3rd row seat

Discussion in 'General Station Wagon Discussions' started by woshirmao, Apr 7, 2009.

  1. woshirmao

    woshirmao Wagon Owner

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2008
    Messages:
    128
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Webster,MA
    My 84 oldsmobile only came with two rows of seats. is it possible to put in a 3rd row seat?
     
  2. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2007
    Messages:
    1,674
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    99
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    L.A.Calif.USA
    wingin' it

    You appear to have a wagon with the capacity for such things,although I'm not sure if back-back set-ups are inter-changeable.I would suggest inspecting thoroughly,from inside and underside,your car and a car just like it that has the back-backseat you'd like to have.Changing the set-up,if there's no major structural components in the way,could take cutting floors out of your wagon and a donor wagon and swapping entire sections.I used to know someone with a 74 Torino Squire wagon that had the place to put the spare tire and jack,where a back-backseat would be in other wagons---and the space was nowheres near big enough to put seats into.Putting seats in there would've taken extensive open-car surgery.:( If GM was highly intelligent,at the time,changing back-back set-ups could be a bolt on kind of thing.A local body/upholstery shop might know for sure(fer shur,fer shur):confused:
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2009
  3. Uberwagon

    Uberwagon Wagon Freak.

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2008
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Iraq....again, for now.
    While I am not 100% sure on the older boxy GM wagons I know the newer 91-96 wagons it is a bolt in swap. Take some digital pics of your cargo area and then go to the junkyard and find another similar GM wagon with the third row seat and compare what they look like. I would think that it should be a bolt in swap but don't quote me on that.
     
  4. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2009
    Messages:
    16,780
    Likes Received:
    12
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Detroit did some questionable things, but I would think it would be cost prohibitive to build two different areas in the back of a wagon. Like Uber...I don't know for sure either but...doesn't make sense to me that those areas would be built differently.
     
  5. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 30, 2007
    Messages:
    19,635
    Likes Received:
    32
    Trophy Points:
    813
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
    I'd peel off the carpet and underlay and see if the weldnuts are in place (usually plugged with a rubber grommet). Also get a Chiltons manual from the Library and check the seat/upholstery section for yours. Like SF said, they wouldn't build two floorpans for the same model.
     
  6. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2007
    Messages:
    1,674
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    99
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    L.A.Calif.USA
    The aforementioned Torino Squire and a same year Torino not-Squire wagon with a back-backseat are my only reference points,on this.All I know is the back-back seats from the one would not have fit in the spare tire space in the Squire.Hopefully it's just an unbolt and rebolt or unweld and reweld kind of thing...Oh,and YES,get the Chilton Book on your car!Don't go for any of the copycats.None of them are as good or as complete.Some of them even have steps to do stuff out of sequence. :slap:
     
  7. Uberwagon

    Uberwagon Wagon Freak.

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2008
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Iraq....again, for now.
    I threw my Chilton and Haynes manuals away (well not really:p) in favor of a factory service manual. If you can find one for your car I would highly recommend it over any other brand of manual. Side my side with any other manual and nothing compares. For example the Chilton/Haynes mentions nothing about removing the wiper motor of my car when pulling the engine, the Factory Service Manual says to remove it. Well I tried to leave it in place but that was a no go. Oh and the pictures are better too!
     
  8. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 30, 2007
    Messages:
    19,635
    Likes Received:
    32
    Trophy Points:
    813
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
    Taranau, have they ever had a 3rd seat in a wagon, if the spare is stored in the floor of the cargo area? Hard to imagine. Yours is long enough passed the rearend to let you store it inside the side panel, right?

    Gas tanks are usually in a different location, like behind the rearend or in the other side panel.
     
  9. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2009
    Messages:
    16,780
    Likes Received:
    12
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Wisconsin
    What Uber said. Every car I have ever owned I bought the factory shop manual set for it. I do NOT like after market repair manuals. The shop manual sets cost more but you GET a whole lot more. Shop around on Ebay and other sites for the best used prices.
     
