110 seats dilemna...ideas please!

My 1986 110SW is, I'm 99% sure, fitted with Series 3 seats. The fore/aft adjustment lever is a small metal lever under your thigh that moves from side to side, the bases lift out of metal "trays", and the front seat backs do not lock back at all...they rely on leaning against a metal grab handle that runs behind them, between the B-pillars, that I think is for the rear seat passengers to hang onto. I have two problems with this, the first being that if my other half wants to drive, as she slides the seat forward, the backrest effectively reclines (no good to her), and very shortly as our baby grows taller he is going to have no room between his legs and the metal grab bar...not good. At the moment it's OK as his feet aren't off the end of his car seat yet, and I can always put him in the front (in his seat) if needed.

Not a great shot angle wise but these are the seats...

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Anyway, I want to fit "proper" 90/110 seats. So, I reckon I have three options:

1-Buy new 110 seats and seat frames. Looks expensive though...although if I could get them in the matching Land Rover Oval cloth, at least my rears and my central cubby box would match. Anyone know the cloth or supplier?

2-Pick up some tatty second hand 110 seats, and do a DIY retrim job. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the price of Exmoor trim kits, and I'm fairly confident I could do a good job.

3-Fit some donor seats from a different vehicle. I've seen Mazda RX8 seats fitted which looked good, and having driven many comfortable miles in my Porsche Boxster 986, that looks like an option too, although I need something with a thin seat backrest so I don't compromise rear legroom.

Any thoughts? My preferred option is option 2, but I'm open to other ideas or suppliers. Oh, and one quick thing to check...my battery lives under the passenger seat, I assume with the correct seats fitted I can still get easy access?

Also, if I sold my existing complete interior, 2 x front seats plus bases, 3 x rear seats (cushions and backrests only) plus central cubby box, what would it be worth? All in excellent condition, no holes or damage at all.

Thanks in advance!

Any one other question...if I do go for used LR seats from another model, which will fit my early 110? Has it got to be 110, or will Defender, TD5, TDCI fit?

Thanks

Not much help I'm afraid but my tdci seats are interchangeable with my brothers 2.5NA and the 300's at work- looks like the design hasn't changed much.

Hi I fitted Audi a4 cabriolet seats... Fitted surprisingly well in my csw and have bonus of being leather, heated, and electric! But one of the main plus points is that being from a cabriolet they have a kind of tilt/slide function that allows full access to underseat battery/storage (from rear) just putting another option out there for consideration

Hard-Drive said:

My 1986 110SW is, I'm 99% sure, fitted with Series 3 seats. The fore/aft adjustment lever is a small metal lever under your thigh that moves from side to side, the bases lift out of metal "trays", and the front seat backs do not lock back at all...they rely on leaning against a metal grab handle that runs behind them, between the B-pillars, that I think is for the rear seat passengers to hang onto. I have two problems with this, the first being that if my other half wants to drive, as she slides the seat forward, the backrest effectively reclines (no good to her), and very shortly as our baby grows taller he is going to have no room between his legs and the metal grab bar...not good. At the moment it's OK as his feet aren't off the end of his car seat yet, and I can always put him in the front (in his seat) if needed.

Not a great shot angle wise but these are the seats...

[/url]

Anyway, I want to fit "proper" 90/110 seats. So, I reckon I have three options:

1-Buy new 110 seats and seat frames. Looks expensive though...although if I could get them in the matching Land Rover Oval cloth, at least my rears and my central cubby box would match. Anyone know the cloth or supplier?

2-Pick up some tatty second hand 110 seats, and do a DIY retrim job. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the price of Exmoor trim kits, and I'm fairly confident I could do a good job.

3-Fit some donor seats from a different vehicle. I've seen Mazda RX8 seats fitted which looked good, and having driven many comfortable miles in my Porsche Boxster 986, that looks like an option too, although I need something with a thin seat backrest so I don't compromise rear legroom.

