How to install a Corbeau GTS II seat by Michael Varrik

How to install a Corbeau GTS II seat in a 1996 Thunderbird

Remove old seat. This is quite easy, a socket set is almost all you need, and if you don't have one, even an adjustable wrench will do. You'll need a phillips screwdriver to remove two screws that hold the plastic cover off the side of the seat bottom, then remove the power seat switch from the plastic cover. Also remove the plastic covers from the floor bolts. Raise the seat as high as the motor will take it. Undo the 4 bolts that hold the seat bottom onto the front seat track, and slide the seat bottom forward and lift it up and out. You should have what's illustrated in seat1.jpg.

Now you can remove the seat back. Remove the two bolts that hold the seat back spring mechanism to the front seat track. Once they're out, the seat back will want to sort of fall over. The seat back is also attached to the track through a hole near the centre console. Wiggle the seat back about until it slips out of this hole, and take the seat away. You should now have what's illustrated in seat2.jpg. Remove the plastic cover that covers the track rack-and-ponion if you haven't done so already. undo the bolts/nuts that hold the track to the floor. This is where it gets nasty. The piece of track that extends upward on the door side, and has two threaded holes for the seat back bolts, will have to be cut off. I used a hacksaw and about 10 minutes to cut it off. Unfortunately, this makes the process irreversible. If you want to go back to the original seat, you'll have to get another seat track. The next part is the most critical: affixing the Corbeau seat to the stock front seat track. I found that the front two threaded holes on the Corbeau seat were good to use in the installation, but for the rear, I had to tap two new holes in the frame of the Corbeau seat. A new hole had to be drilled in the seat track, and a lot of filing was done to make sure the seat was lined up straight with the stock seat track. This monkeying around is to be expected since the stock seat track was never meant to have a non-stock seat bolted onto it. It was a bit of a Homer Simpson job doing the drilling, filing, and bolting, but I got it all attached solidly in a few hours, and the best part is that the power adjustments weren't sacrificed. The final results are illustrated in seat4.jpg.

Attaching the whole seat assembly into the car is a simple matter of placing the seat back onto the floor position and bolting it down. When I did for the first time, I felt the seat tilted a little to the left, possibly becasue the track had become bent a little, so I placed flat washers under the left legs of the track to balance it all out. I replaced the plastic bolt/nut covers, and the installation looks quite clean. The installed Corbeau seat is illustrated in seat5.jpg. The rack-and-pinion cover also fits on, and the power seat switch cluster box can sit on the floor where it's accessible by hand. The alignment of my seat as it is now isn't totally perfect, it feels like it should be maybe a centimetre further to the right, but the stock seat doesn't line up perfectly with the steering wheel and/or guage cluster either. I undertook this project because any LX owner know how mushy and unsupportive the stock seats are. I got tired of grabbing onto the transmission shift lever for support any time I went around the corner. The stock seats are comfortable, but unsupportive.

How do the Corbeau seats compare? Well they're not perfect. I'd say they're supportive, but not as comfortable as the stock seats. I don't mean they're bad, just not perfect.

1. I find the cushioning firmer than I'd like. It's definitely designed to be a sporty seat, and it'll take a while for my weight to make the padding compress a bit.

2. The thigh supports are just a little too tight. I'm 200 pounds, and someone with thinner legs would find these seats far more comfortable.

3. It smells a little funny when the interior gets hot, but this will probably go away as the seat ages. I'm kind of ambivalent about whether it was a worthwhile project. It's not perfect seat, but it has its advantages. It wasn't outrageously expensive, and I was kind of playing Guinea Pig by doing this. I don't know of anyone else who's done this before, and I thought it's important that I share my experience with everyone.