  10. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 30, 2007
    Messages:
    19,635
    Likes Received:
    32
    Trophy Points:
    813
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
    Uber, dead on! The factory manuals are the best. I've got all 3, Factory, Chilton's and Haynes. Haynes because I didn't know there was a Chilton's for it, until I searched for it. We used to have the big, bible-sized, thick ones in our scrap business in the 60's. Dad would tell me to get the Bible, and we knew what that meant. :evilsmile:

    The Chilton stays home when we go for a roadtrip. Ford didn't make Model-specific manuals back then. All their models were in the same series. So you spend too much time flipping from Lincoln to Pinto and the Fairmont got an 'also-ran' paragraph, making you read (See Granada and Maverick for more details). Hopefully GM was better at that.
     
  11. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2007
    Messages:
    1,674
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    99
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    L.A.Calif.USA
    In my Colony Park,the spare tire and jack fit inside the passenger side rear quarterpanel.Other than this one Torino Squire,I don't think I've ever seen a fullsize Ford wagon WITHOUT a back-backseat.I've seen Fairmont sized wagins with and without back-backseats.I've even seen Tauruses with and without back-backseats.But only that one fullsize wagon without that seat.My 77 Aspen didnt have a back-backseat,because that's where the spare tire and jack went.And I don't think I've ever seen an Aspen/Volare wagon with a seat back there...I've also heard that wagons with back-backseats don't have Fords jnfamous gastank fire problems,because the rear-end structure is different AND there's an actual floor in that section.(It was explained to me that Ford got in the habit of using the top of the gastank as the floor of the trunk.They just put a carpet over it.And that they came up with faulty connections for the gastank filler tube.Pinto wasn't the only Ford---or car for that matter---that had "exploding gastanks".And it wasn't the gastanks exploding,it was the filler tube popping off the tank and gasoline splashing on hot exhaust pipes that set them on fire,Without floors in the trunks,the fires spread rather quickly to the passenger area)Here in California,somebody sued GM.The early 80's Malibu wagon they were in,had the same exact problem as Pintos of a decade earlier.Three family members suffered serious burns...I thought the Pinto fiasco had changed the way Detroit made all cars,but not so.Recently Nissan has gotten into trouble here,for gastanks under the backseats popping open and catching fire in t-bone collisions.So,no,it's not just American cars,either.:oops:
     
  12. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 30, 2007
    Messages:
    19,635
    Likes Received:
    32
    Trophy Points:
    813
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
    A 3rd seat in a Fox (Fairmont/Zephyr/1982 Cougar) wagon. That's gotta be custom. No mention in the Factory manuals. The tire goes in the cargo floor and the gastank nuzzles right next to the tire well and below it.

    Now a chuckwagon kitchen like Ford suggested in their old camping books would be nice in the Fairmont cargo bay. Light enough. room to roll it in and out, and put it on air-lifts to get the tire out. ;)
     
  13. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2007
    Messages:
    1,674
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    99
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    L.A.Calif.USA
    I've seen a few with the backwards facing seats.One of them was the Mercury little Marquis/Zephyr thing.Neither of them looked like very big seats.The ones in the backs of Tauruses looked bigger.I remember asking,"Why did they bother?"One of them was a Fairmont,the same marroon color as my 77 Aspen wagon.The guy was bragging about it and pointing out how my Aspen would never have such a thing.Maybe it was a custom thing,I'm not sure.And those factory manuals probably would be best.Then the Chiltons...Haynes...Those are the ones I've had problems with.I got one for my Mustang II. I wanted to change the carbeuretor the right way.Step 9 in the instructions for that procedure was draw a picture of the carb so you know where all the vaccuum hoses go.Step 3 was take all the vaccuum hoses off the carb.:mad:
     
  14. Uberwagon

    Uberwagon Wagon Freak.

    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2008
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    48
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    Iraq....again, for now.
    :rofl2:This is exactly what I am talking about!
     
  15. Taranau

    Taranau Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2007
    Messages:
    1,674
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    99
    Wagon Garage:
    1
    Location:
    L.A.Calif.USA
    I was SO pissed!..I was motionless for about five minutes.There may have been steam coming out of my ears...When I got the replacement carb,I had to put the vaccuum hoses here and there on the many nozzles on the carb,hoping I'd put them in the right places.
     

Share This Page