Anyone know how hard this is? I have an 81 wagon with some pretty SOFT seats and there is a local guy selling his seats from a 96 Outback. Is a swap possible without doing too much work? Thanks...

Welding is pretty much required.

 

GD

Welding is pretty much required.

 

GD

 

No, it isn't.

 

But a good drill and the ability to cut some strips of flat bar are required.

 

IIRC, there also may be a few tack welds on the outback seats with height adjust. these will need to be ground.

 

The early legacy seats are easier, no grinding.

 

This is assuming going the route of swapping hte EA rails to the Outback seats. essentially adapting them to bolt in to an unmodified body.

 

It may be possible to swap rails nad all, simply by drilling soem new holes in the body.

Its better to mount the EA rails to the seats than try and figure out how to attach stuff to the body. I installed some Legacy seats in my 84 Brat this way and all I needed to do was move one of the rails using a couple of steel plates.

 

 

 

 

And I'm moving this to Retrofitting.

When using Legacy/Impreya seats in a EA chassis using EA rails, does that change the seat height (in other words: am I sitting higher - which I don't want - when doing that)?

When using Legacy/Impreya seats in a EA chassis using EA rails, does that change the seat height (in other words: am I sitting higher - which I don't want - when doing that)?

 

I used 91 LEG seats in my 88 with the EA rails. Seems to sit just a little higher, but not enough to really piss me off.

Drivers seat in a 96 outback is adjustable height. You will be able to sit higher or lower than you're old seats.

 

The height adjustment does make it a bit harder to remount the EA rails. As I said, you will need to grind off a few tack welds that hold the pivot of the height adjust to the EJ rails. Once you do that, it's as simple as drilling a few holes in some flatbar and bolting on the EA rails.

 

IIRC, you need to space the EA rails in 1 inch. So the flat bar strips need have holes in them 1 inch apart.

 

You will only need to move the outer rail. The inner rail mounts directly to the new seats. use the existing front bolt holes, but because the EA rails are shorter, you need to drill new holes in the seat frame for the rear bolts.

 

Also, IIRC, you will need to trim out both a small portion of the plastic trim piece that covers the seatbelt retractor, and also, trim the bottom of the plastic on the seat that covers the hingers and latch. That plastic has a "accent" line in the plastic that makes a pretty good cut line.

 

Dremel or drill with a small end mill bit works perfect for all the plastic trimming.