the seats... how do i fix them

[moelll]

after going to the junk yard, grabbing some seats from an Escort GT and installing them into my car, i decided to fix my original seats.

how do i remove the cushioning, the halo and what do i have to do to get the seats to lock again?

and another thing, how do i fix the the side bolster on the driver's seat cos its loose from the joint...


one more thing... while i was in the yard, someone found a dead body in one of the cars in the GM section

[tfs2121]

yeah is there a way to fix the seats to make them lock agen? mine just lean foward so if no one is in the pasinger seat and you hit the brakes hard it goes flying foward a buddy of mine told me this was a common brake on mustangs

[talorp85gt]

Accualy, the seats in the 85/86 don't lock. They never did. I'm not sure why ford did that, but that's the way it is.

[Magical Kevin]

they ARE suposed to lock, they are an inertia lock, only lock when you slowdown hard enough, no clue how to fix them tho.

[85stang]

There is an inertia lock in the seats, but it lets it move a little. There is a TSB about this that says to by new hinges for the seat and they won't move like that.

[Sellis1012]

THis is gonna be long...

I have rebuilt a number of 85/86 seats in my life, and actually have a set of rebuilts in my basement right now.

The halo headrest: There are varied methods, but what works for me is taking the back off the bottom, unzipping the back, unhooking the foam, reaching down inside, feeling around for the clip that holds the headrest, or shining a light down to see what you are working with. Once located, take a large flathead screwdriver, slide it between the clip and the frame, twist hard, while the seat is in your lap front down, and have somebody yank the headrest out.

Removing the foam: Going from memory here, but I think once you have pulled the headrest, you work the seatcover with foam still attached off the frame. If you want to take the foam off the seatcover, remove every hogg ring you can find, then pull the two long vertical metal bars out. Then you start working the seatcover inside out until about the middle, then there will be more hogg rings and a horizontal bar to pull, then work the seat cover some more, then I think there are some more hogg rings and one more horizontal bar at the top. Then its off. What I have done that makes the biggest difference in rebuilding the back is cutting up my wife's hangers and securing the hangers in and x pattern on the frame using existing holes, then cutting a section of carpet the same shape but about a half inch bigger than the opening in the middle of the frame, and taping the carpet to the frame in front of the x. Once you put the seat back together, your foam will not push through the hole. No more hunchback.


Bolster: You're gonna have to take the bottom apart. Remove the tracks, or you may be able to remove just the driver's side track. Unhook the seat cover. You may have to pull the adjustable thigh support which requires knocking out the pins. Peel the seatcover back until the entire foam part of the bolster is revealed. Get up under the foam where the metal plate is. You will probably find your loose hogg rings in there. Using hogg ring pliers and new hogg rings, resecure the plate to the metal bar you will see in there with double hogg rings. Make sure you get the hogg rings good and tight.

Locking seat latch: No, the 85/86 seats never locked, but you can make them lock. completely remove the latch from the seat, play around with it for awhile until you figure out which part is loose that is suppose to make it lock, then secure it. My 86 seats now lock, but it has been so long I can't tell you exactly what I did. Sorry.

A dead guy in a GM? I thought all guys who drive GMs are dead.

[v8only]

please tell more about the body?? was it stuffed into a trunk?? or did some guy have a heart attact pulling a part?