Hello all, So, I've got a question. I have a 1981 Pontiac Bonneville with front power seats. I think they are 6-way power seats, but basically just the base moves. What I would like to do is have the passenger seat be able to recline. I want to do this so my wife could lay back and sleep on longer trips. I know what you are all thinking, "just have her go lay in the far back" Well, on longer trips the far back is full of bags and stuff, and having to climb over two babyseats isn't fun while cruising down the highway. So, I know it's possible, but is it PRACTICAL to be able to keep the 6-way power base, while having the back be able to recline? Is there a seat I could buy and put in, or would this have to be a custom modification I do myself? I'm not worried about the driver seat reclining, because it is possible to get into a comfortable driving position with the power seats. I'm just thinking of the passenger seat. Thanks!
Your options are a bit limited but it can be done. I have been considering the same for my 87 Buick but I want to keep the same look inside, no swapping in bucket seats from another car. I don't know what year was the last for a reclining passenger seat option but I do know it was available on 2 and 4 door models 77 and up, I've never seen a big GM wagon with it though. This is a 79 Bonneville 4 door sedan with the option. If you could find the guts in a wreaker, a upholstery shop could re-skin this with your seats. Chances today to find a colour match in usable condition would be hard IMO. I would guess any big GM's seat mechanics would be the same. Anything can be done, just depends on how much you want to spend. The late 70's Bonneville 2 door did have a bucket seat with console option also, I can't find a pic at the moment but finding that today would also be very hard
I'm not worried about having the color matched, as my seats need re-upholstered anyway. I do want to keep the same layout for my wagon as well. The 60/40 split might make things more difficult to find, I don't know. I was kind of thinking that I would just try to find a reclining seat, not worry about the power part. I don't know, but I was figuring I could take the reclining top part, and put it on the power bottom part. Could I search the parts yards for any big GM car with reclining seats from 1977-1987? 77-85?
Just keep looking, Z. Practically any box wagon front seat setup would be a bolt-in fit. Keep your eye out for Olds Custom Cruisers and Buick Estate Wagons, since those as a general rule came loaded with more equipment. Quite a few came with right side power seats. I think mine has the manual recline feature on the right. (Can't remember right now, and the dog is on my lap....) Marshall
If you have trouble finding the front seat from a G.M. wagon or sedan with passenger side recline, there are MILLIONS of 50/50 Ford front seats out there with both sides that recline. Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria sedans and wagons had that standard from about 1979 up. One word of caution, while driving do NOT recline the seat more than absolutely necessary for comfort, and NEVER more that 45 degrees at the absolute most! Having to brake quickly, never mind a crash, can cause a relaxed person to submarine under the lap portion of the belt, and that can cause serious, or deadly, abdominal injuries.
Sooooo... I pulled the front seats out to install those center consoles, and when I was putting the passenger seat back in, I noticed something I had never seen before. I called my wife over to ask her about it, she swore she had never seen it, and had no idea how it got there. I bolted the seat back in, sat down, pulled up on this mystery lever... and the seat reclined. I swear, I don't know how I missed that. I've pulled those seats out twice now and never saw it. So, in closing, thank you all for your suggestions, but this issue is solved!
REALLY!?!?!? .....I can't even lift my hand for it! Well at least you now have found it Well I'm glad you found it but still............
You know, I blame the forum. I swear that lever was never there, so one of you all must have snuck over and installed it for me. Right after all your own projects were done, one of you came over and did mine for me. Seriously though, you can't really blame me. My wife says she wants the option to recline. She sits on that side, so if she would like that option, I assume she has already checked that it isn't already there. I don't have a recline lever on my side (I checked thoroughly yesterday) so I figure it makes sense that she didn't have one either.
ya know....... I've had my Buick for years and I know my passenger seat does not recline........... but I had to look again just to make sure when I left this AM and nope, don't have one
I really hate to admit this. I bought a 2004 Dodge quad cab in October of 2004. That means I've owned it a couple of years and driven it now and then. My truck was parked behind our friends cars when we visited them this spring. His wife decided we needed Pizza Hut pizza which is only blocks from their house. June is shorter than me so she moved the power seat up ...almost to the dash! Got in to go home later... after I finished their pizza and soda. I needed the seat back where I always kept it. I could make it go up, down tilt, etc. But I had to get June to show me how to make my own truck seat go back! I never move it and no one else drives it but my son who is my hight.
My 1986 Caprice wagon has a factory split power bench and both sides also recline (manually). Just find one of these and it's a bolt-in. The place to look is in 1980s Caddy Fleetwoods. The D-body fleetwood is the same basic platform as the B-body wagons - only the wheelbase is different.
Six-way power seats will have a joystick control to move the seat up and down (two "ways") and forward and backward (two more "ways"), and two swivel switches to either side of the joystick (the other two "ways"). The front switch moves the front half of the seat up and down while the rear switch moves the rear half of the seat up and down. With the two together, you can control how much the seat as a whole tilts rearward or forward. My '73 CC has six-way power seats, and you can see the seat controls at the bottom of the photo. They're on the outer edge of the driver's side of the seat just above the carpet seam in the photo. The only other power seat option was, I believe, two-way power seats, and the two ways were simply forward and backward, or just a motorized version of non-powered seats, which only offered front-to-back adjustment.
