Heated Seat Install

[pizzaman09]

I've had a dream of fixing up my very worn out seats and upgrading them to have heat.  This post goes through the work of tearing down the seats, putting in the heated seats pads and putting nicer upholstery on, thanks @fiatslug87!

 

The heated seats kit I used is this one, it's a perfect fit including the rocker switches for the dash next to the cigarette lighter. https://leatherseats.com/shop/seat-comfort/seat-heaters/rocker-switch-seat-heater/

 

The very worn out starting point.

 

To remove the bottom seat upholstery there are a few screws and wires to remove.  At the front the wires cross through each other.

 

Remove the two screws on the front tie down flap.

 

On the back of the bottom seat cushion there is a pin that hooks to the slider bracket.  Just pop it out with needle nose pliers.

 

Under that rear flap is a set of elastic straps, wiggle them out of the square loop to disconnect.

 

The chrome latch plate hold the rear flap down too.  Remove that.

 

At this point, unbolt the bottom seat from the frame.  There are four bolts with 13mm heads, two at the front and two at the back.

 

Apparently my drivers side cushion was missing 4 screws that hold the side wires that hold the sides of upholstery the bottom cushion in place.  Photo of the passenger side here shows two black Phillips head screws at the center and two at the back holding the wires in place.  Remove them.

 

After removing the 4 screws slide the two coat hanger like wires out the pack by pulling.  Needle nose pliers may help here.

 

The wires look like this.

 

The front flap has a wire too, remove it.

 

With the bottom seat loose one can peel off the upholstery.  There is Velcro holding it quite well to the cushion.

 

 

The cushion with the cover removed.

 

Next post, upper seat disassembly.

 

 

[pizzaman09]

For the upper seat, remove the trim around the fold forward latch lever.  You should drill the backside of the handle to get out the roll pin, my trim was broken so I didn't care and will deal with the consequences later.

Two Phillips screws.

 

The seat recline handle just pulls off, do it carefully, oddly the snap appears to be well designed for two way install/uninstall.

 

Pull apart the Velcro at the seat bottom

 

Actuate the fold forward latch while carefully lifting the vinyl over it, actuating the lever some makes it way easier.

 

The backrest center section should now be free to be lifted up, this allows access to the side bolster clips. 

 

There is one lone strip of Velcro up the center of the back rest, wiggle your hand up between it and the upholstery to loosen it.

 

Now just stuff the foam back through the tube of upholstery until the center section is free of the foam.

 

To disconnect the side bolsters there are four white plastic clips on each side, start near the seat bottom and unclip each one from the brown paper wrapped wire, they are fairly easy.

 

I used a screwdriver to get the highest one started, but used my hands to finish uncliping it once started.

 

The headrest needs to be removed.

 

The headrest plastic guides have two sping clips holding them into a triangular hole.  They are a bit of a pain but not impossible to do with your hands.  Once I got the clips started I pushed them out from the inside with some needle nose pliers.

 

This picture better shows the clips.

 

At this point I didn't take any more photos but basically I wresseled the upholstery off of the top, I tipped it towards the folder forward lever side to allow me to slip it over that through the slot in the upholstery.

 

The headrest is super simple, two screws hold the bottom plate on, remove.

 

The center u shaped bar and plastic lifts out.

 

The headrest upholstery slides into a couple of slots to hold it neatly in place.

 

Remove the upholstery from the headrest through the hole.

 

New upholstery goes on as expected.  It's challenging to stuff, make sure you get the foam core installed the right way around.

 

Be careful where you push stuffing the foam back in, I broke the molded in plastic on my passenger side headrest, though not in an important location.

[fiatslug87]

[pizzaman09]

Now the fun part, installing heated seat pads!  The Eliminator wing back seats are really well setup for this, simply use adhesive backed fuzzy Velcro to attach the seat pad to the original Velcro on the foam and then use the adhesive backed hook Velcro on top of the heated seat pad in the same pattern.

 

You will note that I used some fiber coil and 3M super 77 spray adhesive to fix up my collapsing door side bolster.  Additionally I used spray adhesive to fix all of the cracks in the foam, there where many...

 

The heated seat pads are pretty awesome, carbon fiber resistive heating elements.

 

Placed the hook side Velcro on top of the heated seat pad precisely over the original Velcro underneath it.

 

The upper seat back has a single piece of Velcro down the center.

 

Just do the same thing of using adhesive backed fuzzy Velcro under the heated seat pad.  The pad has sticky adhesive down each side, I used it on this piece with the sticky towards the foam, it's upside down in the photo below.

 

Apply loop side Velcro down the center of the heated seat pad.

[eaglescout526]

I have thoughts on doing this to my XJ. Wiring in the heated relay timer for the rear defrosters so the seats dont get hot and theyre wired to the same rocker switch.

[89 MJ]

I’m liking this. Might have to copy you at some point. 

