Someone talk me out of this...

1997ThunderbirdLXV6

1997ThunderbirdLXV6

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My base model Thunderbird came with a manual driver seat.

A 90% rustfree power driver seat track is sitting in the ~45k-mile junkyard car I posted about recently. It's by far the cleanest I have seen.

Should I?

Thing is, I'm the only one driving my car, and I never move my seat around.

Only rational reasons to install a power seat would be:
  • The power seat has height/tilt adjustment. Would that allow me to sit lower overall?
...I guess there's only one reason.
 
If you need and/or want the addl. head room go for it. Have you sat in a Tbird with a power seat? Best to try it out in a car that has one before committing to putting one in yours.
 
I've seen requests for the manual seat track a few times for those trying to save weight. Could possibly sell yours. I've never sat in one of these with a manual seat, so I can't speak to the difference in seating location.
 
I know you can do it, so yeah go for it. I would save the manual track JIC you need it later if there is an issue with the power one. The manual tracks are sellable because it is an easier fix when the power seats stop working.
 
Far as I know the wire for the power seat connection is already sitting there under the seat. Which makes the swap pretty easy.
 
If I found the manual seat position adequately comfortable I’d vastly prefer it over power. Power seats move too slow, there’s *too much* adjustment where if you move it it feels like you never get it right again, it’s heavy, it’s prone to degradation or failure, if it matters it makes rear seat access harder since you can rapidly slide the manual tracks forward and it’s common and less unique than manual driver tracks.

Personally I think power seats are the one of the most overrated power luxuries put into cars. You set it and forget it when you find your comfortable position, unless you have multiple people driving your car there should never be any reason to touch them ever again, and why do you need 3 electric motors when you could just have three simple mechanical adjustments if you did?(a third is all the MN12 one needed for me to swap one)

Power seats should have come with the memory feature at least.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
If I found the manual seat position adequately comfortable I’d vastly prefer it over power. Power seats move too slow, there’s *too much* adjustment where if you move it it feels like you never get it right again, it’s heavy, it’s prone to degradation or failure, if it matters it makes rear seat access harder since you can rapidly slide the manual tracks forward and it’s common and less unique than manual driver tracks.

Personally I think power seats are the one of the most overrated power luxuries put into cars. You set it and forget it when you find your comfortable position, unless you have multiple people driving your car there should never be any reason to touch them ever again, and why do you need 3 electric motors when you could just have three simple mechanical adjustments if you did?
Click to expand...

Same for power adjustable tilt/telescoping steering column. It's a set and forget item.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Power seats should have come with the memory feature at least.
Click to expand...
Dont some later Mark VIII's have memory seats? I do not know that personally but thought I saw a picture of one that had the memory buttons on the door, and I was jealous.
 
Of the 4 mn12s I have owned all of them had power seats and not one of them failed... just had to use contact cleaner on the switch and clean the tracks. But I could certainly see them failing now with age. But I think Martin would like the power seats. More power to you!
 
What color do you need? I've got a few and there is a place that was making new ones a few years back. The site is still up but I've never done business with them.

NTT Distribution USA

NTT DISTRIBUTION manufactures New Replacement Seat Trim panels for Thunderbird, Cougar, Taurus and Sable Manual, Power, Power with Lumbar, Power with Lumbar and Bolster, and Lumbar-Bolster seat options. These seat control panels fit all 1988 to 1995 Ford Taurus, 1988 to 1995 Mercury Sable, 1990...
nttdistribution.com
 
Green T said:
Of the 4 mn12s I have owned all of them had power seats and not one of them failed... just had to use contact cleaner on the switch and clean the tracks. But I could certainly see them failing now with age. But I think Martin would like the power seats. More power to you!
Click to expand...

My original tracks are still working fine and transferred them over on the two sets of SC seats I’ve had(as well as the passenger track de-converting passenger side to manual). Of the three sets of SC seats I’ve owned (third set becoming furniture) all the tracks but the passenger side of my black ones had either frozen tracks or cracked motor casings.

I agree if you keep up on maintaining them they’ll last fine, but at the same time I’d also add that as another con compared to manual where there is no maintenence required
 
It would be Light Prairie Tan...if I decide to get it. Or some custom solution where the switches are in the door or in the center console...
 
If you do a custom switch location, you'll need a manual track trim piece which is even harder to find (assuming you don't have this already).
 
jco1385 said:
If you do a custom switch location, you'll need a manual track trim piece which is even harder to find (assuming you don't have this already).
Click to expand...
I have that. My seat is manual. And I make every effort to lift my beautiful, curvy behind over it so it won't ever break from butt impact.
 
Here’s a pic of my interior with those vents in black in its transitional “2 tone” phase. Maybe if the rounded vent surrounds were a matching black it would be more palatable, but those sharp black rectangles in the curvy interior really clashed to me.

Oh yeah and you can see the last time I had krylon fusion silver painted door handles. Can’t accuse me of being a naysayer, I tried a lot of crap for myself 😆

DF366279-9A73-4ED7-BBCC-B7D793552C1B.jpeg
 
I agree, the square vents do look out of place. Did you swap the entire back dash? I can see what brandon means; I looked, Mine looks the same. The shades really show in that pic tho.
BTW, that hurst shifter looks badass. That's the coolest feature in my bil's Camaro drag car. (it's a '68 tubbed drag race car, 500cuin chevy, hard for me to be excited about.
 
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Yeah I guess there were several versions of the grey they used. Dash ≠ door panel ≠ plastic trim ≠ carpet ≠ seats, and model year variations thereto!
 
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