Morris Minor Owners Club

Has anyone tried fitting 5 door Metro seats to a pickup?

They seem a bit wide to me, and there's not a lot of room to angle the backrest, but that will hopefully improve when they're actually fitted properly. My idea is to weld (or bolt as welding is a no no, and I don't know if I can get round that) a length of angle or box the full width from inner sill to inner sill, across the tunnel for the front mounts, and then 2 sections, one either side of the tunnel attaching to the inner sills for the rears.

Is there a simpler way of doing it, that still retains a decent mount of strength (my idea would help give a bit more strength across the cab, I think)?

I think that might be a bit over the top. The Minor is really strong anyway. As long as the mounts have load spreading on the floor it will be fine. The original ones are perfectly OK safety wise.

Well, the idea came about as the Metro seats were free and the pickup has no seats All seemed like a good idea till I rested them in, then I found the runners are quite widely spaced, widely enough to not actually fit between inner sill and tunnel in fact

I wouldn't say this Minor is strong - There's been some "interesting" attempts at putting new metal in, and there's no choice but to live with it But I'll bear in mind about bolting to the floor, it all depends what's easiest. The Metro seats need to come up a few inches (6 - 8 I reckon), so at that point it'll depend on how best to secure them at that height I guess. Some pointers from anyone who's done this would be handy, before I go off into my own little world of Hackitt and Slasher's interior fittings, inc ;)

PaulK and I are in the throes of making and fitting some brackets to do this. I'll let the forum know how we get on.

We do Metro seat conversion kits if your interested.

I don't think you'll find metro seats are all that wider - although they are deeper/thicker meaning you'll loose space in the back.

If I were in your position i'd be tempted to scour the local scrappys for a car with a flat floor that has raised seat runners - most cars seem to use box section though . Pinch them and bolt the metro seats straight onto them.

Well the seats themselves may or may not be wider, but the runners are certainly spaced further apart meaning they foul on the inner sill and trans tunnel

Various bracketry or off the shelf bits would be great, but funding is, as ever, the problem. Only got the seats as they're free, by the time anything is bought to fit them I could probably find a pair of tatty Minor ones for not much more than the fittings would cost, at a guess.

I must admit I haven't taken another look at fitting them, there's been discussions about welding (it might actually be good to go on that, although with someone coming in to do it as and when) and then I did some of the light work like wipers and sorting out a good heater (with no switch, why would anyone remove the switched from every heater?!).

Well the seats themselves may or may not be wider, but the runners are certainly spaced further apart meaning they foul on the inner sill and trans tunnel

As mentioned earlier the Metro/Rover 200 seats need to be raised about 100mm to make them comparable in height to a Minor seat. Bespoke bases should really be used because at the rear of the seat the floor is not horizontal. Any load bearing attatchment here should be accurately angled so as not to stress the floor. Once raised the seats clear the trans tunnel but care has to be taken when finding the correct position widthways to allow for seatbelt/handbrake/gearstick clearance.

Further to previous comments on this thread and others I have now measured up the rear seats from a Rover 200 and can confirm that they are two wide for a Minor. this is a shame as they are available in black, pale grey, dark blue, cream or mushroom coloured leather. The fronts can be used though. So too can the fronts and rears from Metro's which also come in leather - albeit very rare to find.

I will be watching with interest as I have metro seats to fit into my pick up. I personally didnt think they fitted not because of the width because when raised as suggested this gets over that problem. My concern is the headrest is tight against the back cab panel,which which meens the seat is further foreward and dosent give me much leg room. Best of luck

I know its not much help but one of our branch members has Rover 2,000 seats fitted to his van.