The header says it all... I found a decent pair of seats from a 2000 Trans Am. The original owner sold them to me, he put in a set of Corvette seats. I powered up the seats with a harness I bought from Firehawk Jeff, and the drivers seat motors are perfect, the rear center and side bolsters on bot seats work. Just out of curiosity were the seat bottom bolsters inflatable? I've seen pictures of nice bolsters and also ones of semi-wrinkled ones. Is that just the foam that needs some work or were there bladders in the lower side bolsters? My seats are pictured below... see what I mean about the wrinkled lower side bolsters?
Another question I have is to those who have recovered these seats. My Camaro has a white interior, so I'm going to have them recovered in white, use perforated pleats in the inserts. Then I'm having the upholstery guy redo my existing OEM back seat in matching material and he'll try to stylize the look to work with the front seats.
The only thing that concerns me with the seats is where the upper side bolsters seem to be stitched to the plastic. I'm not nuts about the clamshell look and yes, it has to be painted black before assembly. I was wondering if that pipes could be eliminated and filled with the upholstery material like this:
I photoshopped that LOL. OK, any help and advice on how to remove the rear shell and any other sections is appreciated. I've got a #10 AWG factory wire running from the fuse/firewall panel that was already there, it's switched on by the ignition so the seats would only be powered when the key is in the ON position but that's not a big deal. I'm going to put a 30A inline fuse on that and use it for the seats. Thanks in advance for any/all advice.
@57vette ThirdGen.org is dedicated to the Third Generation (1982-1992) F-Body (Camaro and Firebird). A 2000 Trans Am would have been the 4th generation. So your inquiry goes a bit outside of the scope of this site. That said, there are some in our community that are knowledgeable about both generations and have also used 4th generation interior parts in their ThirdGen.
The seats are similar to what the GTA and Trans Am (optional) used in the ThirdGen. In that application, the air system did noting for the seat cushion portion and was only for the back support. I believe the same is true for the 4th generation. One switch controls the lumbar support for the lower back and the other controls the side bolsters of the back.
57Vette yes these will work in 1st gen I am doing the non lumbar seats the front mounts line up just fine, the rear needs some minor work when I did this for my 69 Bird I had to cut one side and move the hole over to other side sorry its been a while since I mounted them but its not a tough job I tried to find a thread that had pics for you but most were 15 years old or more one guy said you want two driver side seat tracks because pass side is short because converter clearance on 4th gens/. I really like 4th gen seats the non lumbar is my preference as I'm little bigger both my 3rd gens have Lumbar T/A seats my 69 is non lumbar the lumbar have the accordion sides and a hard back cover like pictured above, non lumbar have none and the backs do not have the rear seat back cover
57Vette yes these will work in 1st gen I am doing the non lumbar seats the front mounts line up just fine, the rear needs some minor work when I did this for my 69 Bird I had to cut one side and move the hole over to other side sorry its been a while since I mounted them but its not a tough job I tried to find a thread that had pics for you but most were 15 years old or more one guy said you want two driver side seat tracks because pass side is short because converter clearance on 4th gens/. I really like 4th gen seats the non lumbar is my preference as I'm little bigger both my 3rd gens have Lumbar T/A seats my 69 is non lumbar the lumbar have the accordion sides and a hard back cover like pictured above, non lumbar have none and the backs do not have the rear seat back cover
Thx for the reply guys! Ok, so at least now I know that my seats are 100% operational! I knew that the rear
Here’s a picture of the bottoms.
tabs were not useable and figured that I had to fan new tabs that go on the opposite side of the track, then weld them on. I am not home right now so I can’t check the PS seat rails. In picture they look somewhat similar in length but I will measure when I get home. Sorry for the generation mixup but yes, the seats are pretty similar.
You bolsters are wrinkled because the seats have been exposed to extreme temperatures, and the leather was not conditioned properly, and therefore it has shrunk. Extremely common on just about every non-low mile 4th gen (except for mine since I actually conditioned them regularly since new).
ZMan… Yes, I saw your post, thanks for the info. You guys are very helpful!
Navy… Ok thanks for the heads up on the wrinkles. AFAIK, the original owner took the seats out of his 2000 Trans Am 3-4 years ago, wrapped them in plastic and stored them in his storage shed. He replaced them with corvette seats. So yeah, definitely not climate controlled but I’m not using any part of the leather, the seats will be redone in white Naugahyde to match my Camaro’s interior. Bladders appear to be in good shape, I inflated bolsters then left them for 3 days, then pulled plug, that’s when they deflated.
Is FirehawkJeff the best source for parts? I need one side cover bc it has a 3” crack but that might be repairable from behind. I think I’d like to cut down the headrest a couple inches as these seats are about 2-3 inches taller at the top of the headrest.
Mike the wrinkles pictured above are probably due to the seat getting wet it happened on my 99 T/A just like that my pass window was cracked and we got rain. the wrinkles are the vinyl part of the seat reacting because the leather shrunk up. not because you didn't put some leather care or special potion on the seats! I had sent you my email wanting pics and never rec'd anything??
Hey guys... I know its 3rd Gen and the seats are 4th Gen, but maybe someone knows the wiring? I wired the harness up using the plug and everything seems to work fine. The center bladders in both seats work, the bolster bladders in both seats work, the seats go up-down-forward-back just fine. I noticed these two wires when I removed the tracks from the driver's seat. There's an Orange wire and a Black wire with crimped connectors but I have no clue as to what the purpose of those two wires is. Haven't checked them to see if the Orange is hot, have to go grab the battery again. But since everything was working what could they possibly be for? These seats aren't heated are they? I would think if they were, the wire would be heavier? The only other thing I could think of was maybe there was a passenger side power seat option and this would power the motors?
Edit: LOL... Thats what I get for testing in the dark. Turns out those ARE the power/ground wires. I did a low voltage check first to see if there was any reaction and they barely moved. Connected the battery to them and all is well. Last thing I wanted to do was short out the motors or the compressor.
