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Thread: Fox seats 101

  1. #1
    FEP Power Member LTDScott's Avatar
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    Default Fox seats 101

    The bottom cushion on my LTD LX's driver's seat was completely worn out (or so I thought) and I kept getting jabbed by the seat framework in my left leg. These seats are just like Mustang LX seats, ie low back, flat, and no support. I'll swap them out eventually (I really want SVO seats), but for now I just wanted to fix them enough so they weren't uncomfortable. But all of this info applies to all Fox front seats.

    I had a spare bottom cushion from a broken LTD LX seat I had scavenged for parts in the past, so my first goal was to swap the spare cushion onto my current seat. I also had 1 and a half Escort GT seats (one whole seat and one bottom half - these seats are almost identical to 85-86 Mustang GT seats) in my garage from another donor car. I wanted to see just how difficult it was to remove the halo headrests from these seats to install in my stock seats (or SVOs if I ever get em).

    First I started by attempting to swap the spare bottom seat cushion I had onto my current seat frame. Once I pulled the bottom seat cushion off my current seats, I saw why I kept on getting jabbed in the leg:



    I guess a powerful car + fat ass driver + drag radial launches = torn metal! When I saw this, I checked my floor pan for damage but everything is okay there. I think the floor of the LTD is set up differently than the Mustangs and isn't as susceptible to cracking. Anyhow, luckily I had the bottom half of the Escort GT seat that I could use for a donor frame. It all worked fine.

    As I said, I had another complete Escort GT seat that I wanted to pull the halo headrest out of. I decided to sacrifice the seat and sliced it open so I could take pics of how to do this and post them here since it's a fairly common question. Here is what the inside of the seat looks like:



    The black part is the "collar" where the headrest shaft slides in. The shiny bar inside is the "tang" that holds the headrest in. It's sort of spring loaded and goes into this groove on the headrest shaft to keep it from coming out all the way:



    Most people say that in order to slide the headrest out, unzip the back of the seat and with your hand inside slide a flat head screwdriver into the collar where the headrest shaft slides on the "front" side of the shaft to push the tang down (the bottom in the photo). Like so:



    But I found that there's not enough room for both the headrest shaft and a screwdriver tip in this space inside the collar, so I ended up bending the collar down with a pry bar to expand it open. Usually the top and bottom are parallel and the space inside is just big enough for the headrest shaft to go in. Once I bent it down I was able to press down the tang with my flathead screwdriver and the headrest came right out.

    But after I got the headrest off, I found out there's an easier way. Rather than trying to slide the screwdriver tip inside the collar in the same space as the headrest shaft, I found out that the tang can also be pried out with a screwdriver on front side of the collar instead of inside the collar (again, on the bottom in the pics). If you feel the front side of the collar, you can feel the tang sticks out enough that you can pry it outwards. The screwdriver has to have a pretty thin tip and you have to go at it from an angle like so:



    This seems much easier to me and I was able to swap around headrests pretty easily after that just by feel. In order to install the halo headrest into my LTD seat I also had to remove a plastic collar from the top of the seat. It came out with a little wiggling. After that, the halo slid right in. It looks really good but unfortunately I only have one halo at the moment.

    Sorry for the crappy pics, but I was using my mom's old camera. Hopefully they're good enough that you can understand how to do this.

    Incidentally I found the build sheet for the donor Escort inside the seat along with a 5 year old condom (unused, thankfully!)
    85 Ford LTD LX: Four eyes and Four doors

    EFI swap, AFR 165 heads, 5-speed conversion, Cobra brakes, etc.

  2. #2

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    Good write up Scott...

    But... With the seats I had in the Futura I was able to remove the halos without cutting the seat and by unzipping the zipper at the back of the seat and sticking my arm up there and using a flat head screw driver to get the halos out.

    Wow... long sentence....

    1985 Mustang GT Mild 331 4bbl 5 spd, 1985 SEFI LTD LX AOD.
    Cardomain: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/565542
    Mid Size LTD LX Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/groups/233213650060739/

  3. #3
    FEP Power Member LTDScott's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Marz
    Good write up Scott...

    But... With the seats I had in the Futura I was able to remove the halos without cutting the seat and by unzipping the zipper at the back of the seat and sticking my arm up there and using a flat head screw driver to get the halos out.

    Wow... long sentence....

    Yes I know but like I said I cut it open so I could take pics. The whole point is so that people can see what's going on even though they can only do it by feel. I swapped the halos onto my stock LTD seat by unzipping the bottom and using the method I outlined. Worked great.
    85 Ford LTD LX: Four eyes and Four doors

    EFI swap, AFR 165 heads, 5-speed conversion, Cobra brakes, etc.

  4. #4
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    Default Ford Headrest Tool

    Hey Scott,

    Check out this headrest tool, it works like a slim jim:

    http://www.atrim.com/Page49.html

    TTYL, Binnie
    1985 LTD-LX
    Proud to have Four Eyes

  5. #5
    FEP Power Member LTDScott's Avatar
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    Flathead worked just fine. No need for a tool!
    85 Ford LTD LX: Four eyes and Four doors

    EFI swap, AFR 165 heads, 5-speed conversion, Cobra brakes, etc.

  6. #6
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    LTDScott, your post saved me a lot of time and effort. Thank you very much for posting this!! I tried for 20min to pry the staft out then read your post and had them out in under a minute. A little trick I discovered was to use the headrest to push the tab out even more so I could use a large head screwdriver right from the front. Good condom find too. I found a box of business cards stuck in the 'vert well from the Ford VP that bought my car new - that was cool, but not as funny as your find.
    Rob

    1984 GT Convertible: Born November 1983 so it has slapper bars and no fog lights. Has DSO 89 (Transportation Services) and later sold to a Ford VP of Finance in Palo Alto, CA. Medium Canyon Red Exterior, Charcoal Interior, 5.0, 5-speed, power windows and doors, and 85k miles.

    http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/h...ics/?start=all

  7. #7
    FEP Power Member LTDScott's Avatar
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    I'm glad this helped. I fumbled around for a long time unsuccessfully too which is why I made this post.

    I went to the junkyard last weekend and got two more halo headrests. Got em out in a couple of minutes.
    85 Ford LTD LX: Four eyes and Four doors

    EFI swap, AFR 165 heads, 5-speed conversion, Cobra brakes, etc.

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