Can Reatta seats be swapped left to right and visa versa??

[Guest Kitskaboodle]

I'm sure this has been brought up before:

My drivers's side seat is a little worn. Can I switch the passenger side seat over?

I realize the seat back adjuster will then be on the inside by the transmission tunnel

but as long as I can get in there with a finger or two to adjust the seatback, that's ok.

Thanks, Kit / 90 Reatta Coupe

[jonlabree]

Yes, they are interchangable.

[Barney Eaton]

They may be interchangable but if you do nothing but move them from side to side, the recliner handle (standard seat) will be on the inside.

16 way won't interchange (1) the extra controls on the drivers seat will hit the console, (2) if you exchange the seat cushions, you will have holes in the sides where the controls were.

[JWC]

When I bought my 89 they were already switched, and Barney is right the recliner handles are now on the wrong side but can still be used. To me this is a good way to get even wear and longer lasting seats, you would never know by looking at my seats the car has 170,000 miles on it.

[Guest C.F.Massie]

Barney,

The 16 way seat from the driver side will swap to the passenger side, I have done that. It's true the pod on the side of the seat would have to be moved to the other side, but that's no problem. I obtained a seat control pod from Mike in Arizona and it was from a Riviera, identical to our Reatta control pod and tan like mine but it was for the passenger side seat. The legend on the pod was reversed for the passenger side. The wiring harness on the passenger side is the same as the drivers side so all the proper connections are already there, obviously they used the same harness for Reatta's and Riviera's alike. Mounting the pod isn't a problem, only if you wish to keep the same seat covering for the bottom cushion then you will have to fix the two holes on the drivers side after removing the pod.

One issue is the lumbar bladder, your passenger seat frame work does not have the air pump attached so you can either live without the lumbar or replace the framework with a 16-way drivers seat frame, and there are some available out their. I would ask Jim Finn or Mike if the have any spare frames. Also if you use a passenger type seat the bottom cushion, of course it will not have the proper thigh support extension, I mean the separation between the seat cushion and the thigh pad. A bottom drivers seat may be available also from salvage or any good upholstery shop can do that conversion fairly resaonably if you don't want to tackle it yourself using the existing passenger seat. Myself I purchased a spare set of seats and used the donor drivers seat to convert.

So you see it can be done, I wrote once before on this subject here about doing just that because my wife wanted to have those same controls on her side of the car too, she has too many back problems. But I wanted it to look as though the seats came that way originally and it worked.

Good luck to anyone wanting to do this conversion, it can be done and it's not that difficult.

[DeeBee]

Hey, take a look at the 90 conv. ad I just posted. No, not my car, saw it on CL. I'm headed to SF Friday morning if you want to get together for a look.

Maybe keep yours for parts and go with the 90 convert? Now, THAT you could show up at the Fiero club with. I'd have taken mine but didn't want to get stoned. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />