Fitting split rear seat in a car with solid rear seat

[Jayw13702]

As per title, my SE has a one piece, non folding rear seat back, I want to fit a full leather interior but the one I can get it has a split rear seat and I don’t want to spend a lot of money to find it would be impossible to fit in my car without cannibalising it.

I’m not fussed about having a split rear seat so if I can get the split seat to fit and not open it wouldn’t bother me

 

 

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[scudney]

I think you will need to modify it,so you are better off looking for one that is the same as yours rather than a folding one 

[Jayw13702]

I think you will need to modify it,so you are better off looking for one that is the same as yours rather than a folding one 

That’s a shame, I’ve been looking for a while now but have never seen a leather non 60/40 split rear seat option


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[route66]

10 hours ago, Jayw13702 said:

 

As per title, my SE has a one piece, non folding rear seat back, I want to fit a full leather interior but the one I can get it has a split rear seat and I don’t want to spend a lot of money to find it would be impossible to fit in my car without cannibalising it.

I’m not fussed about having a split rear seat so if I can get the split seat to fit and not open it wouldn’t bother me

 

 

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I had a look at the August 2014 catalogue (attached) and took out this extract:

My reading of this is that the SE was the only IS300H not to come with split seats unless you went for the leather seat upgrade which meant that it did. Like all other IS300Hs.

Outside of the seat itself, I guess the main differences between the split and non split seats are

• The hinges and catches and the mount points and bolts for them. You would need to look at what your car has already - it may be that the bolt holes for your fixed seat mounting brackets are the same as those for the hinges. I had a quick look at my car and there are just 2 catches/receivers which are "U"-shaped, with each one at the top corner of where the seat closes against
• Mouldings/trim pieces that finish off the opening that's exposed when the seats are lowered - yours may not have these
• Seat release in the boot. My last car had these but - I checked - the IS300H doesn't appear to have them. The only way to lower the seats from the boot is to reach all the way in to access the catch on the back of the seat itself.

If you look here at a picture I found online, you can see the "U"-shaped receiver and some of the mouldings. I guess you will have to remove your seat first to see what you have. It should be possible to extract anything missing from the donor car:

Best of luck!

 

Lexus_IS300H_Catalogue.pdf

[200h]

i wouldnt believe what the catalogue is saying as this reffering to a level of trim and not what can / can't be fitted.

i would remove your back seat and see what mounting points are present

obviously where the split is you should have a mounting for the 2 pivot points,

a pivot point either side, and the locking hooks at the top on either side.

if you dont have the needed mounts you could have a trimmer stich the

2 pieces of the rear seat cover together to make one cover for the back

and then fit it onto your fixed back.

[Jayw13702]

So having removed the rear seat back it seems that I’m going to be looking at getting a trimmer involved.
The other problem with that is the centre arm rear, the solid seats don’t have it and the split seats do, I have a feeling my plan is unravelling quite quickly


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[route66]

It's hard to be 100% sure, but it looks like you have a brace that covers the space that would normally be exposed when the seats are dropped. Does yours have the U bolts on the top LHS and RHS that the seat would click into?

[Jayw13702]

It's hard to be 100% sure, but it looks like you have a brace that covers the space that would normally be exposed when the seats are dropped. Does yours have the U bolts on the top LHS and RHS that the seat would click into?

Yes the brace would come out, I’m guessing it’s there as a bulkhead to stop things hitting the back of the seats, I believe the split rear seats have a steel reinforcement running along the back of the seats themselves.

There are no U-shaped brackets on the body and looking at the pictures that I have seen online there doesn’t appear to be anywhere that is pre-drilled.

To be honest the split rearseat wasn’t something that I was really interested in, it was just I wanted a set of matching front and back seats.

What I may do is end up having my current seats re-trimmed once I retire the car as a taxi and start using it personally

 

 

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[route66]

It's surprising how the folding split seats change the architecture in this area. I would have thought that Lexus would have everything as similar as possible to make manufacturing easier. I.E. only difference is the lack of hinges and split with everything else the same.

That brace looks substantial - I doubt the reinforcement in the folding seats would do the same ...

Anyway, I guess a re-trim of what you have should do the trick!