Explorer seats in the Ranger

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'98 Explorer seats on '00 Ranger rails
 










Typical Ranger interior wear
The driver seat was in typical Ranger condition, shredded, dirty and uncomfortable. The back foam was beat down and the cloth was failed. The 60/40 seat setup was not ideal and I want to bring the interior back to comfortable and clean. I also wanted to do it for the least amount of money. I considered cheap covers and hacking the stock driver seat into a single bucket, or using a passenger seat to re-skin a converted driver but that would still be nearly the cost of whole seats.

I looked at a bunch of other options for seats while in the junkyard that I could custom fit (Mazda 3 sport, Subaru WRX, Ford Focus) but when I came across these seats in a '98 Ford Explorer Sport 2 door I decided to try this route. These will look factory and clean and the foam is firm and dare I say basically new looking in most regards, especially from a '98.

Looks like I'll still be doing some custom work to the Ranger regular cab seat tracks to make them work with these seat pans (Perhaps I should have just gone with the Mazda or Subaru).

I did not take the Explorer seat tracks as they have a 3rd rail for the seat belt and that buckle wont work anyhow, and saved $35. That brought the total for 2 seats only to $99

To fit 1998 Explorer 2 door seats in the 2000 Ranger I:

Cut off extra brackets from the ranger seat tracks, leaving the steel bracket the seat belt buckle connects to. 

The Explorer seat pans are only attached to the tracks with 4 10mm bolts and there are several extra pre-made holes in the stamped steel seat pans as they are used in other vehicles. The bolts are self tapping to the other holes. 

I got the brackets as consistently flat as I could across the  top, leaving the rivets, and drilled new holes in the top rails for the seat pan attachment bolts. 

I then used 1/4" nuts as spacers when I attached the seats to the rails. 

Most of the work is angle grinder and some drilling but it still took a while to get the rails prepped. 

Final product looks good, and works!









'00 Ranger seat rails cut and drilled



'98 Explorer seats on '00 Ranger rails




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