1) Well I went from "tempted" to "Buy It Now" and bought those grey/black seats on ebay. Used Greyhound to ship them from PA to AZ. Treated them a few times with the Zymol "Treat" leather conditioner....came out BE-U-TE-FULL! Soaked up that stuff over and over.
I also treated the old seats, really soaked it up, & came out nice. They're FOR SALE now.
Next, studied the workshop manual to figure out how to remove them, took several pics for reference, especially on the passenger seat with that cable.....and I jumped in!
Took 2 days, cuz it's 96 degrees and I'm very S-L-O-W...but I could do almost everything from a seated position.
It went smoothly....I figured out exactly what part of the base I needed to transfer from old to new, even figured out the cable thing on the pass side after playing with it for a while.
And incredibly, I even figured out I had to loosen that one bolt on the track, to push it out of the way a little to get to the bolt behind it, holding the base to the seat! OK, if that's not what had to be done, don't tell me and burst my bubble.....let me think I problem-solved it, OK?
AND I had to improvise......I have a 3' pipe for extra leverage to break the threads on the floor bolts, but on the rear inner floor bolt, it was too long to fit. So....I had to improvise.....I have some carbon fiber trekking poles that are supposed to be super strong. So I took one apart and used the top tube as my breaker bar, my ratchet handle fit inside just fine, and the pole JUST fit, just rubbing the inside wall where the seatbelt hangs....
Was a little nervous as I was pulling on it, kept looking for deformation, but all was OK, didn't bend or tweak it at all and of course, broke the blue threadlock on the bolt.
........hmmmmm..........none of my projects go smoothly......wonder what I left out, did backwards or messed up in general?.....
AND..
2) While the seats were out I removed both center consoles and installed the shifterplate covers I got from Ron, and Rowhard painted for me. That took a while to get centered and positioned with the little clips, but I finally got it.
Overall, I only needed Dave's help on a few items...lifting the seats out then in for one...and an extra hand here and there to hold something.....and one phone call to Dub for encouragement and an explanation of the cable, but other than that I did it all myself.....and they both work correctly!!
I'm so proud....
NOTICE ANYTHING UNIQUE HERE????
AND THE MADWOMAN'S WORK STATION/AREA......SHEESH, NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU GUYS HAVE SOOOOOO MANY TOOLS! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MANY DIFFERENT ONES I NEEDED!