Welcome to the Nissan Patrol forum. To post a question and to see less adds on the forum then you will have to register
first. We are an easy going friendly forum so join in the conversations and feel free to ask any questions.
Become a forum sponsor for only $20 and see no adds with faster page loading times and many extras benefits.
Please note that this modification is illegal unless engineered.
There has been a lot of talks about VT to VZ commodore bolt holes and rails being exactly the same dimensions through their entire roll out but that does not seem to be the case.
From what I know there are three types.
1) Like Growler's VX seats, the bolts lined up perfectly to the GQ rails
2) Others have a 5mm difference on the rear bolt holes and simply hone out the holes to fit.
3) Of course my seats were the good ones that did not line up at all so the below is based on that.
The commodore seats have 4 x bolts protruding from each corner of underneath the seat that you need to bolt your GQ rails to. Don't quote me, check for yourself as I can't remember the exact measurement but I'm pretty sure the centre to centre of the GQ seats are 372mm but I found the fronts were more like 375mm...lol...Check yourself first on every hole centre on each seat.
The VZ commodore seats that I have were 350mm centres.
You will need to extend the outer rail to allow for the holes to line up on each seat. By doing the extension you also move the seat away from the B pillar too which is good as they are a big seat.
I used 50mm wide x 7mm mild steel plate for this extension. A lot of people use 50mm wide x 25mm high SHS for this. Using SHS is a good idea because there is a small riser on the outer rails of the GQ seats so by actually not adding any spacer on the commodore seats means that the seats will be on a slight angle.
However, for my own personal reasons I feel safer using a thick flat steel plate rather than box tube. Thats my opinion only and shs will be fine also.
Using the flat plate the seats do sit on a slight (and i mean slight) angle but it is not noticable once you are on them.
Ok....Use some good drills and mark the holes on the steel plate of the commodore bolts, drill and bolt the plate on.
Then mark the location of the two new holes on the plate which should be about 372mm centres. It actually works out perfect to sit the riser flush on the right hand side of the nuts you just put on but...
Mr Nissan isn't the most accurate as I found one seat was 372mm on the rear but 375mm on the front so double check every single hole spacing.
Once new holes have been drilled then lift the plate back up and put bolts from underside up and bolt the GQ rails on. Getting a spanner underneath is a nightmare.....Good luck!!!!
That's about it. Apologies for the poor pics. I will try and get some better ones today.
If I was to do this again I would try and find hole centres that were around the 370mm-372mm mark on the seats for a direct bolt job.
This wasn't a hard job at all but could be avoided if you found the right hole centres on the commodore seats...lol
Pros...Very comfy, great support, feels good!!!!
Cons....Seat adjuster hard to adjust as it sits close to B pillar......Seat belt doesnt retract so well but you could just get your seat adjusted correctly and take off the adjuster knob so the belt retracts better.
Any questions just ask as this wasnt the best DIY post!!!!
When i did monza seats i used a 10 mm thick plate the one in the center of the pic below to level them out.
If anything like mine the outer rear bracket on the original rails was bent so i bent it back and checked with a level that the front section was the same on the level across to the inner as the rear.
Hey AB this is a great write up, I would absolutely love to do this, my GQ seats are starting to give way to my fat bum sliding in and out all the time. Would love a bit more comfort too... mmmm leather would be nice but it would probably get wrecked...
I'm retarded so would want the direct bolt in job, might get onto Growler about that one.
Read on another site that the Commy seats don't work if you have electric windows because the arm rest thingo gets in the way.
Hey AB this is a great write up, I would absolutely love to do this, my GQ seats are starting to give way to my fat bum sliding in and out all the time. Would love a bit more comfort too... mmmm leather would be nice but it would probably get wrecked...
I'm retarded so would want the direct bolt in job, might get onto Growler about that one.
Read on another site that the Commy seats don't work if you have electric windows because the arm rest thingo gets in the way.
Just double checked mine mate and it might be the case if you have to have your seat forward but if you have your seat all the way back like mine then you should be fine. No obstructions on the door at all.