Anyone know what seats will fit? I drive a '92 Dakota LE regular cab and my stock bench seat is an ugly bright red and warn out. I can't afford to have the seat fixed and reupholstered and I don't have the skills to do that myself. A junkyard near me has a seat from a '96 extended cab for a pretty good price. I can do some fabrication for the mounts but I'm not looking for a huge project. Any good ideas?

 

If it has the same cab design (1997 was different) the floor pan should be the same. Yes, your cab is shorter, but the front of the extended should be the same. Unless you're short and drive with the seat way up, you won't be able to recline it, but you should be able to make it fit. I'm thinking the bolt hole should be the same, but I haven't changed seats on anything this late model.

 

The only thing I worry about is not being able to mount it because the seat from the extended cab have a high back so the top of the seat will sit further back than the low seat I have right now. Do you think the high back seat would clear the rear window?

 

I had to edit my original post. I meant to say recline, not replace. You can probably bolt the seat in, but it will be bolt upright. Unless you drive with the seat slightly forward, it won't be able to lean back. I bought a '93 new in early 1993. It was a good truck but eventually my knees got to the point where I sold it at 200K miles. The main problem was the lack of a tilt steering wheel. I'm 6 foot and most regular cabs are a bit tight for me. Considering how small older trucks were, they are huge now, but I still like my room. The 1939 Dodge was advertised as a 3 man cab. I had a '52 B-3-PW Power Wagon and the 3 man cab was tight for myself and my brother-in-law. The original Power Wagons from 1946 to '68 used the '39 Dodge cab.

 

It will hit the rear window; depending on your belly and your legs, you may or may not fit with it.

But to fit - any 1987-1996 Dakota bench will fit. For your year, check the floor plan; you may be able to use a split bench or bucket seat set also.

As to recovering - it's not rocket science. I'd keep the OLD bench, and practice on it. Some auto upholstery foam, carefully cut the old apart, and you can use it for patterns to cut the new fabric or vinyl. Use marine vinyl, that stuff'll last darn near forever. There's videos on YouTube and a few good books available. (I cheated - my nephew was opening a upholstery shop, and he did mine for me supplying materials. But it wasn't that hard to do!)

RwP

 

Hey thanks a bunch for the replies guys! I'll pick up the seat in the next week or two and post up how it goes. My truck is the biggest first gen wheelbase and it's honestly as roomy as a Chevy 1500. I'm 6'2 but I have way more leg room than I need right now so I might be able to get by, if not then I'm out $70 and I'll make a couch out of it lol. There's a few more things I need to fix on the truck but eventually I'll get the supplies and try practicing some DIY repair and upholster. Again, thanks for the help!

 

I recovered my old D50 bench seat and its like new. I just went to the upholstery supply and they hooked me up with foam, Turns out I only needed to add 1" foam and I bought a new skin from this outfit. https://seatzmfg.com/ Here are a before and after pics I also got some vinyl and redid the headliner and door cards. $160 delivered for the bench seat cover. I thought it was small at first but I put it out in the sun and did the work there after it warmed up and you can see how nice it looks. They also send a cheap hog ringer and hog rings with the new cover. I had already bought them.
Edit- they wanted $500 to do it at a shop and $600 to spray the bed. I paid about $50 for the foam. And I redid the bed rust issues, sprayed it with Raptor bought a compressor big enough to do it and got carpet for the interior for <$800. Sometimes it pays to try something you never did before.


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