seat swaps

[Guest squiretom]

hi , it' s been awhile since i last posted.

i have a new offbeat question. can the seat backs be swapped between the driver and passenger side ? i am starting to get some wear on the left driver side bolster. since my wife refuses to ride in the car she did not want me to purchase , the passenger seat back is in nearly new condition.

any links to info in the reatta forum would be most appreciated.

i did not find any reference in the reatta data page.

thanx in advance.

by the way i ran across an old AVANTI in need of major life support .if anyone is interested i can get more info and some picturss.. it is located near Tavares Florida on hwy 19.

[NCReatta]

My grandfather is an Avanti fanatic, where was it located? He's mostly interested in the '63's...

[Guest squiretom]

hi nc reatta !

i do not know the year as i have only driven past several times , it looks rough but looks like the body is fairly good. it is located between clermont and tavares florida on rte 19.

if you are interested i will stop by in the next week or two and take a few pictures and give it a quick lookover inside if i can. it has been sitting there for a long time. i will try to get an actual address and phone no.

any ideas on the seat swap ?

where did you get the carpeting for your reatta?

do you have the tuner / equalizer portion of the radio / cassette for a 90 or 91? i also need a tan right hand horn button. i have the original , but , the plastic studs have broken off.

[NCReatta]

Well, an easy was to tell if it's a '63, is to see if the headlights are round. '64 and up were square. I'm not sure how interested he'd be in it, because money's rather tight with most everyone right now.

No ideas on the seat swap, I have never tried to take a seat apart. But it seems to me that it would work. The only problem I could see, might be the recline lever (assuming your seats are standard, not 16-way). it could be on the wrong side.

another option could be to find another passenger seat all together, and just replace the driver's seat with that. But only if your seats are standard. It would be a lot harder with 16-ways.

My carpeting is the original, but I have taken it out, and cleaned it well. This involves removing the seats, and basically disassembling the interior

I do believe I have a radio, but if it is operational, I don't know. but I can try to test it on my aunt's '90 when I get the chance.

As for the horn button, I believe I can find you one. I know a man a couple hours up the road that's got about 10 Reatta's, I'm pretty sure he'll have one. Not sure what he'll want for it though.

[Barney Eaton]

There is no short answer on the seats.

If you have the 16 was seat option, the answer is also slightly different.

If you just unbolt the seat and swap sides, they will fit but the manual recliner lever on the standard seat will be on the inside.

The only choice is to swap the skins and I have never done that so I cannot say how time consuming it might be.

Also depending on the color of your interior, you might buy a good seat skin from a used car (passanger side) while it would cost you.... you would retain the good seat you have and use the purchased one to fix the drivers side.

Tan is the most common color, followed by grey, burgundy and blue.

[padgett]

First year only had round headlamp bezels, later and Avanti II had square. Friend growing up had a '63 with 4speed and a/c. My kind of car.

[NCReatta]

My grandpa's got 2 '63 R3 Supercharged 4-speeds.. but no A/C, but if you can go fast enough, who need A/C??

[Guest squiretom]

thanks again mr eaton

[padgett]

My experience is that the side bolster on the seat back is what goes first. Be interesting to see if just the back is swappable. Might also be interesting to see if 16 way is swappable with standard (might lose lumbar)

[Rawja]

I have swapped 16-ways left to right, no problem, you just swap the pod to the other side, the wiring comes up to the pod from the bottom and the screw holes left from the pod attachment on the disused side are hidden by the center console. 16-way seat backs also swap left to right no problems.

I've also removed and reinstalled the leather seat covers for the base part of the seats, just need hog rings and hog ring pliers.

[Jim]

I have swapped 16-ways left to right, no problem, you just swap the pod to the other side, the wiring comes up to the pod from the bottom and the screw holes left from the pod attachment on the disused side are hidden by the center console. 16-way seat backs also swap left to right no problems.

I've also removed and reinstalled the leather seat covers for the base part of the seats, just need hog rings and hog ring pliers.

The passenger side 16 way seat does not have the movable thigh support or the lumbar bag. It would not be too much of a problem adding the lumbar bag but the passenger seat does not have the screw rods needed to make the thigh support go in and out. These screws are held into the drivers seat by a roll pin and the pins cannot be pushed out because one side of them is up against a metal part of the thigh support. I am guessing you would have to reuse the thigh support from the drivers seat and if the leather is bad you could remove the cover from the passenger seat thigh support and put it on the drivers side thigh support and then mount the recovered support on the passenger seat.

You can put either seat on either side. If a person put a drivers side seat on the passenger side so they could have the movable thigh and lumbar on that side then the pod would have to be moved to the opposite side and everything should work. I think both the cushion covers and the back covers are the same for both the passenger seat and the drivers seat so everything pretty much is interchangeable.

From my not so good memory It gets more complicated with the regular seats. The cushions are the same on the drivers and passenger sides referring to both the frames and covers but the backs are different. The hinges on the 16 way seats are stamped steel on both sides but the regular seats have a stamped steel hinge on one side and a pipe type hinge on the other. The cushion frames are drilled and tapped to accept either hinge which is why you can interchange the bottoms.

The parts book shows different part numbers for the back covers for the passenger seat and the drivers seat. They look identical but different part numbers.

A few years ago I sent a passenger back cover to a lady and she had her upholstery shop try and put it on. They said it couldn't be done and she sent it back. A year or so later I sent another passenger side back cover to another person and explained it probably wasn't going to work but he put it on and looked good.

Edited June 26, 2010 by Jim (see edit history)

[Rawja]

Yeah, I did all the swapping as described above as part of doing dual 16-ways. I used the passenger base seat cover with a driver's thigh support on a driver's side seat that I installed on the passenger side.

[Guest squiretom]

thanks for the ideas . i do NOT have the 16 ways , so i guess four nuts on each side and i'm good to go ? does the console need to be removed?

[Vincent Vega]

The console can stay. Pull the seats. You won't regret it.

[padgett]

If you do not have the 16 ways then you have a manual tilt adjustment which would need to be transplanted (why the hinge difference).

[NCReatta]

since you've got to take the whole seat out to take it apart anyways, why don't you just switch the whole shebang? Switch the pass. and driver's seats, and be done with it?

[padgett]

With standard seats the tilt mechanism is mechanical and lever is on one side only.

[Guest squiretom]

hi guys

did the ( non 16 way ) seat swap , half hour job.

4 screws for cover over seat nuts , 4 seat anchor nuts , 2 electric connectors different colored wires , didn't matter.

seat back lever is a little of a pain , but works ok.

RECONNECT the wiring FIRST so the seat will move and uncover the floor anchors studs for easier install.

man is that new seat comfortable.

thanx again

thanks for advice

Edited July 7, 2010 by squiretom
one more comment (see edit history)

[Guest squiretom]

for anyone interested the Avanti i mentioned has ROUND headlights.