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Mon May 06, 2013 8:36 am

Can anyone tell me the difference between 68-69 front seats and 70-72 seats, they show as two different upholstery sets? I've got 3 sets of front seats, but some are 69 and some are 70, getting ready to redo one set of them...

Mon May 06, 2013 2:22 pm

68-69 just have headrests alot wider and different runners.

Tue May 07, 2013 12:51 am

will seats from a 62'-63' fit on a 69? Or will I have to modify the seat rails?

Tue May 07, 2013 3:46 am

I think the rails are the same .. anyone?

Tue May 07, 2013 11:12 am

So it sounds like 69 and 70 covers won't interchange, and while I still remember which seats came out of the 69 I need to paint the year on the bottom of them somewhere.. Or do they have any identifying numbers on them anywhere?

Tue May 07, 2013 11:53 am

Forgot to ask- What is the difference in the runners? Does the 70-72 have a slightly bigger runner to allow for the plastic sleeves they added?

Tue May 07, 2013 6:03 pm

I dug all three sets out of the barn and looked at them, and they are all exactly the same (other than being left and right of course), but I still don't know for sure if they are 69 or 70. I suspect them all of being 69, even though two sets of them came out of 70 cars. They had tags in the backs glued to the horsehair that say 113-881-775-H and 6-wo-69 below that. They also have large foam headrests and on the outside right at the base of the headrest there are two black trim buttons. Anyone know another way to pin down the year?

Tue May 07, 2013 6:49 pm

68/69 seats are the same, both are wide

Tue May 07, 2013 7:31 pm

Thanks, that matches what I found.. I looked up seperate listings in the classifieds for 1969 seats and 1970 seats and compared the pics to mine and mine all appear to have the wider headrests. Turns out I have three sets of 69 seats, and the reason my two 70 Bugs could have 69 seats is because the runners didn't actually become wider until 71... So 68-69 seats will fit in a 70 car but not a 71, but 68-69 covers wont fit a 70 seat frame because of the wider headrests .. Tomorrow I'm going to stamp a little "1969" plate and attach it to the bottom of the seat so I dont forget all this mess a year from now..

Tue May 07, 2013 7:41 pm

HiYello69 wrote: will seats from a 62'-63' fit on a 69? Or will I have to modify the seat rails?

What I think I've figured out is that all the early seats will fit right on everything up through a 71 pan, and for a 71-72 pan if you wanted lowback seats you would have to put the lowback upper halves on the 71-72 seat bottoms because of the two-year-only wider runners/tracks...

Tue May 07, 2013 8:09 pm

So the 68/69 seats don't have the side release to tilt the seat forward?

Wed May 08, 2013 1:08 am

Yes they do, 68 was the first year of the locking back seats.

donbarnes wrote: Forgot to ask- What is the difference in the runners? Does the 70-72 have a slightly bigger runner to allow for the plastic sleeves they added?

The pre 70 has an L profile rail only about 1/4" wide where as the 70-72 have a T profile which is about 3/4" wide with the plastic bushing on it.

You can fit the T rail seats in L rail floor pans but they are really wobbly, like riding a mechanical bull and they tend to pop off the rails easy, especially in accidents.