I bought an 06 Express Duramax with 363k miles. The driver's seat looked the part of every one of those miles, and the foam was sticking out from the left side. Instead of buying the same seat, I thought I'd try a different seat. I looked through the junkyard for minivan seats with flat mounting brackets, and the only one I could find was from a second generation Honda Odyssey (1999-2004) The Express seat base was wide enough to drill holes for the Odyssey seat. Only issue is that the door hits the seat as it's much wider than the original seat. It's so comfy though!

So comfy!


The original seat. Good riddance!

 

Nice. How bad does it hit the door?

I've been keeping my eye out for a good upgrade seat to swap in too. I bought my van a few months ago and the seat was about like yours. I was literally leaning to one side. I found a vinyl passenger seat from an older work van that bolted right in and looked like it had barely been sat in. Quick cheap fix to get me on the road but I still want to find a nice leather, and maybe heated, seat to swap in.

A 4th gen Chrysler Town & Country Limited (01-07) can have some nice heated leather seats that look like they'd be a nice fit for our vans without too much work. They're the same width and shape but seem to be put together better. I have an 05 Grand Caravan and swapped the cloth seats out for the T&C heated leather. They're very comfortable. The lower seat pad and/or leather skin will easily swap from passenger to driver which is good since the passenger seats are almost always in better condition.

 

Did you use the Honda seatbelt buckle?

 

Doesn't hit the door too bad. It pushes the door pocket in about 1/8". Thanks for the tip on the Chrysler minivan seats. I'll take a look at them next time. The only limitation I had was finding seats that mount flat on the riser. Interestingly, the driver's seat from the Odyssey mounts flat to the riser, but not the passenger seat. I opted to just replace the driver's seat, as the passenger seat is in good shape.

Yes. The Express seat belt clicks right in.

I forgot to mention that I also wired the power seat adjustment in. Really easy when the fuse box is right underneath and so many of the slots are empty!