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SWAPPING OUT MJ BENCH SEATS WITH XJ BUCKETS [and console]

Okay, above you have the basic Comanche bench seat and mini-console. Ever been the poor bastard who gets to ride in the middle and have a shift knob go up your butt when the driver puts her in reverse? These are two-passenger trucks so trash the bench and put in some nice comfy buckets. Two-door XJ's have front buckets with tilt-forward backrests so you can get behind the seats to access your junk like jack, sub's, briefcase, severed heads, etc.. These are great seats cuz you can adjust the rake [or 'caster'] for more or less incline. First thing you need to do is drill out the rivets that attach the bench to its brackets, same with the Bucket seats and their brackets. Now attach the buckets to the bench seat brackets but BE AWARE I ran into one problem that I've heard other guys mention too. With the XJ buckets on the MJ bench brackets, I sat closer to the middle than before. So close that I made some adjustments to situate me closer to the doors than before. MJ and XJ tubs are NOT the same so don't try to use XJ hardware. Below you see the rear MJ brackets bolted to the XJ buckets, as they will after drilling the rivets out and attaching them together [holes WILL line up]

Well thats fine unless you like being off-center so I made some adjustments using 1/2" x 1/8" steel strap to shift the seats out towards the doors 1.5" farther than they were [pass side].

Heres the modified brackets with the seats 1.5" closer to the door. Piece o' cake. Now pick yerself up a nice full console out of an XJ like this baby here. Get a good one!

For a 4x4, I found that in order to make this console work, you need to trim off a couple inches from the front or else the 4x4 selector will not line up and you'll be in neutral when you want to be in 4-low. Cut off the front of the console close to the front cubby as shown here................

And thats that. The grey cable you see going under the carpet near the front of the console and emerging halfway back under the console is a cable I ran for a future amp install. You can see the wedge shaped Kenwood subs behind the seat. Also notice the grey duck tape covering part of the heater in front of the console. I covered that so I'm directing heat to my feets instead of through the console to the subs.                   Any questions, please hesitate to ask.

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