Any thoughts? My preferred option is option 2, but I'm open to other ideas or suppliers. Oh, and one quick thing to check...my battery lives under the passenger seat, I assume with the correct seats fitted I can still get easy access?

Also, if I sold my existing complete interior, 2 x front seats plus bases, 3 x rear seats (cushions and backrests only) plus central cubby box, what would it be worth? All in excellent condition, no holes or damage at all.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

I've got RX8 seats in and they're brilliant. Both heated and drivers side has full electric movement. With a bit of grinding they drop in relatively well into the existing bolt holes. Even better you can get them for 100 quid.

Coffeelandy...thanks for that and I have a few questions!

Do you have any pictures of them fitted?
Is there still room for a central cubby box?
Have you just fitted them onto the bare seat box, so all of the rails/adjustment mechanism is Mazda rather than LR (Remember I have no 110 rails, just the S3 stuff that needs to come out anyway)
Where have you taken the power for the adjustment and heaters?
Do the bolsters get in the way when getting in/out?
And I guess most importantly, if they are adjusted for an average 5'11" chap to drive, is there plenty leg room for the passenger behind?

TBH I'd like to keep more of an original look, however the RX8 seats do seem very, very appealing for the money indeed!

If you can pick up a set of the originals from a breakers, they are very easy to recover. And new bases won't break the bank either. I suspect your hardest job will be removing the existing ones, as the nuts/bolts tend to sieze up. Expect to drill at least one out.

Thanks Zeaphod. In many ways I like the idea of keeping it fairly original, however they do seem to be very expensive from a breakers. I'm looking at £200 minimum for a pair, plus the new covers, for what isn't a brilliant seat at the end of the day. And that's before I add heaters and lumbar support, if I wanted to do that. And as I've had two rounds of spinal surgery, comfort is key!

The RX8 seats appear fairly similar to the kind of thing that LR tuning companies charge an eye watering amount for, for about £100. The heaters would be a real bonus too. OK I'll need to fit mud rails or get some fabricating done, but it does seem like a very cost effective upgrade.

However my concerns over RX8 seats are the ones listed above, plus...

-Is there enough room under the steering wheel (I do have an aftermarket 15" wheel and I've not used a slimline boss, to the extent that I had to bend my wiper/indicator stalks a bit to keep them in finger range so I'm hoping this is not an issue)

-Is there really enough room to close the door without fouling the electric switch panel?

-Can I safely remove/dispose of the airbag?

I did find Coffeelandy's original fitting thread and they do look good and it does not seem to be too hard a job, although it didn't address all of my concerns...

Hard-Drive said:

Thanks Zeaphod. In many ways I like the idea of keeping it fairly original, however they do seem to be very expensive from a breakers. I'm looking at £200 minimum for a pair, plus the new covers, for what isn't a brilliant seat at the end of the day. And that's before I add heaters and lumbar support, if I wanted to do that. And as I've had two rounds of spinal surgery, comfort is key!.

Click to expand...

Fair enough - I managed to pick up a pair of frames and backs for £50, and find the seats comfortable - but many don't. Quite a few people have fitted SAAB seats, which will be comfy, well made and should have the connections for heating. I believe early Disco seats will fit easily too.

For my 90 I got a pair of citroen bx seats from a scrappy for 20 euros if I took them out myself, this saved me a bob or two and also gave me the fixing bolts for them. They just fit either side of a cubby box and the squabs lift off to access the battery box, they are just basic seats but are supremely comfortable and give a load of extra suspension for off road. The ones I got are cloth, didn't fancy leather as summer over here is hot and most of the time I wear shorts. I know I'm a bit of a pleb, but to me it's far more important to be functional than original/colour co-ordinated, just don't care really, drives the doris mad sometimes.

Hmmmm...erring towards some DIY refurbed originals now. I just think the bolster is going to be an issue and I need to ensure that I have maximum room behind the seat back for the baby seat leg room...

