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Old 06-04-2013, 10:44 PM   #1
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Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmobile

I have a 1987 Ford E250 EB Sportsmobile with the original swivel captains chairs up front. I can get some leather seats out of a 2008 Ford Freestar minivan real cheap. Any ideas on whether this would be an easy swap to put the 2008 seats on the existing swivel bases? Will any of the bolts/holes match up? Trying to do this without major work to get them to fit. Welding a plate on the bottom of the seats that could be bolted to the swivel is about at complex as I want to get.

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Old 06-05-2013, 03:19 AM   #2
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Re: Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmob

I was recently wondering the same thing. A local seller on Craigslist had a nice set of front leather seats out of a Ford Windstar van for pretty cheap. I asked him to measure the bolt holes for me, but he never got back to me. I have a 1998 van, but I imagine the full-size van seat bolt layout has remained pretty consistent over the years.

I got busy and never followed-up with the idea. You see these vans all the time in junkyards.
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Old 06-05-2013, 08:01 AM   #3
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Re: Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmob

Great question. I also see Windstars at the local Pick-n-Pulls and often wondered about them. I might go this weekend and if I see one I will take one apart (the seat and seat base) for pictures and measurements.

(I'm going there anyway to hunt for rear pop out windows and a frame mounted battery box.)

Ray
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Old 06-05-2013, 08:43 AM   #4
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Re: Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmob

I would be very surprised if the bolt holes matched up. Welding some sort of adaptor plate should work. If you do go with a modification to the seat base make sure it's well done and very stout. If you get into a fender bender your life may depend on the strength of your adaptor plate.
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Old 06-08-2013, 05:27 PM   #5
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Re: Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmob

I stopped by my local Pick-n-Pull today and found a Windstar at the end of the aisle that I could work on disassembling the seat and seat base. I got to the passenger side easily but the driver's side was cramp so I was unable to pull the drivers seat out. And I forgot my tape measure .. Doh.

Anyways, I took some pictures and rough measurements. I'm currently away from my work computers and will post pictures and description on Monday.

The Windstar seat I looked at does not have the retractor typically found on current E-Series vans. I forget the name of it but its the retractor that fires off and pull taught the seat belt in the event of an accident.

Ray
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Old 06-09-2013, 11:24 PM   #6
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Re: Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmob

Finally took some time to look at my 1987 swivels. The seat attaches by 4 bolts to the swivel From side to side they are 8" apart, and 11" apart from back to front. I need to get the junk yard to pull the minivan seats so I can look at the bottoms. Shouldn't be to difficult if either weld on a plate or a frame to bolt to the swivel, but won't know until I look. I forgot to look, but these junk yard leather front seats may be electric - don't know if that may derail my plan as I don't know how the electrics would work on these bases. Hope to take a better look this coming week.

No need to worry about the seat belts and retractors in the seats on an '87 as they are mounted on the B pillar.

Gnarvan - thanks for the reminder on safety and stoutness. DIYers may tend to give safety a second thought in their solutions. If anything this project will be over engineered if I decide to tackle it.
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Old 06-12-2013, 09:36 PM   #7
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Re: Will 2008 Ford Minivan seat replace seats 1987 Sportsmob

Here's some data .. donor vehicle was a 98 Windstar. I do not know if this changed since 98. I had good access to the passenger seat but not so good access on the driver's seat. The nearest I could tell the seat brackets looked the same even though I could not remove the driver's seat. As I mentioned earlier I forgot my tape measure so the figures are not exact.

Here's the top of the seat bracket:



Distance from hole center to hole center for the front is 15 5/16in. Distance from hole center to hole center for the back is 15 5/16in. Distance from hole center to hole center for the side is 14 1/4in.

Here's the bottom of the seat bracket:



Distance from hole center to hole center for the front is 14 1/4in. Distance from hole center to hole center for the bottom is 14in. Distance from hole center to hole center for the side is 14 1/4in.

Here's the bottom of the seat:



Hope this helps™,
Ray
Attached Thumbnails
windstar-top.jpg   windstar-bottom.jpg   windstar-seat-bottom.jpg  
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