#3 Replaced the bucket seats with 60/40 split power bench.
I know most people go from a bench seat to buckets, but I have always loved bench seats. I drive old Cadillacs and old Chevrolets, and in my opinion both are best with bench seats. I like being able to flip up the console and set stuff on the seat next to me. Plus I like being able to say I have a 9-seater Burb now!
I had been looking for a bench seat for a long time, and one finally showed up on craigslist in Bakersfield. Cushions are all basically new, and the notepad holder wasn't broken. The seats also came with all the necessary seatbelt hardware.
Note: These originally came from a '97 ECSB. Both seats fold forward, and the passenger side would slide forward on its tracks from the rear, too. Driver side is powered and does not have rear slide control.
This note is important because the manual slide-forward riser on the passenger side of the ECSB seat does not fit the Suburban (and presumably crew cabs, either). I could have drilled new holes, but I just switched the riser from the original passenger bucket seat onto the new passenger seat. This allowed me to keep the lower plastic trim, too. The driver side fit just fine (since both were powered and neither had a slide-forward option on the driver side).
All I needed to do was drill the new holes in the transmission hump for the new bench seat bolts. The dimples were already there, so it was super easy. One of the retainer nuts was even welded to the body and ready to go. For the other one, I just used a new nut, bolt, lock washer, and a few fender washers to hold it in place.
Before:
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During (going to need carpet eventually... too many coffee stains from the flimsy dash cupholder):
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After:
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Love that I can sit 3 in the front if needed. Or I can slide my way in from the passenger side if some parks too close on the other side.
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Lucky I found such a good bench seat.
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