Just took on a little project over the last couple days and pretty happy with how it turned out. Going to post a few pictures of the before during and after. I couldn't find anything online about swapping the leather Durango rt seats into a regular cab dakota (the rear mounts for the tracks are different in regular cab and quad cab). I also couldn't find anything about getting the original heated seat elements to work either. I pulled all the carpet, tried to wash it because the previous owner was a slob. Custom made my own wiring harness for the power seats (both are power with the rt seats) the heated seats and the switch's for the seats. Added in my stereo wiring harness. Custom drilled and mounted the seats, drilled the rivets off my original flip console and installed that so I still have 3 seats. Bought the Durango rt seats from a local wrecker for $46 each. I'm very happy with it and even more happy that I now have heated leather seats in my 98 Dakota!

The original interior. Not terrible looking but the more you got into it the more disgusting it was.

The filth under the seat

Bare floor. Truck came from P.E.I so at one point it had the carpet removed and had tar sheets applied to try and prevent rust.

My wiring for the seats and stereo

After drilling off six large rivets I was able to separate my console from the original seats. Rear of the console mounts to factory holes in the floor. Front of the console is held down from the front bracket sitting directly underneath the rails of the R/T seats.

Took the carpet to a pressure washer and got it considerably cleaner. Also cut holes through the carpet for all of my wiring.

All done. Had to drill holes from the new tracks on the rear but the front lines right up. Both seats are fully power adjustable and both seats have working heat. While I was doing this I also changed all of my dash cluster/interior, headlights, fog lights, cargo lights and reverse lights to L.E.D.

 

Wow, nice job. Heated seats in my truck would be really nice.... It's all of 10 degrees outside today.

 

Thank you! I wanted to get them in there and working before it dipped that low here, I like my heat!

 

If yer azz is warm, all of you is warm.

 

How did you transfer the center seat/console? On mine, it was riveted to both seal tracks and I had to cut the bracket to swap in my full size console.

 

Mine was the same I believe. The bottom of my console had a bracket bolted to it on either side and those brackets were riveted on the seat tracks. I went up bit size by bit size until I drilled just larger than the rivet diameter all the way flush or just past flush on the tracks. Center punch with a hammer and they come apart. They definitely are not designed to come apart so it was a bit of a fight. But I wanted to be able to use the factory holes in the floor to bolt it down again so I could still have my middle seat belt and buckle bolted down safely as they mount to the same holes the console itself does. Which made it so I needed to get those brackets off in one piece.

 

Other than center console the seats their self are direct bolt on match right?

 

Depends if you have regular cab or ext/4 door. The reg cab rear track mounts differently than the ext/4 door Dakota's. So if you were to install them in an ext cab or 4 door, yes they bolt in. If you're installing them in a reg cab the front track mounts line up but you need to drill two new ones for the rear mounts. Reg cab seat tracks mounts are straight in line with each other, ext/ 4 door / Durango the mounts are offset.
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If you have quad cab or ext cab yes. If you have reg cab no. reg cab seat mounts are straight in line with each other, ext/4 door are staggered. So if you have a reg cab the front two mounting points line up but the rear do not and you will need to drill your own holes.

 

Is it just hot and ground my quad cab does not have any elctronic on the seat other than the seat belt sensor