Lowering Seats

[Sasquach]

outstanding job Sasquach. is this a heat and bend job or did you manage to do this cold??

Red hot! What I did was prop the seat into position in the Jeep were I wanted them and then made a carboard cutout of the side profile between the floor mounts and the seat base then layed out the mount holes on the card board shape. Went to the vise with the flat stock and heated up my bends to red hot about a pencil width to keep a tight bend and used my card board template, bigest problem I had was with the card board wanting to catch fire when I held it against my work to check angles so my templates are no more.
It made for a very solid and almost factory looking mount.

 

[Old Dog]

Red hot! What I did was prop the seat into position in the Jeep were I wanted them and then made a carboard cutout of the side profile between the floor mounts and the seat base then layed out the mount holes on the card board shape. Went to the vise with the flat stock and heated up my bends to red hot about a pencil width to keep a tight bend and used my card board template, bigest problem I had was with the card board wanting to catch fire when I held it against my work to check angles so my templates are no more.
It made for a very solid and almost factory looking mount.

Very nice job.

 

[KenB]

OK, it worked - with a couple of caveats.
I removed the latch mechanism, then cut off the latch pin/stops. Put the seat bracket back on the seat and did a test fit. Folded the mounting bracket to it's lowest position maintaining clearance between the seat back and the roll bar support, marked it, disassembled, then drilled new holes and welded the latch pins/stops in. Interestingly, the curved bracket ends up even with the top of the seat mount, and does not protrude into the seat. I don't have exact measurements, but the passenger seat is now about an inch lower than the drivers seat, where it was about an inch higher before, and due to the slight tilt, the passenger now has about 3" more headroom.
The seat is a little tilted, i.e. the seat portion is a little higher in front than in the back, and the back is angled back a little. The wife says it's more comfortable than the almost straight-up original set up.
I screwed up on drilling the holes for the latch assembly, so will probably opt for a single latch. I'm not convinced that the latch is even necessary, because of the additional angle.
If I had the chance to do it again, I'd take IO's advice and fab up a plywood "floor" to mount it while working on it, and probably a plywood "seat bottom" as well. Since both sides move independently when not bolted in, its tough keeping all those parts in alignment.
Pros: Cheap fix
Cons: Latch assembly problem, front pivot points are exposed, ?little bit of a recline position?
For those of you with better fab skills and more attention to detail this might be an option.

 

[Mattduran]

If your planning on doing many projects on your jeep then buy your self a decent MIG.

Below is a mod I did on my 73cj5 by lowering and extending the front seat back further for more room on those smaller jeeps. The link is below.

http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f7/want-more-leg-room-your-cj5-willys-our-project-pics-7489/