SEATS, MODIFIED
FITTING m81-ON SEATS IN A PRE-m81 SAAB 99

PASSENGER SEAT
- Unplug any electric connections.
- Unbolt and remove the passenger seat from the car.
- The rails will not slide off the seat because of the welded-on end stop. Cut off these end stops and slide the rails off the seat. Now you can throw away the old seat.
- Put the rails back into the car, where they were bolted, UPSIDE DOWN.
- At the rear end of the rails, the profile needs to be cut away (aprox. 5 cm), so the rails can lie flat on the rear anchor point in the car. Mark where to cut with a pencil.
- Repeat the procedure at the front end of the rails. (aprox. 10 cm)
- Cut away the profiles. I used an anglegrinder.
- Aligne the front bolt-hole on the old rail with the front bolt-hole on the rail attached to the new seat
- On the old rail, mark where to drill for the pin bolt at the rear end of the new seat's rail.
- Drill the hole in the old rail.
- Grind off the two metal pieces on each side of the pin bolt, at the rear end of the new seat's rail.
- Attach the old rail to the new seat's rail with the nut on the new seat's pin bolt. Do not fully tighten the nut yet.
- Lift the new seat into the car, and insert the front and rear bolts.
- Tighten all bolts and nuts.

REAR SEAT
Seatback (5-d)
- Fold down the rear seat.
- Remove the parcel shelf.
- Unbolt and remove the two parcel shelf brackets. Two 10mm nuts and two crosshead screws, each.
- Remove the wooden boot floor. Pull it back, and lift it out.
- Remove the boot rear inner lining, including the light.
- Unbolt the seatback's two lower hinges, and remove it from the car.
- Remove the boot front inner lining.

Upper lock catch
The object here, is to combine the new type seatbelt/lock-catch brackets with the old type bracket's mounting foundations for the two parcel shelf brackets.
- Unbolt the combined seatbelt/lock-catch brackets. Three 17mm bolts, each.
- Unbolt the seatbelt (if there is any) from the bracket. One 17mm bolt.
- Pull out the rubber "seat bump stop"
- With an anglegrinder, cut off the foremost flat iron part of the lock-catch. (The part that engages in the seatback)
- With an anglegrinder, cut away/grind off the seamwelds that holds the lock-catch foundation to the bracket.
- From a donor m81-on 900, unbolt the combined seatbelt/lock-catch brackets.
- Hold the lock-catch foundation onto the new seatbelt/lock-catch bracket, in the position it had on the old bracket. It will not fit properly, mark and cut off material on one of the legs until it does.
- Weld the lock-catch foundation to the new seatbelt/lock-catch bracket.
- Refit the seatbelt. If there isn't any, now is the right time to decide if you wish to install rear seatbelts.
- Refit the rubber "seat bump stop"
- Install the modified seatbelt/lock-catch bracket in the car.

Lower hinges
- On a donor car (2, 3, 4, 5d m81 or newer 900, or a Saab 90. Not a 99!), drill out the spotwelds on the hinge bracket. Mark its position with a pencil, and remove it from the donor car.
- Make a carboard template of the area.
- Place the template in your car, and mark the position for the hinge bracket.
- On top of the hinge bracket, the tip is angled towards the rear.
- Cut a square hole in your car, allowing the tip of the hinge bracket to hang off the boot floor edge.
- Drill a hole and insert a screw through one of the drilled-out-spotweld holes of the hinge bracket, and into the car.
- Now the hinge bracket is secured to your car, seamweld the edges. Rustproof and paint.
- Fit the new seatback into the car, as described in the workshop manuals.

Seatbench
- Remove the circlips, and pull out the two hinge-pins under the seatbench.
- Remove the seatbench from the car.
- Unbolt the hinges from the seatbench. Four crosshead screws.
- Unbolt the lock catch from the seatbench. Two crosshead screws.
- Bolt the hinges and the lock catch onto the new seatbench.
- Put the new seatbench into the car, refit the two hinge-pins and insert the circlips.
- Check that when it's tilted forwards, it allowes the seatback to fully fold down. On my car it didn't , so I had to reposition the hinges and the lock catch.

