tannerw2010

Alright, so I am one of those people who don't exactly want to spend $300 on rear seats, which will honestly rarely be used. After looking at a how-to which described the installation of the JDM rear seat into a 2nd gen CRX, I decided to take a shot at making one myself. I realized that after looking at where the "stock" seat mounts, I could go to Lowe's, buy a piece of plywood ($12), buy some tough angle brackets ($2 a piece), and then get some foam and vinyl and then go from there. Anyways, here we go.

(This is my first how-to, so bare with me! )

Ok, so here is what you'll need, not including the price (this is considered a given, since I already owned these tools)

1.) Circular Saw (a "jig" saw will work fine, but it will take much longer, and it will be difficult to cut in a straight line)

2.) Power drill, and drill bit (drill bit size needs to be same size as your carriage bolts in order for the carriage bolts to fulfill their purpose) to bore out holes for the seat and for the metal angle brackets.

3.) Adjustable "crescent" wrench (or a metric system socket set, which I sadly do not own)

4.) Dremel. A steak knife might work if you are desperate.

5.) A staple gun for the vinly

6.) Tape measure, and a pencil (duh)

7.) Lastly, a can of spray adhesive, which I also already had (may cost you $3 or so)
And that's really it, so here is what you'll need to buy from Lowe's, or your local hardware store (if you don't have a circular saw, jigsaw or power drill, you may be better off just buying the stock seat, because you'll pay a good amount for these tools)

Plywood (I bought a sheet that was 4x2 for $12; this piece was 1/2" thick, and was very solid, which is what you'll want to be looking for.)

2x angle brackets (try to find a really solid piece that will be very hard to bend. Remember that all of the weight of people's backs will be resting on this, so make sure it is strong enough to hold them, and some.)

4x 5mm bolts. (the length here isn't very important, but the 5mm part is. These are what you will mount to the car).

4x 1/2" (measurements don't need to be exact) carriage bolts. This is where you will mount the seat to the brackets. I used an empirical bolt because, like I said earlier, I only have an empirical socket set.

4x matching nuts for the carriage bolts, and 4x washers as well.

Vinyl (I bought 7/8 yard, for $6 at Hancock fabrics)

Cotton overlay (idk if this is the exact name for it)

Foam padding (I am not sure how much this costs, as I got some donated to me ;-) )

Excluding the foam padding, this all should cost you about $30, give or take a few. Ok so here is what you'll need to do.

Step 1: remove rear interior.

I am not going to go into detail on how to do this, as it is pretty obvious.

Step 2: Locate the mounting spot

(Sorry for the bad quality, I took the pics with my phone)



Step 3: Cut the angle bracket so it will fit on the mount, then drill holes in the bracket so it will fit on the mount too. I didn't do a very good job taking pictures, but hopefully you will get the idea with this pic



I cut the bracket off at roughly the same place where my terrible dremel job ended. (You can see that I didn't use the original hole that was already pre-drilled in the bracket, I drilled out two separate holes.) Repeat this process on the same side.

After this, with the interior back in place, place the piece of plywood in the position you most desire, measure (twice), and then cut the wood. This is how my piece turned out after I made some minor adjustments.



Once your plywood is fitting correctly, trace where the holes will need to be drilled out for the carriage bolts to sit in. When you finish that, put your carriage bolts (hammer them in position; a little of glue won't hurt although I seemed to manage fine without it). You can now set your seat in position, and seem if everything fits (which it should).



Now for the fun part: putting on the vinyl. I am not going to go into detail about how to upholster this, do a Google search and you'll surely find something (sorry, I'm lazy, I have already been writing for about an hour) Here are some pics just so you have a general idea


This is the foam I got for free. Yay!

This is the cotton overlay, or whatever it is called.

And the vinyl.

Simply put, apply the adhesive, attach the foam, add the cotton overlay, then add the vinyl and you are basically done.
Here is what I got

Not perfect, but whatever. Looks pretty "stock" to me.

Once you have it upholstered, you can set the seat in for good. Make sure you tighten the nuts pretty tight, but not too tight. Do this by feel, and you should be well off.



For the bottom of the seat, I just used a small yoga pad that my mom gave to me, and adhered it to the bare metal.

(I had to paint it black)

I added some cheap car carpet from walmart that I bought a while back for around $10, and got some heavy duty carpet tape to make it look nice.



This is the extent of my bottom seat. It is a little bare, but it does the job. If you want to, you can get some more padding, but I just didn't feel like spending the time and money since this will cut it just fine (plus it will allow taller people to sit, since there is less stuff between you and the low rex trunk ceiling).

Ok so that is is! This is what I got it to look like



As far as seat belts go, I have yet to make it to the junkyard, but I do plan on installing belts. If you really want to know how to do the seat belts, check this out
http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=4827
(this is the tutorial I based my knowledge off of)

By the way, I took my 6 foot 3 brother for a ride (he tested the back seats for me) and it felt very solid, and he surprisingly fit pretty well. For a CRX, I can now say that I can "comfortably" seat four people! I hope you get as much out of this as I did. Thanks for reading!

beansandrice

The backrest came out good. i think you should have made the Seat the same way.
nice write up

Jeebo

maybe resize the pics too. Nice write up!

jaypain

this is the most hax0red DIY i've ever seen.

r b k a

good job!

DCRB

i had to zoom out to 1600x1400 to see the pix, but nice write up.

tannerw2010

Sorry I'll resize the pics after classes

Aftermath_Hatch

Good job,nice work!

mitsubishiv5

it wouldve been a very nice diy if i didnt have to minimize the pictures, but good job

tannerw2010

Edit: Okay, so I re-sized the pics. I didn't realize my phones resolution was as large as it is so I didn't change the size in the first place, but its good now.

michael-crxsi

dId you ever get the seat belts worked out?

burnykawizzle

it doesnt look bad... i want to get new seats for my hatch or at least make them leather or vinyl... how much does it cost for the vinyl??

B16-CRX

Haha, i am going to do the same thing with a write up in a couple weeks. I might make a more comfortable seat cusion tho. There is no way I will spend $300 on a rear seat which will most likely never be used lol. Good DIY