Great Alternative to leather seat covers!

Seat swaps in any vehicle require careful consideration and research. Unless a seat was designed specifically for your vehicle or a corporate twin (i.e. Camaro-Firebird), you may run into problems trying to reengineer a seat for your particular car. For about two months, I’ve tried to gather information on installing a set of seats into my ’86 Fiero GT, with no success. The results here are a product of my own research and experience, and many opinions are subjective, such as fit & finish, and overall comfort. Proceed with these points in mind, and please keep in mind that your results may vary. You can e-mail me for any clarifications regarding this installation, but please avoid contacting me with messages stating that "I did what you said, and the seats suck!!" or anything like this. Your results may vary. Having gotten my disclaimer out of the way, I’ll now proceed to the details.

My interior is in fairly good condition, save for the ever-wearing seats. Anyone who has a Fiero knows how the driver’s seat is prone to wear. I considered Mr. Mikes leather seat covers, and was very impressed with his catalog and positive feedback from many people who have purchased his product. I am in no way saying that Mr. Mikes’ products are no good. To the contrary, I believe that he offers a top-quality product at a reasonable price. However, $415 was more money than I was looking to spend at this particular point in time.

I was able to locate a set of nice tan leather seats out of a ’96 Trans Am at my local salvage yard. After negotiating a $150 purchase price which included the seats, nuts & caps, and all associated wiring & switches, I dutifully removed them from the car and loaded them into the van for the ride home. I had no idea what I would have to do to get the seats to fit in the Fiero, and figured that if I did not succeed in my project, I would at least be able to resell the seats for what I paid for them.

I measured the distance between the existing Fiero seat studs and the distance between the Trans Am seats mounting holes. I found them to be surprisingly similar. When I test fit the T/A seat to the Fiero, the rear studs lined up perfectly with the Seat brackets. I noticed that the front studs were about ¼ to the rear of the holes in the corresponding front bracket. I used an aluminum-oxide grinding stone at 30,000 RPM on a Dremel tool to slot the mounting bracket on the seat. After this was done and allowed to cool, the seat dropped right in and was bolted down. One small snag: The two rear passenger seat brackets needed a little downward coaxing in order to be able to start threading the nuts onto the studs.

These seats were equipped with the optional power side bolsters and lumbar adjustment. The switches are molded into the outward side of the cushion, where one would expect to find ordinary power seat switches. The wiring harness that connects the two seats together needed to be lengthened, and I added 36 inches to its overall length. Blame the high Fiero center console for this modification. There are a total of 4 wires and an air tube to be lengthened. The wires were simple, however the air tube required some creativity. I cut the tube in half, and spliced a 3-foot section of semi-rigid vacuum tubing with tubing connectors. I sealed the splices with some clear silicone and taped them well with electrical tape to prevent separation. After all, once the harness is installed, nobody wants to tear it out to fix a substandard connection.

A small slit in the carpeting was required in order to run the harness up to the connector in the bottom of the seat. Before cutting, locate the plug and choose a midpoint (halfway between having the seat full forward and full aft) and make a 2" slit. You will need to remove the center console and the shifter console in order to pull back the carpeting. This will make running the wiring harness much easier. I chose to run the wires across to the other side right underneath the ECM. I got my power and ground from under the center console area. There is a 7mm self-tapping sheetmetal screw which supplied the ground, and I tapped into power at the cigarette lighter assembly. I used an inline fuseholder with a 30-amp fuse to be on the safe side, even though the cigarette lighter circuit is protected already. I have had no problems with blown fuses since the installation.

Some minor drawbacks: Since I used the Trans Am seat tracks, I noticed that my seating position is about 1 ½ inches higher than before, and there is approximately a 2" legroom loss. If these dimensions are critical to you, I suggest doing some careful research before you go through all of this work to find out that you can no longer fit comfortably in your car. I am 6’3" and weigh about 190 lbs., and found that I fit perfectly. Keep in mind that my car is equipped with a factory sunroof, which affords a little extra headroom; and I have a tilt column, as well. I strongly advise against installing these seats unless your car is equipped with the tilt column.

It has come to my attention that it is possible to reuse your Fiero seat tracks, which are held to the seat assembly with 4 10mm bolts. The 4^th Gen. F-Body seats supposedly bolt right up to the Fiero’s seat tracks. I have not yet confirmed this first-hand, but have been in contact with a person who said that he has done this on at least two cars. This may be another alternative. I chose to keep the Trans Am seat tracks because the driver’s seat has a reclining feature (like a rocking chair) that I really wanted to keep. Additionally, I don’t know if I would have been able to retain all of the hardware associated with the power adjustments. The compressor and related parts bolt to part of the tracks, as well. I have had no interference with the normal operation of the handbrake or the inner seatbelt buckle. If the headrest –mounted loops that hold the seatbelt are desired to be made functional, the plastic loop will have to be unscrewed from the headrest and cut at the midpoint between the screw holes in order to pass the seatbelt through it. The F-Bodies have a single anchor at the rocker for their seatbelts, not the continuous loop setup as we have in the Fiero. Access to the seatbelt is a little harder, due to the fact that the F-Body seats do not have the little hook that Fiero seats have to retain the seatbelt in an easily accessible position. Mine were broken to begin with, so it was not an issue.

If you decide to undertake this project, I wish you the best of luck. I am very content with my results and find the seats to be light-years ahead of the stock seats in terms of finish and comfort. The biggest factor is finding a good set of seats. As far as I know, any 4^th Gen. F-Body seat will work as I have described in this section. Again, Good Luck!