Every S-13 owner knows how uncomfortable those worn out 15 years seats can be. Instead of buying generic seats with 'universal' seat-rails from eBay, I decided to get something that feels good, looks nice and easy to put in.

Old seats in the S-13 I crashed. They got painted black later on the red body. The same dash, center console, steering wheel and carpet also are now in the Red (for now) body.

I tried many different seats from Integra, 300ZX, Civic Si, Mitsubishi Lan-EVO and settled on Celica GT-S 7th Gen seats. Those seats have low height and narrow enough to fit in the S-13 chassis. Plus, unlike the Honda Integra seats, they don't cost an arm and a leg . Especially if you get it from someone who's throwing them out from a wrecked car or stripped race body.

There were choices of leather or Ultrasuede. I didn't want my rear being burnt by the car seat in a hot day so I picked Ultrasuede. eGay aftermarket seats have a choice of mesh nylon as well.

The seat-rail heels from Celica are very close to S-13 original mounting holes and only the outer-side heels require modification. You will need a 4" Grinder with cutting wheel and a welder. Painting is optional but recommended to keep it from being rusted.

When you get the Celica seats begin work on the passenger side. In case of massive failure you can still drive the car w/o a passenger seat.The inner heels don't need to be changed but cut or drill the bolt mounting hole in them a little higher (about 1cm) to keep the seat as low as possible.

All you have to do is bend the front heel to fit in the front mounting hole on the floor. You can achieve that easily by putting a rachet socket extension or thick screwdriver into the hole of the heel and push it against the rails to bend it. You don't have to put in a lot of force so don't try to break it.

Now the real work starts on the outer side. First start on the front heel.Unbolt the outer rail from the original 240sx seat and cut the front heel along with the rail it is attached to. Cut it exactly at the end of the heel-to-rail attachment. Also cut the front part of the heel (but not the rail) from the Celica seat. You will want to leave the base of the heel attached to the rail because it gives about 2mm of required height.Clean the rail and brush off the paint from the base of the Celica heel and the top of the rail cut from the 240sx seat. You can use the flat surface of the cutting wheel to acheive that quickly.Align the front ends of both heels to each other and weld them together. If you choose to tap-weld them while sitting in the car for exact fitment, I recommend using a thick wet blanket over the carpet to prevent it from being burnt.

You can see the blanket over the seats while it was being welded. I should have had it covered from the bottom. A small piece of weld bounced off the floor and burned a small hole on the inner side.

The outer rear seat heel has to be done at last for best fitment. The rear heel of Celica seat is extended to outer-side where the 240sx seat is extended to the rear.First, cut off the heel from the seat rail of the original 240sx seat and mount it on the car's floor. Remove paint from the heel of the Celica seat by brushing with the side of the cutting wheel. You want to cover the carpet with wet blanket to prevent burns. Then mount the seat in all the other heels. Adjust the orignal heel to support the Celica seat heel and give a little tap welding.Wait for a while for the welding to cool down. Don't use water as it can weaken the welding joint. Take out the seat from the car and cover the seat with wet blanket to prevent burns. Weld the heels together from all sides to give it good strength. You don't want them breaking off during a side impact.You can also try to mount the heel by completely cutting off the Celica heel and cutting off the 240sx heel with part of the rail like on the front heel. But you will still need additional 1.5cm of height.



When all the welding are done you can use a grinding wheel to smooth out the weldings and start panting. I recommend using clear coat on the paint for better holding. You might want to sand the metal plate on the bottom of the seat and paint over as it will be a little rusty on a used Celica seat. Use masking tape to prevent painting over the seat farbics or leather.

The mounting bolt for Celica seatbelt receptor is exactly the same size as the original 240sx bolt. So just clean up the old receptor and replace the Celica seatbelt receptor.

The S-13 two piece belt doesn't fit perfect with the new seat. The upper belt reaches higher than it should and needs adjustment.

Quick and dirty way to solve this is to route it under the lap belt. Or you can fabricate a loop hole for the belt to pass under and stay a little more to the front than it would otherwise.

The seat heels mounted in perfect.Inner Rear Heel

Inner Front Heel

Outer Front Heel

Outer Rear Heel

The new seats for S-13



Height Adjust for Driver-side only.

All it cost me was $200 for the seat, including work on welding and stuff. Grinder and paint cans were mine though.

Modified by Soravia at 7:59 PM 10/21/2007

Modified by Soravia at 7:22 PM 11/7/2007

Modified by Soravia at 7:27 PM 11/7/2007
Modified by Soravia at 7:28 PM 11/7/2007

pretty cool idea. better that buying expensive s15 seats. just go to the junkyard to find a nice pair of seats and fab it up. good write up

nice writeup! ill have to consider this for my 240s..