DRIVERS SEAT
The drivers seat on pre-81 99's is not bolted into the car like the passenger seat. At the front, it's held in place by two spring loaded catches, and at the rear by arresting hooks. Therefore a different method is required to attach an m81-or-later seat, than on the passenger seat.
I'm not going to tell you how I did it... because I haven't done it. Instead, we'll go directly to the next chapter.

DRIVERS SEAT, RECARO
In addition to offering the best seats in the world, Recaro offeres brackets for installing these seats into various cars.
The bracket for Saab 99-90-900, m81 to m93, has part nr; 67.71.09
The bracket for Saab 99-900, up to m80, has been deleted from their list. Shit!
Which means I had to make my own bloody bracket. Well, here goes:

- Unplug any electric connections.
- Set the height adjuster to the center position.
- Unhook the two spring loaded catches at the front. Raise the front of the seat until the rear arresting hooks will disengage.
- Lift the seat out of the car.
- Unbolt the seatback from the frame.
- At this point you may want to remove the heater elements for later use. (If it works. Mine did)
- Remove the fabric and cushion from the frame.
- With a duct tape, mark a line approximately 5 cm below the top of the frame. At the front of the frame is a u-shaped transverse beam. The top of the frame is to be cut off, so the lower part of the transverse beam remains. There's another transverse beam at the rear. The lower part should remain.
- Cut off the top of the frame.
- Make two pieces of metal. 45 cm long, 8 cm wide, and 2 mm thick. Bend 2 cm of the long side 90 degrees down. Bend 1 cm of the other long side 90 degrees down. Now you have two u-shaped pieces of metal, 45 cm long with a 5 cm wide center section, one 2 cm side and one 1 cm side
- Position the two metalpieces on top of the seatframe, with the "1 cm sides" facing eachother.
- On the two metalpieces, mark where to cut notches for the transverse beams at the seatframe.
- On the left metalpiece, mark where to cut a notch for the aft-and-forth adjuster, allowing the lever full travel.
- On the two metalpieces, cut out the marked notches.
- Weld the two metalpieces on top of the seatframe.
- Position the Recaro seat on top of the modified seatframe, as far back as possible.
- On the two metalpieces, mark where to drill the six holes (three each side) for the Recaro seat bolts.
- Drill the six holes. Check if they fit.
- Now you can paint the modified seatframe. I sprayed it satin black.
- From the old passenger seat, cut off one of the electric plugs (with sufficient wire) that will fit in the supply-plug for the el. heater. Attach the plug to the wires from the Recaro seat.
- Bolt the Recaro seat to the modified seatframe.
- Install the seat in the car. Connect the plug
Bon voyage

INTERCHANGEABILITY, SEATS
Pre m81: (Bolt-on)
All 2/3 door 99's and 900's can use the same seats.
All 4/5 door 99's and 900's can use the same seats.

m81-m91: (Bolt-on)
All 2/3 door 99's, 90's and 900's can use the same seats.
All 4/5 door 99's and 900's can use the same seats.

All models: (Cutting, grinding, drilling and welding)
Any Saab seat can be made to fit any Saab. Even 9000 seats will fit.
Note that 2/3 door front seats can be tilted forwards to gain access to the rear seat.
Putting 2/3 door front seats in a 4/5 door car only makes it more versatile.
Putting 4/5 door front seats in a 2/3 door car is not a very good idea...

The rear seat of a 4/5 door is wider than on a 2/3 door, and the seatbench has a different shape. (Edges are rounded off for easy backdoor entrance) It is possible to put a rear seat from a 4/5 door into a 2/3 door car, but it will be a tight squeeze and one helluva fight each time you try to fold it down. It is also possible to put a rear seat from a 2/3 door into a 4/5 door car, but it will look strange and access for rear seat passengers will be restricted.
One guy I met wanted a split foldable rear seat. He had actually managed to install a rear seat from a Saab 9000 into his 5-door 900 !

MORE RECARO
Saab has a tradition of offering Recaro's as an option. In Saab's own "rally and racing parts catalogue", they've listed Recaro seats and brackets. They even have a Saab parts number!
I found an ad from 1971 for the Recaro model offered by Saab, and some other models.

From Saab's rally catalogue	Original 1971 advertise. Looks familiar?	Spotted in a brand new Opel Manta... in 1971	I've got Recaro too!

From a 1989 RECARO catalogue