Hello

New to this forum.

I am wondering if anyone has installed a Cadillac CTS front seats with built in should belt in their 1st ?

If so, how well does it fit? Head room issues ?

The CTS-V are nice but the standard CTS are a lot easy to find. These are very nice seats. Both driver and passenger are 10-way power, heated & lumbar support. I am not worried about the looks but safety first!

I was told that they are 22" wide so they should fit. From the bottom of the seat track to top of the seat is 8". Just wodering if they are going to be too tall - leg space!

Waid

Thanks

Waid

The irony...

I just completed this project last week.

Except I used black leather 2003 Chrysler Sebring seats. I am pleased with the results. Enough headroom, substantially increased comfort and adjustability, and I feel the looks are good (always subjective).

I'll put up a pic of the finished product here soon...just haven't taken time to photo it yet. Where in Indiana are you? I'm NW Indianapolis...you can come see what I did in person if you want...

But looking at your seat photo, without even asking for a measurement, I can tell you right now EXACTLY where your biggest problem/challenge will be...which was exactly the same I ran into with my Sebring seats:

Your seat tracks are FAR too far apart to fit in-between the rocker and the driveshaft hump of a 1st gen Bird, while allowing the seat to sit low enough to allow adequate headroom. The tracks need to be narrowed close enough together so that the OUTER EDGES of the tracks are no more than about 18.5" apart...or less would be even better/easier. I bet yours are near 22" apart from outside edge to outside edge, which will never fit...

My solution to this was a complete tear-down and reconstruction/refabrication of the seat frames. It was no small task, given the articulating power mechanisms, tilt mechanism, cushion attachment supports, structure of the seat itself, etc. It took me probably 50 to 80 hours of fabricating/cutting/welding/test-fitting? In the end, the upholstery and seat cushions remained untouched and they fit the car (and me) well. I just set the cushions aside while modifying the seat track locations, and then put the seat cushions back on at the end.

Challenge number 2: Are those out of a 4 door car? That's what CTS's are I believe. If yes, this is bad, because the front seats do not have a mechanism to easily tilt the seat backs forward far enough to allow access to the rear seats. So I decided for myself when shopping for a modern car seat that I thought would retro-fit relatively easily, that it was absolutely necessary to pull my seats from a 2-door car, in order to have rear seat access.

In a perfect world, I would have pulled them from a convertible Sebring instead of a coupe, which would have the integrated shoulder belts like yours show. But I couldn't find clean Vert seats, so mine are from a coupe...and the coupes had shoulder belt attached to B-pillar, which is bad for my convertible. So I just used my factory '68 lap belts and called it good enough.

If I were to do it again, I'd try harder to find seats from a different car. Maybe a 4th gen Camaro/Firebird, or maybe the new Camaros or Mustangs. The latest Monte Carlo was a front runner for me as well for a donor...as well as some random Mercedes I think...but I can't remember the model. those are nice coupe seats that I feel would work well. I only picked the Sebring seats because I got them for $50/pair at my local Pic-a-Part and they had cleaner leather than the Monte and Mercedes did. I really didn't know if my plan would even work or not...so I didn't want to risk newer/more expensive seats and a big financial investment for a potential failure. This was an experiment for me and I'm proud to say it worked in the end.

Here are the primary challenges with this project, with respect to screening a donor car for seats:

1. Power seat switches must be ON THE SEAT. So many cars now have power seat switches on the doors or on the center console. This would greatly complicate install because now you need to figure out where to put the switches and make them look good.

2. Coupe seats are mandatory if you want fold-forward access to rear seats...this excludes 100% of 4 door cars as donors.

3. Seat track width will need modification for most modern seats. First gen spacing at seat tracks is very narrow compared to modern cars.

4. Seat belt configuration needs to be looked at. In the end, it's often easier to just use the factory lap belt, but certainly a modern shoulder belt as shown in your pic probably would offer more safety, if it can be worked out.

The width of these seats is 22" but the width of track outside-to-outside is 19.5". The mounting flange is on the inside.

Would that work at all?


Waid

That is narrower than I expected them to be. But to be honest, I am doubtful that 19.5 inches will work. It'll be close. But I think when installed, the cushions will be high enough that you'll hit your head on the roof.

But I do NOT know for certain. And my car has had floor pan replacements so it's possible our dimensions are slightly different. The only way to know for certain is for you to mock it up...just pull one of your seats and set one of these in the space and see if the mounts even reach the seat mount platform.

Or, if the seats are not available to you, just cut a square piece of cardboard or something that's 19.5" wide and long enough to run the full seat travel forward and backwards, and try to set the board down flat on your seat platform...and see if it reaches.

If it does, I'd recommend you also get a measurement from bottom of seat track bracket (floor) to top of seat cushion, and compare with your stock seat cushion height to see if the seat cushion is too tall.

Also, consider whether it is acceptable for you to have no ability to tilt the seatbacks forward to access the back seats.

Sebring seats...love it or hate it...

lots of seat eveidently fots...friends have used Sebring seats, late model GTO seats, late model Camaro and firebird seats , BMW seats....

Love 'em Crazecars, they look very comfy and supportive. Great job fabbing them in there. But ya gotta fix that wheel. I can even see the hub cracks in the small pics you posted. LOL!!! I can't talk, my Deluxe wheel is cracked to heLL too. I will be doing a wheel resto in the future too. As stated above they all cracked.

Dion

LOL yeah, that wheel bugs me a bit, but I'm living with it for a little while longer. I've got other priorities to handle before spring. Notice the scattered primer all over my rockers? My last full exterior paint was in the late 90's, but it is still in 99% excellent condition. And believe it or not I managed to replace my floors and frame rails and install weld-in integrated subframe connectors over this past couple years, while disturbing very little paint and body work on the exterior panels. But it does need some paint, like the entire rear body, and lower quarters and rockers where I welded in. Those are all in scattered stages of temporary rattle-can primer, and need to be properly blocked/primed and then shot with color and blended in to the rest of the car...but I'm not doing a complete repaint so it should be a fairly easy, just waiting for a body shop buddy to get a booth available for a weekend so we can shoot it in sterile environment, hopefully within the next couple months. That's #1 priority, along with some minor mechanical issues like a carb and disbributor rebuild/replace as needed. So that's my focus for the next couple months, after which I desparately just want to drive and flog it all summer long (something I haven't been able to really do in a LONG long time...this car hasn't been roadworthy for over a decade, but I finally got it there this past mid-summer and enjoyed it some before the snow flew), and I probably will attend a few Goodguys events. But I can easily see fixing that steering wheel next winter...

I also might just seek out an inexpensive used Grant wheel or something for short term, so I can drive the car while fixing the factory wheel. Then I can do it anytime I choose. We'll see...