+ 1 for ingenuity and the fact that its pretty easy to find them, but i feel like when you could have gotten a set of 2 s14 seats for less that fit better, offer more comfort and possibly more bolstering (been a while since i rode in a celica)...

how is the height compared to the stock seat?

Even with the lowering on the inner side and lowered seat on driver adjust, I'd say about one inch higher than stock. But the way they were mounted, the seats get lower as you move them back.

I would pick these 2000+ Celica seats over S-14. The S-14 seats feel too close to Sentra than a sport car. Too wide for me. Then again I weight only 125 and my waist is 27.Compared to the original S-13 seats (mine were not all torn up just worn) these gave a lot more lateral support in addition to comfort. Head-rest is also a lot better for someone around 6 feet (I'm 5'10"). I had a fixed heat-rest on my original seat.

S-14 seat

2000+ Celica 7th gen seat
Modified by Soravia at 11:16 PM 10/21/2007

wow youre tiny! im 6' even and around 165 so they fit me perfectly. I honestly cannot go any higher than stock or my head bumps with a helmet, something that would kill those seats for me right away. i wouldnt care about adjustability if i could custom-fabricate some mounts that put the seat even an inch lower.

You can lower the seats if you can reduce the hump on the inner front or lower the rear inner side a little more. The latter would be better.But my write up concerned more about quick and tidy job.

BTW, my rear seat was painted using Dupli-Color Farbic Paint. It's water-based so I recommend painting it on dry seats using pressurized air to push the paint deep into the farbic. It doesn't rub-off once it is soaked into the farbic. If there are dried droplets, they would come off and expose the un-painted farbic.

I know I'm resurrecting another old thread but I had another question. I believe these Celica seats have airbags right? If that's the case, is there any danger in having them?

Soravia wrote:Then again I weight only 125 and my waist is 27.

Ever said "Where my sammich, woman?!??!?!".I guess not.

that is very awesome BUT be very careful, OEM seat brackets are made to be a certin strength if you get in a accident in fabbed brackets that arent up to par you can easily DIE many fabricators wont even make seat brackets since thats a liability on them just a bit of a heads up !!

I don't think the Celica seats have airbag in them. The seats has belt sensor connection. But you can replace it along with the driver side seat belt receptor from S-13.

There are no fab-ed rails in this mod. It has minimal modifications to preserve OEM quality. Only two outer heels needed welding and if you put enough weld, it will be stronger than OEM.

I love this mod, but I'm happy with my S13 seats. Just don't know why everyone hates them so much, they seem to have enough bolstering.

Not after riding about 200K miles and 17 yeras on them.

Yo soravia, in your experience do you think it's possible to switch the Celica seats from driver side to passenger and vice-versa? I ask because I just bought a set and the drivers side seat has a little wear on the left bolster. Can I simply swap the brackets and make the drivers side the passenger side? Thanks

Not Possible, the seat adjustments are built into the seats.

You'll need to take the entire seat apart and replace the back supports, which may end up destroying them.

really enjoyed the write up..... seats look b****in'

Meh... I'll figure something out. Thanks for all the input. Hopefully I'll have the seats in my car before December.

It took me only about an hour for each seat. Painting time not included though.If you want the seats lower than mine. Just mod both rear heels, especially the rear inner heel.

Hey man I was wondering if you could do me a little favor and take some measurements of your Celica seats... I'm looking for height, depth, and width at the widest points. Measuring height from the floor to the top of the back of the seat. If you could do that for me it would be a big help.

Right now I can tell you that the seat rail width (the distance between seat rails) is identical to the S-13 seats.

As for the measurement, I'll give you that tomorrow. I left the tape measure in the work desk.

As for width, the Celica seats barely clears on the door side and it has very small rub on the center console. Nothing to damage the farbric or anything like that.

Thanks

As for height, the Celica Mod I made using Celica seat rails measured with the seat as forward as possible with driver.38" from the back floor to the tip of seat when fully up-right.2.5" from the tip of seat to the roof when fully up-right.32" from the bottom of seat to the tip of seat when fully upright.Driver has 34.5" from the bottom of the seat to the roof.All these numbers will change by an inch when the seat is all the way to the back.

Thanks for the info. I hate to be picky but did you measure the depth and width?

no. I didn't. I'll do that tomorrow.

I appreciate all your input. I just a put a deposit down on some 2001 Celica seats. 200$ total with brackets and sliders.

Leather? Show us pics when you get it.

how was the passanger side, is it the same just the other way around ?

Just follow instructions with 'Inner Heel' and 'Outer Heel' in mind. same thing minus the seat height adjust.

just did the passenger side.... love this write up..