Thread: Defender front seats

A critical issue would be the centre seat belt mounting. If you need to move it as a consequence of moving the seat you probably need an engineers certificate, as technicaly you may have made the vehicle 'unroadworthy'.

Cheers
KarlB

I thinking moving them that far in would move the outer seat rails over the top of the underseat boxes.

Which would give you all kinds of trouble - not so much on the driver's side, but making access to the battery very difficult.

I have moved the handbrake to a position between the front drivers seat and the console (quite common mod). This improves comfort for myself with more leg room.

It is a pretty simple job using a D1 or D2 handbrake.

Erich

Andy, get used to driving with the window down for more elbow room

In all seriousness 110's from the eighties had more room as the doors were thinner.
No winder mechanism inside the to take up valuable space.
I've sometimes thought of going retro just to get a bit more space and the too cool Series type door handles rather than the plastic Austin or whatever they are ones we have to put up with now.

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Hi People
Front seats in a Defender.
Has anybody removed the console and shifted the seats inboard by around 2 inches????
.........

Yes, I have a home-made supplementry seat frame onto which the seat bolts as per usual. The frame uses the original seat mountings. It offsets the seat inboard 1" and up about 3/4" and makes a vast difference (for me anyway)

I had to do the opposite - move them 2" outwards to fit a centre seat in. That's on a 93 Defender 200 tDi.

And Rick - I agree totally. I've smashed a few of them crap plastic door handles now - would prefer the older style anyday!

Originally Posted by cewilson

I had to do the opposite - move them 2" outwards to fit a centre seat in. That's on a 93 Defender 200 tDi.

And Rick - I agree totally. I've smashed a few of them crap plastic door handles now - would prefer the older style anyday!

I've also had three buttons break off.
Great anti-theft feature, you just need to carry a screwdriver around to push into the hole where the button used to be

I've only replaced the drivers door one so far. It's only an issue when I have a passenger and they can't work out how to get in

I have shifted my seat across 30mm and 70mm back using 2 pieces of 50mm flatbar between the original sliders and the seat frame. I rotated the seatbelt mount 180degto clear the new seat position and also rotated the seatbelt clip 180deg on the mount to get the correct orientation. This should be engineered but I am satisfied that all is as strong or stronger than factory so that will do me. The seatbelt mount clears both the seat and the console.

Solving the handbrake issue is ridiculously easy. With the handle in the off position push it towards the transmission tunnel and it will bend about 30deg. It does not interfere with efficiency or cause undue wear. I have done it to 3 so far and my current defender has had the handbrake engaged and disengaged an average of twice a day for 8 years. Sounds crude but works very well.