Right, I've made a decision...and bought some old Defender seat frames which I will re-cover myself. Obviously the whole point of this exercise is to make sure that the little one has as much room between his knees and the back of my driver's seat as possible...modern baby seats are really bulky and sit well forward on the rear seat cushion, compromising his legroom, and with him growing I wanted as thin a seat back as possible for the driver which I don't think the Mazda option was going to give me in the future. I was also slightly put off by the electrics and disarming the airbag...it's levels of complication I just don't need in a 30 year old Land Rover. If my Landy was not a station wagon (and of course it was just a looks/comfort thing, rather than baby seat leg room) I would have gone for the Mazda seats in a shot...probably buying a set of cloth and leather, and transferring the leather onto the manual cloth frames. But just seemed to be too many compromises.

So, next question, I'll probably be going for Exmoor trim, either XS Vinyl, (all vinyl with white stitching), XS 1/2 leather, or LR logo black. What are people's experiences here? Is the leather much harder wearing than the vinyl? Is the vinyl really sticky to sit on (I don't have air con) or is it just not worth the extra for leather, especially as my truck gets used as it should do occasionally?

Thanks

I changes the seats on one of our landrovers from vinyl to weeve (techno cloth or whatever its called) as vinyl, and, I assume leather, is just so sweatty.

All our other cars have cloth or weave.

I fitted vinyl to save money, but it can be a bit sweaty in shorts, although you don't have to worry about the seats getting wet/dirty etc, which is useful if you're out and about in all weathers. This year I fitted sheepskin covers to the seats - great comfort and you can pick up a sheepskin for not much in IKEA. You just need a bit of elastic to keep them in place. I have fitted the cloth on previous landys, no complaints.

My old Ninety (1985) also has series seats in it, I put the delux high back seats in there but they are a little pants, been in there for years though.

Guys, any photos of your none standard seats please?

Thread hijack...

(but it was touched on before)

The threads that need re-tapping on the bulkhead after dipping - the vent hinges were mentioned - any idea what bore?
Also the threads for the door stays, and whatever is along the front, under the rain water gully?

(i started a thread on it, but, again, im sure someone here knows!)

Thank you.

With regard to seats for a CSW rebuild - the 2nd row.

I see loads of photos of CSW with two exmoor classic high back on the 2nd row, and then a low back in the center.
Which certainly 'looks' good, however, im under the impression that the high back wont fold right over, like the originals do.

Is this right? If so, that seems too much of a space 'cost' to me, considering ill pretty much never have people in the back anyhow.

The thing is, the high back are much easier to get hold of than the low back, so, if they did fold right over, id be happy to fit them!

(by fold, i dont meen just lean forward - i mean go right over, against so the backs are against the backs of the front row seats)

Pick up a set of tatty 110 seats from the autojumble at a show (e.g Peterborough this weekend!) and refurb with new foams and covers as required. Shouldn't be expensive as lots of folk swap them out for something else rather than refurbish what's there. With new base foams mine went from lumpy to surprisingly good.

julianf said:

With regard to seats for a CSW rebuild - the 2nd row.

I see loads of photos of CSW with two exmoor classic high back on the 2nd row, and then a low back in the center.
Which certainly 'looks' good, however, im under the impression that the high back wont fold right over, like the originals do.

Is this right? If so, that seems too much of a space 'cost' to me, considering ill pretty much never have people in the back anyhow.

The thing is, the high back are much easier to get hold of than the low back, so, if they did fold right over, id be happy to fit them!

(by fold, i dont meen just lean forward - i mean go right over, against so the backs are against the backs of the front row seats)

Click to expand...

I fitted a pair of high backs and the low back in the middle. The middle seat folds flat, but not up like the original did. Neither of the outer 2 high backs will fold flat, let alone up. I needed this type of seat to give the kids, one is 9 the other is 5, more back and neck support, so couldn't do much else. When the kids stop travelling in the car, I will probably go back to original style as I like the simplicity of folding them up.