Does anyone know if bucket seats from a mid to late 90s Tahoe will fit in a 78 Caballero? If so, what modifications would be necessary?

I don't know off the top of my head if the mid to late '90s Tahoe seats will fit your vehicle but I can tell you where to start. First you will need to make sure you have at least four studs on each side of the floor. This stud pattern would already be set up in your vehicle if it came with factory buckets or a split bench. Next, assuming that you have the correct stud pattern, you will need to measure the distance between the studs front to rear and side to side. Next, compare these measurements to the stud pattern of the Tahoe seats. If the stud patterns match, then all you need to worry about are the dimensions of the fabric covered portions. If the seat is too wide it may contact the door or console(if equipped) and if the seat back is too thick, the seat may not move back far enough to find a comfortable seating position. Nearly any seat will fit with the proper modifications, but direct bolt in is nice. If you have a seat available or can pull one from a friends truck to test fit, your life will be much easier. Good luck with your seat conversion.
P.S.:I have found that a ratcheting 13mm or 1/2" GearWrench works wonders for removal/installation of these seats.

I opted to pull buckets from an '85 Grand Prix. Now, off to attack the rust on the floor boards. Thanks for your help.

Okay, I've treated the rusty floor with the KBS Coatings version of POR-15. Not too bad of a job and the floor looks good. However, I do have a question. What do you use to reseal the drain plugs? There was a tar-like sheet over them initially. Would silicone work or should I use more of the rust seal stuff over them?

Any help/guidane you can give is appreciated.

My '78 has the factory bench seat, without physically removing the seat just to look, is there a chance that all the vehicles came with all 4 mounting posts on both sides or is it more likely that there are only 4 total (2 on each side)?

Pat Green,

Mine too had the factory bench and only had the two outer brackets (two mounting posts on each side). I ended up drilling holes in the floor pan and mounting the inner brackets from the seats using 3/8" Grade 8 bolts. Oh yeah, I also used some 1" square tubing as braces/spacers.

The inner brackets only came on vehicles with buckets or split bench seats. I dunno whether you could have the dealer change your seats before you took delivery; since the brackets are spot-welded to the floorpan, I kinda doubt it.

I obtained a set of the inner brackets but decided to use them for my '79 Elky, and make my own set for the '83 Malibu wagon that I was then putting buckets into. One reason I decided that was because my son was going to be the primary driver, and he's kinda short, so I thought I could make taller brackets and get some extra height for his short stature. I was able to modify some thick aluminum blocks to fit; drilled three holes through them, countersunk the hole in the center then ran a single bolt upwards through the center for the seat to sit on. The bolts in the other two holes went through the floorpan. I got some stainless steel scrap from work and made brackets for the undercarriage to help keep those two bolts from pulling through the floorpan. The whole project took me a LOT longer than I thought but was worth it in the end, although it really doesn't look all that great. But it sure is nice having them buckets in that wagon :-D

While I was at it, I also used POR-15 stuff to refinish and repair pinholes throughout the floorpans. Through the years, I've noticed that most often, floorpan rust seems to occur due to moisture seeping in, not through the bottom of the floorpan itself, but when the water comes through other areas and soaks the carpet. The underlying padding then remains wet for weeks afterward, promoting the pinhole rusting that I found. POR has a floorpan/trunk floor repair kit which includes a relatively small sheet of some sorta glass cloth. I cut it into pieces to cover the worst holes in my floor but still didn't have anywhere enough just for the driver's side.

And the water was coming through our Malibu's floorpan from rotted-out rocker areas along the doorsill. This area is right above the frame rails and all but impossible to repair from underneath; you just can't really get to it to either clean it up nor to put anything over it to rebuild it. I did the best I could but had to do the doorsill area patching on the top side, and just paint the undercarriage door sill area above the frame rails with the POR-15.

So I laid in the repair cloth stuff over the largest pinholes, glued it down with initial layers of POR-15, then used their putty stuff to reinforce the thin cloth. Where I thought the repair was too thin, I used ordinary fiberglass body repair cloth. That stuff unravels and can make a REAL mess. And when it's soaked with POR-15 and dries, the unraveled, untrimmed edges can be SHARP 8O

My driver's side had a hundred pinholes; the pass side was far better but still had a few dozen. Yes, I really shudda replaced the entire floorpan. No excuse there, particularly since I actually spent over two months with the POR-15 and glass cloth repairing all those holes.

Finally, after all the patches were done and before the final painting with POR-15, I installed the new bucket seat brackets (made from aluminum blocks). Once the holes were drilled in the floorpan, the final POR-15 painting occurred, then carpet thoroughly cleaned up and laid back down.

By the way, when I removed the carpet, I found a factory check list underneath the front pass side seat. Initially, I thought that was the broadcast sheet but then a cupla weeks later, when I removed the wagon's REAR seat, lo and behold: there was the original factory build sheet, stuck under the bottom spring wires of the rear seat :-D Didn't have any surprises but it was nice to find.

To date, as far as we can tell, all that pinhole-repair work was worth it as the floorboards have remained dry when the wagon is driven in rain. But I think I'll do it differently when I get around to putting buckets in my '79 Elky this coming spring; not sure what, as I haven't really looked to see what kinda repair its floorpans will require but what I did in the 'Bu was amateurish, took WAY too much time, and used way too much expensive POR-15 materials :mad:

Here's a link to a company that has a number of seat bracket adpaters. They don't have anything for my G-body but this link might help somebody else, if for no other purpose to avoid reinventing the wheel, err: seat bracket. www.makotoautotrends.com/index.asp

Bob