[pizzaman09]

55 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

I have thoughts on doing this to my XJ. Wiring in the heated relay timer for the rear defrosters so the seats don't get hot and theyre wired to the same rocker switch.

The heating pads have thermostats in them to regulate the temp. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

Woah, nice job. Looks like an, ahemm, writeup to me

[pizzaman09]

While the seat rails are out, clean up the tracks. 

 

Take the springs out.  The big one is easy, just grab the center with your hand and move it towards the frame slot, shown at the bottom of this photo.

 

The lever spring is under a fair bit of tension.  I lined up the rail with the the valley of the cross rail below to hook a screwdriver or such on to pop the spring from its slot.

 

This is the orientation of the lever spring.

 

I ran lots of hot water down the rails with dish soap while actuating them back and forth to break up the hard original grease.  Then I used some paint thinner to brake up more of it while sliding the rails.  When it was all clean, I put some really nice white lithium grease everywhere and actuated it.  The big spring rail was a bit tight as the roller bearings had long eaten into it, I took some channel locks and gave the u shaped rails a little squeeze to narrow them up to make them slide freely.  Cleaned up the extra lithium grease and it moves way way smoother now.

[eaglescout526]

48 minutes ago, pizzaman09 said:

The heating pads have thermostats in them to regulate the temp. 

Double fail safe?

[pizzaman09]

1 minute ago, eaglescout526 said:

Double fail safe?

Nothing wrong with a double failsafe.

The heated seat wiring comes with a 10A fuse per seat.  They pull about 6A on high.  The wiring has a ground, a primary positive wire for connecting to an always on power source, and a relay with a trigger that you connect to an ignition controlled source.

[pizzaman09]

Machined an aluminum trim piece for the fold forward lever.  I may decorate it yet, possibly engrave it with the word Comanche.

[Salvagedcircuit]

6 hours ago, pizzaman09 said:

Machined an aluminum trim piece for the fold forward lever.  I may decorate it yet, possibly engrave it with the word Comanche.

Noicee!

[pizzaman09]

Both seats assembled with heating pads and replacement upholstery, just need to finish the second aluminum fold forward trim piece.

[fiatslug87]

Those look GREAT!!!

[89 MJ]

Wow! Talk about an upgrade!

[Pete M]

  wow!

[aris_garage_builds]

Wow! Need to add this to my list of future upgrades 

[pizzaman09]

Got the seats back into the truck.  They look amazing back in place.  Hoping to get the heated seat wiring sorted out in the next few days.

[pizzaman09]

To fit the toggle switches, I cut the blank switch panel out to the right of the steering wheel. 

 

Used a very sharp chisel to shave away the original melted plastic until the panel could be pulled away.

 

Cut the holes out carefully with a sharp wood chisel.  Might be easier with a Dremel and a cutoff wheel.  The flange on the provided switch is very similar in size to the raised boss for the switch blanks.

 

Glued the switches in under the flange to the raised boss using LOCTITE plastic bonding system. 

 

Melted the plastic panel back to the dash using a soldering gun with a plastic soldering tip.

 

The final product, turned out brilliant.

[jeff351]

Nice write-up! My only complaint is it was 75 degrees here today, so my motivation for a heated seats upgrade is lacking 

[pizzaman09]

10 hours ago, jeff351 said:

Nice write-up! My only complaint is it was 75 degrees here today, so my motivation for a heated seats upgrade is lacking 

It was similarly warm where I am at.  What is funny is that I do not drive my truck in the winter, but there are plenty of times where I have the heat on and want a heated seat.

[Salvagedcircuit]

That looks stock! nice job

[pizzaman09]

Wiring time!  Surprisingly easy.  There are three wires to power the heated seats, a ground, a primary power wire, and a relay trigger.

 

The ground for each heated seat is attached to the ground point under the dash above the parking brake release. My truck has an extra ground wire here, the green wire that I added per Cruisers tips to improve the dash ground.

 

The main power, large red wires, I put a spade terminal on each and used the two free spots at the top of the fuse block on the right.  These are supposed to have constant on power. 

 

The trigger wire is to be attached to an ignition on source, this arms the main power relays for each heated seat.  I tied both together in one spade terminal and connected to the bottom left most spot on the fuse block.  I placed a 5 amp fuse next to it to provide power to that location, see the brown fuse to the right of the small double red wire.

 

Tied all of the extra wiring up and shoved it up along the knee panel of the dash, I have cruise control so the yellow computer just held all the wire bundle in place.

 

Wires for each seat were routed under the full length center console I have.  One could certainly run them under the carpet which would be more typical.

 

Ran the wires to the outside of the transfer case lever.

 

They run down from the dash at the front edge of the console.

 

Final install of dash switches.  The light in the left switch is too bright, I'll have to sort out a way to frost the lense or something.