Monte seats in Malibu?

[LLucast80]

I bought the seats from an '85 Monte for my 79 Malibu. The rear seat back doesn't fit. It is too wide at the bottom and has the top hangers in a different place. Also, the front tracks only fit three of the stud locations of each seat. I have correct tracks, so I assume I can swap those. But does anyone have a suggestion for the back? I still have the Malibu rear seat, but the upholstery is shot.

Any help is appreciated.
Larry

 

[303'505rollin]

Pix, maybe you can skin and reskin you OG seat

 

[pagrunt]

In my expirance it should be a direct swap between any A/G.

 

[LLucast80]

Everything I read says they should be a direct swap, but the wire frames and foam are different. I took the upholstery off the Malibu frame, and I think

303'505rollin might be right. It looks like, with a little effort, I could make the new upholstery fit the old frame. ​

Thanks for the point in the right direction. I haven't had the pleasure of countless hog-rings in a while.
Larry

 

[CopperNick]

Seem to recall having stud location issues when I went to swap in buckets in place of the factory bench on my now deceased 78. The outer pair of studs adjacent to the rocker panel flange/seam are a fixed datum, meaning that how and where they are located on that side to side lateral bracket/brace means they have the same distance center to center whether the car came with a bench or buckets. The two that parallel the tunnel may be a different story. The back one has plug welds that tack it to that same side to side cross brace so it can be fairly easy to situate. i do know that when i re-installed the in board pedestals that abut the tunnel the one that I had to measure and re measure multiple times and even check the alignment from in to out with a carpenter's square to make absolutely sure it was where it needed to be was the front inner one near where the floor shifter sits because once i got it burned in it would be a stone b**** to cut away the seams and plug points to free the stud and its pedestal to adjust them all over again.

I cannot honestly say if there is an inboard bucket seat that is shorter that would solve your problem. Most of the G-body track assemblies I have ever handled, when paired, had the feet landing the same distance apart whether an "innie" or an "outie".



Nick

 

[LLucast80]

Mounting the new studs is pretty straightforward. They form a perfect square, so mark the existing studs on template board, and mark the other studs to make a square. Put the template on the existing studs, put the new brackets under the template with the studs through the template. The put a couple of sheet metal screw through the new brackets to hold them while you weld them. You might want to drill holes in the new brackets to weld through.
I was able to use the MC upholstery on the Malibu rear seat frame. I switched seat tracks to the Malibu ones, which are different from the MC ones, despite all I read about interchangeability.
Thanks for the comments and advice.

 

[303'505rollin]

How they look

 

[LLucast80]

Like they belong there. Now I am done with seats.

 

[pagrunt]

Mounting the new studs is pretty straightforward. They form a perfect square, so mark the existing studs on template board, and mark the other studs to make a square. Put the template on the existing studs, put the new brackets under the template with the studs through the template. The put a couple of sheet metal screw through the new brackets to hold them while you weld them. You might want to drill holes in the new brackets to weld through.
I was able to use the MC upholstery on the Malibu rear seat frame. I switched seat tracks to the Malibu ones, which are different from the MC ones, despite all I read about interchangeability.
Thanks for the comments and advice.

Seat tracks should be the same regardless. Only differences is usally with the inners between the buckets & 40/60 benches.

 

[LLucast80]

The guy I bought them from said he personally took them out of an 85 MC. The problem was with the inners, so maybe they were 60/40s. I tend to take people at their word, so maybe this was a lesson learned.
Thanks again to everyone who helped figure it out. They are in the car and look good.