Compatible front seat options for 1996 Nissan Pathfinder LE

[Pepsigirl]

Hello everyone!  I'm new here and definitely NOT a mechanic I'm afraid!  I've had my '96 Pathy since 2012 and aside from some sad body rust she's still going strong!  Unfortunately the front seats are quite uncomfortable (understandable as she's now 28 years old!) and while it's no big deal for regular driving my husband and I have an 8+ hour drive each way to go visit our families coming up and as we both have back issues to start with we're really not looking forward to crippling ourselves more than necessary!  We always make sure to stop and walk around a bit on these trips but it's to the point now that we'd really like to see about replacing the front seats with something far more comfortable and with better (or any!) support.  The problem I'm having is that I can't seem to find much information about what type of seats might be compatible with my Pathy for installation.  From what I've seen it sounds like you can technically make most things work by resorting to creating/modifying various brackets or sliders (or whatever the things are that you need to install a seat!) but I'm hoping to find something that won't involve too much work or difficulty as I'll be hiring someone to do it.  The other problem I'm having is actually finding seats to purchase!  I'm in Canada and when searching various combinations of terms for front seat replacements I'm finding 99% of the ads are for seat covers only   The very few I have found in Canada seem to just be racing seats, not regular car seats, and I have absolutely no idea what the best option for comfort would be!  I'm hoping someone out there in the vast online world will have a miraculous suggestion for me on what kind of seat would be best for comfort/support for long travel and where/how I might find it for sale in Canada  

 

 

 

Side notes just for information:

 

*  The current seats are manual heated leather.

 

*  I live in a very small village and there are no auto wreckers here unfortunately, so no way to just go randomly try second hand seats that might have been an option otherwise  

 

 

 

 

Thank you for any help/suggestions/information you might have! 

 

Edited November 5 by Pepsigirl
adding more information

[Slartibartfast]

Unfortunately I don't think you're going to find mail-order new seats that'll bolt up.

 

If the seats are just worn out, I would try and find a set of newer R50 seats in better shape. Maybe have used parts shipped, or meet someone halfway if they're parting one out? I've read that the left/right R50 seat bottoms are interchangeable, so if you can't find a good driver's seat, or you only need the bottom, I'd look for a passenger's bottom instead. Should be easier to find one in good shape.

 

I did something similar on my '93. The WD21 seats do not interchange as easily, so I had to tear to seat bottom down to its frame and swap over just the foam pad from the donor. It was still worth it! The old foam was so bad that the bolster was dropping shreds of itself into the seat track.

 

It is totally possible to swap in seats from something else, but you'll have to do a little fabrication to make it happen. Zed put Mustang seats in his WD21 and seemed pretty happy with them. WOT put Acura seats in an R50 (no pictures, unfortunately). Looks like your early R50 doesn't have airbags in the seat backs (not sure what year that changed, or if Canada and the US are the same there), so you don't have to worry about disabling the SRS if you do swap seats.

 

If you get seats with airbags in them (might be hard to find used seats without them anymore), I would at least tape up the airbag connector for peace of mind. And if they have heaters in them, make damn sure you know which plug is which before you wire them up!

[Pepsigirl]

Thank you so much for the information, I hugely appreciate it!  I wish I lived somewhere where I could just go sit in a bunch of old ones - it's so hard to know what will be comfortable just from photos!  I'll maybe talk to my mechanic again and ask him if he'd be up for modding a bit if needed - he normally only does engine sort of stuff but said he'd be happy to help me if I found a seat.  I'll try looking at just the bottom parts too, I never would have thought of that!  It was driving me crazy because all my online searches just kept showing me seat covers instead of actual seats so I had given up for a while, lol.  Back to it I guess!

 

Thanks again!