Upgraded Seats

[peterjohn77]

Folks

I would like to replace the front seats in my 78 XJS with those from an 89 model. The rear and side panels have gone in no bother. However, the seat rails on the front are on a different spacing. Has anyone any experience to pass on to help my quest?

Peter

[Brakebuster]

my understanding is that Jaguar had to change the floor-pan to accommodate the US seat-belt regulations, and redesigned the layout ,

i have removed and refurbished the seats on my own 1989 XJS coupe , and have actually swapped the drivers seat base for the passengers seat base ( frame and all ) to even out some wear issues i had to the leather and padding, the seat back ( upright ) is handed, and has to go back on the correct side of the car ( levers and latches etc )

part of the process was to remove the seat runners from the bottom of both frames , as the runners are ' handed ' but the actual seat base and frame arnt,

so my idea is that you could remove the 78 runners from the bottom of the seats, and put them onto the 89 seats,

as far as i know, the actual seat base didn't change in design over the years , and so the 78 runners should fit the 89 base

got to be worth a try

BB

[Brakebuster]

btw,
if ur having trouble locating the bolt onto the nut at the front of the runners, try using electrical insulating tape to fix the nut to the end of a large flat screwdriver,
this helps you position the nut under the bolt in the runner so that the thread will reach it

once the bolt has ' caught ' the nut by a few turns, simply pull out the screwdriver and the tape will break leaving the nut behind

BB