I can fabricate as I have a set of 2 door xj buckets and was going to to the bench swap.But I am all about the easy if I don't have to cut or drill bonus.Just being lazy so has anyone here done something like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockfrog Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 I have a set of 2dr XJ buckets in my MJ, bolted right to my factory brackets. 12 bolts/nuts per seat (4 floor to bracket, 4 seat base to seat frame, then 4 seat frame to bracket ) and I was done, easy peasy. I am curious if any other seat will bolt in as well, my 2dr's are starting to look like my old stock buckets ... Worn and done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 IF anything, you may need to use some flat plate to make an adapter for the ZJ seats to bolt on to the MJ brackets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fernando87mj Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Do what they're telling you and adapt it for the best position but here's mines not the best job due to lack of tools and skills but I'm learning and plan on improving them in the future but here's how they look in the mj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash_AF Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Look into the 97+ conversion threads. If you can fabricate the mounting points on the floor, you can use the ZJ seat tracks to mount them after welding in the cross-brace/mount from the late model XJ or some similar piece of metal and I think adding one bolt to the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadiseMJ Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Any confusion on how to do this comes down to one thing. The seat brackets that bolt to the floor. The MJ floor has a unique topography, hard to fab, easiest to just use the brackets. There is some drilling/grinding to do before you can bolt them up. XJ floor brackets will NOT work easily. Have you thought about getting the stock seat re-upholstered? Then you'll have new seats, in your choice of color and upholstery, with the fold forward option and they'll fit like they were meant to with no extra work involved. Then you'll just need to bolt it in, with 4 nuts/bolts/studs per side....Now THAT's easy peasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The 'tracks' are not as important as the brackets themselves that bolt to the floor. If you have the brackets, you can make almost any comparable sized bucket seat fit. Width is an issue, height is an issue. ZJ seats should fit, but you need to save those brackets. You'll find that the brackets for the bench seat and on the MJ buckets are basically the same I used XJ 2 door buckets, because the seat folds forward. But I had to grind the screws/rivets off the old MJ bench seat bracket and bolt it to the XJ seat. It was easy once I wrapped my brain around it. The XJ brackets will not fit the floor of the MJ. If you wanted to put a different seat in it you would need to fab up some crossbars with flat steel stock to bolt (or weld) the bracket to the seat runners (tracks). I have the entire seat "assembly" tracks bracket seat etc the seat part the part you sit on is obliterated but the base or track bracket assembly is perfect so if I unbolt the seat is there a factory jeep seat that BOLTS to the factory mj bracket assembly.I can fabricate as I have a set of 2 door xj buckets and was going to to the bench swap.But I am all about the easy if I don't have to cut or drill bonus.Just being lazy so has anyone here done something like this? Like ParadiseMJ said. Get the seats recovered. The foam can be replaced. The seats can be as good as new. When I converted my bench seat to buckets, I had an upholstry shop mix and match a bunch of seat parts till I had a near perfect set of OEM buckets. It is very do able. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tugalo Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 When you start fooling around with the seats, notice that the cushions just unbolt from the frame, and the covers will just slip on and off like a glove. i hate to see guys spend extra money on foam and covers when the junkyards are full of almost new seats.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 When you start fooling around with the seats, notice that the cushions just unbolt from the frame, and the covers will just slip on and off like a glove. i hate to see guys spend extra money on foam and covers when the junkyards are full of almost new seats.......... Yes, this is so true. Exactly what I did - get seat parts from salvage yards, then had the uphostry shop put them together because I lacked both time and knowledge. The foam on the passenger seat usually is in much better condition than the driver seat. The foam on the left side of the passenger seat will be just like new and fits the right side of the drivers seat exactly. Lots of stuff interchanges from left to right. I had a great link to a thread with someone totally stripping down their XJ seats and rebuilding them somewhere. Will post the link when I find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moparcyco Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 When you start fooling around with the seats, notice that the cushions just unbolt from the frame, and the covers will just slip on and off like a glove. i hate to see guys spend extra money on foam and covers when the junkyards are full of almost new seats.......... That's exactly the answer I was trying to find.If the zj "seat"or cushion will bolt to the mj frame I could build a seat from scratch if need be just looking for easy and cheap as my wife and I are giving this to our son for his birthday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 My problem is that I'm going from a bench to buckets eventually lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadiseMJ Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Buckets and bench use the same floor bracket, riveted to the seat, so it needs to be ground/drilled off of the bottom of the seat and bolted to the other seat...or set up like that. Unless you're confident in fabbing something else for the seat to floor...it's the easiest way. Just sayin' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 I knew I would have to take the brackets off my bench and move them to the ZJ seats. Just wasn't so sure if I could do that with just some metal and bolts. But now I see that it isnt as complicated as I expected :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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