Swapping bench for captain's chairs in the second row...

Hey all.

My wife and I are looking for a Windstar and were wondering something...

Are the second row buckets and bench fully interchangeable? What I mean is, if I buy a van that is factory equipped with captains chairs in the second row, can I go to a junk yard, buy a bench and swap it? What about the other way around with a van originally equipped with a bench?

Some dealers are telling me no but I don't buy it! Here is why...

Currently the DUAL SLIDING DOOR models have the option of "indexing" the second row bench seat either to the right or left. You can mount it in the outer two holes on one side and the inner two on the other or vise versa to place the gap to access the 3 row on either side. This is not needed with the SINGLE SLIDING DOOR models because there would be no reason to place the gap on the side w/o the door, and therefore they cover the holes with carpet. The 8 holes in the dual door models for indexing from right to left are the same 8 holes that would mount the captains chairs... Right?

So the correct answer to my original question of weather they are interchangeable is yes on the dual door models and no (unless you cut the carpet and expose the holes) on the single door models. RIGHT?!?!

If anyone knows the answer to this or might know where I can find this info I would GREATLY appreciate it!!!

Thanks,
Brad Swinford

I doubt it would work. The seat only moves about 6 inches right or left, and I would think that the Captains chairs would have a wider stance than 6 inches. Probably a little different floor on a Captain chair model...

If you look at captains chair mounting brackets they are narrow at the bottom to fit the two openings on each side. I looked into this as well for my 03 windstar, and I think they will fit. The dual sliding door models. I don't know about the single sliding door models though. Hope this helps.

Hi Brad,

I'm in the process of doing this right now. I have a 2000 Windstar with a bench seat as factory equipment. My wife insisted on the bench seat at the time, but naturally now would prefer the captains chairs. I've gound a pair at an on line salvage yard and had them delivered for Christmas. They fit the slots for the bench seats perfectly, BUT there is another issue which didn't occur to me as I didn't go out and look carefully at a Windstar with factory captains chairs.

The issue is the seat belts. The seatbelts in a Windstar with a bench as standard equipment detach so that you can move the third row seat into the middle. We've done this frequently when we go camping. We still ahve room for 5, but we also have a cavernous back end, perfect for the loads of stuff that we seem to have to carry. The middle belts detach from the bench, and insert into the back side of the third row buckles once you move them forward.

Unfortunately it appears that WindStars with captains chairs standard have seat belts that attach to the floor in a fashion similar to the third row seat belts. I haven't pulled the carpet yet, but I suspect that I'll find the attach points under the carpet just behind the doors. I'm hoping to find a set of extensions that would allow me to continue to remove the captains chairs and move the third row into the center but I haven't had the time to get down to the parts shop to see whether I can do this or whether I need to buy new seatbelts for the installation.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

- Jim

Jim -

I just picked up captains chairs from the junkyard for my '99. Did you end up having luck finding seatbelt attachments under the carpet?

Thanks!

from what i have seen as i have both i have 2-2001 windstars and ones an lx the other is a sport model and the seats are interchangeable as the seatbelt hookups are mounted to my seats the only thing i had to do was remove the latch covers in the carpet and they just slid right in..... or the other route is to fins a bucket bench style that has a console built into it like the one i picked up and am currently using utilizes the center portion for storage as well as have 2 bucket seats so i seat 4 in bucket seats