I was wondering something, about how difficult it would be to do something like this? I was planning to remove the front passenger seat from my ZJ to allow me more room to carry supplies. I have worn out the front drivers seat in my WJ pretty well at this point.. The WJ is electric. The ZJ is not. I believe the mounts may be the same? Since I will be removing the front passenger seat out of my ZJ, I was wondering if it is possible to put my ZJ's front passenger seat into my WJ, as the front drivers seat?

I guess I may find out either way when I go at it, but I was curious if anyone else might already know the answer to this?

 

My first question is do you think the frame of the ZJ seat to be the same as the WJ.
And I mean the same, driver's or passengers, seat.
And when I say frame I mean this.


Just so you know that is a XJ seat.
If so I want to say yes. Kinda.
Here is the thing. I had one piece cloth buckets in my '00 XJ. Both manual seats.
I got my hands on 2 sets of '99 leather removable headrest XJ seats. In so so shape. With a power driver's seat
Since passenger side seats are generally in better shape I decided to try and use a passenger seat as a driver's seat.
At the moment we are just going to talk about the bottom.
So the mounting points for the seat cover were different from one side to the other on the sides.
The only mounting point they shared in common was the front.




These are pictures of the mounting points on the side.
Now realize had to use that passenger side seat cover on a driver's frame. Cause the frame needs to match the power seat base. How it mounts.
So I zipped tied it.

Now hooking up all the springs to that grate in the picture above to the seat frame was fun. Not.
Since things are not in position it took some muscling to get it done.

Slit in the leather here and there and shot of the final product.
Anything stand out? LOL.
So XJ seats have leather on the outside and carpet on the side against the console.
So now carpet shows on the outside. But I was using seat covers which pretty much hide the hack.

So now on to the upper part. In an XJ the forward and back lean, even when you have power seats, is a lever.
Always on the outside and is part of the upper frame.
The upper seat cover fortunately is the same part number. So it just meant taking the better cover off a passenger seat
and putting it on the driver's frame.
Now I am thinking that WJ and ZJ seats don't have lever. But not sure.

If the bottom framework is the same between the ZJ and WJ seats there is not reason that the ZJ seat won't mount to the WJ power seat base.
I know guys put WJ seats in XJ's. On the XJ bases. Thinking they do that with ZJ seats to.
Which to me means they are same.

What I did looks way more complicated then it actually was.
Oh and just to show off a shot with my seat cover on it. LOL.

 

Simple enough then.

I've already got two front passenger side seats for the WJ. The stock one, and another one from an XJ. I would just set the XJ one on the passenger floorboard. That sounds dangerous though. Neither of these seats are anywhere near me right now, to use.

 

I would think.
Like I said this is with XJ seats.
I have no idea how ZJ or WJ seats are set up.

 

ALL jeep seats mount to their bases on 4 studs welded to their bases with 1/2" nuts holding them on. The bases are different depending on the model of jeep. They changed the floor pan in WJs so ZJ or XJ seat bases won't fit. The metal seat pan are offset so you can't directly bolt a passenger's seat onto a driver's seat base. You can change the upholstery but like you said there are differences in the side panels for switches and levers to contend with. Right now I have a 97 XJ driver's seat in my WJ because for my fat butt, it's more comfortable than the original WJ seat. The problem is it's vinyl and is now cracked so I want a pair of newer XJ seats to replace my mismatched pair.

 

Use the original passenger side WJ leather seat. That should work? Just use the actual upper seat portion.. Remove the beat up driver side seat from off its frame. Put the passenger side seat onto the drivers side frame now, and figure out a way to mount it down onto the drivers side frame.. If I have to switch out the seat covers to re-use the drivers side seat cover though, it wouldn't work since on that side the leather cover is ruined

The original WJ passenger side seat is actually in really great condition, now that I think of it.

 

Change over and use the passenger side seat upholstery, the flat spring plate mechanism, and any padding material, putting it onto the intact drivers side seat skeleton set-up maybe? Do this after removing all that stuff from the drivers side? If there is a way to figure out how to get the leather and such situated good on the drivers side in some way?

Maybe just find another seat? Hopefully, be able to find a seat in good condition that is compatible.

 

One of the reasons I changed mine besides being uncomfortable is the door side bolster was crushed and I felt like I would slide out the door if it popped open. The PO must have been quite heavy to break the seat like that getting in and out. The rest of the jeep was immaculately maintained with 125K miles on it. There's been a lot of cases when the seat bases have cracked and had to be welded, but that seems to be on 02 and later models. I'm 5' 6" and 240 lbs and never broken a seat for cripes sake!