What....you mean nobody has even contemplated a mod like this. I had a fully reclining set of front seats on my '95 Sentra. And I carried all sorts of long stuff over the years. I was mildly shocked to learn the Focus I just bought, had basically non-reclining seats.

Hopefully I can change that.

 

This would be great. It bothers me I can't put my seat back when I wanna just lay there.

I don't quite understand the concept of how that works though.. Can you add a pic of what it looks like when the seat is upright?

So it's like when you lean back to the maximum position that metal looking piece catches that hook that sticks out and that's what prevents you from going any further?
What if you just bent the part straight so it doesn't catch the hook anymore?

 

There's only one real reason for having a seat recline all the way back............








lol

 

I drive a ton of hours for my job, and see this reason alot. Its pretty cool.

 

there was a thread a long while back about this, i was going to look into it, but always forgot too.

i'd love to see if that tab just needs bent out to solve this.

 

Take a look at this picture....the red arrows point to the "J" arm that pivots with the seat back.

The green arrow points to the stopper pin. It's fully reclined in this photo......the pin prevents any further reclining. You can see a mark on the "J" arm where it hits the pin.

The blue arrow points to the catch bracket for the spring. This is what makes the seat back spring forward. Has nothing to do with preventing backward reclining.....it looks like this spring will tighten a little further if the stopper pin was removed, and the seat reclined further back.

That's my take anyway.....

I certainly don't think it a good idea to stress these Focus seats too much......they don't look heavy-duty. [nono]

 

would it work if you swapped seats from a different car that allowed a full recline?

 

^^^^^^That certainly is an option, but a bunch of work. I do have a set of seats in the basement that recline fully, and also lay completely flat when folded forward. That would be neat.

But you're talking about probably doing extreme mods to get the seat-tracks to bolt down and sit correctly on the Focus. All I'm looking for is to get the seat-back on the passenger side to recline further. Should be an easy mod.....you would think.

Another option......find a hinge off a different seat that reclines, and make it fit on the Focus seat. Might require a little welding and some mods to the seat covers/trim. Hummmm.

 

The mod worked!!!!! Total cost $0......even better. Total time not including contemplation....maybe five minutes. Simple enough most of you could do it in your driveway, without even removing the seat.

I simply drilled out the single pin.....used a #2 drill bit. Mask the area so the metal doesn't get in the seat track, and put a flat piece of metal behind the hole so you don't drill into the seat cushion.

If you drill right, you'll go through the center of the pin, and out the other side. Pry out the hollowed out pin. You can see the top of the toothed "J" bracket which no longer has a stop-pin to prevent reclining.

With the head-rest removed, and the seat pushed forward.....here's what it looks like. Unfortunately the seat-back is too tall to recline completely.....it rests against the edge of the rear seat bottom when fully reclined.

As I thought might happen.....the teeth on the "J" bracket don't go down far enough to lock the seat back when fully reclined. But you can recline and lock the seat back maybe 30 degrees further than stock.

What I didn't expect......with the seat fully back and reclined, it makes a very nice sleeping surface. All you need is a pillow. The seat back is supported by the bottom of the rear seat cushion. (In the photos my rear seat bottom is removed and replaced with a thin pad, covered with vinyl).

I'm still wondering if I should make something to lock the seatback fully reclined. Right now it will spring up without any weight on it.....but it will only go so far till it locks. When you're laying on it, you don't notice a thing.

Another nice part of this mod....if you don't like it when you're done, you could replace the drilled-out pin with a small bolt and a loc-nut. Back to stock. With this seat mod completed, you won't notice a single thing different.......except your seat will now recline. You could do this mod to the driver seat also, but the steering wheel may hit your knee if you try to recline fully.

Happy modding. []

I think this may be a completely original mod on a Focus.....be the second on the block to do it. [~]

 

Photobucket is screwed up today...the pictures aren't showing yet.

Fixed now..

 

Here's the quick/easy to hold the seat-back fully reclined. I ran an 8mmx.125 bolt into the unused rear seat hing hole (sticking out about 2"). Then I bent the ends of an adjustable strap slightly. It works.....since is will be used only occasionally, it doesn't have to be too fancy.

 

Little update to this project......I was painting the seat trim piece while I was working on the seat. Well I found out I had to trim the inner edge slightly, at the point the toothed "J" arm now goes up further than stock. Here's what it looks like now with the trim back on. Takes only a few minutes extra.

And while I was painting the driver side trim, I did this mod to that side also. Glad I did. Now if you get tired driving, you can pull over somewhere and rest awhile, even if you have a passenger. A safety mod.......[thankyou]

 

I got a chance to test out the carrying capacity of this recline mod.....that's a 7' long piece of molding in there......without even reclining the rear seat back. Measuring....there's enough room left that it looks like you could carry at least six (maybe more) 8' 2x4s in the same spot. This is exactly what I was hoping for.... [thankyou]

 

That looks great BF! Imagine though what kind of stuff a wagon can haul with this mod? What a minute, that's what I drive![histerical] Will have to do this mod this weekend (if I'm not moving).

Thanks to all who found this mod![cool]

 

nice, gotta bust out my drill!

 

Bluefront, you are easily my favorite person on this site.

 

Thanks...[grinking]

 

Nice write-up. I had heard of someone doing this before on this site (sorry) but I'm too lazy to find it here. This should go into the how-to archive.

 

^^^i agree, i wanna try and do this mod also .

 

Thanks for the write up. Due to the amount of time I spend living out of my car on race weekends, this mod will be a godsend.
Posted via FF Mobile

 

nice ingenuity ... i will be doing this as soon as my car gets outta the shop this weekend

 

very nice and useful mod, the last time i bought some molding from hd or lowes or whatever i had to put it up through between the front seats and almost touching the windshield, i wish i had known about this. god work!!

 

well ... did this the other day and its such an awesome mod ... thanks for the ideas

and ... i own a 2000 focus and it works the same ... the spring coil looks like its in a dif position but it still works just fyi

 

I'm gonna try this out ASAP. Looks great and your pictures are really helpful!

 

^^^^I'm glad somebody actually got to try this mod. And it's nice to know it works on a 2000 Focus. That leads me to suspect it will work on all the different years. But you never know. If your seats look similar to the pictures, you'll probably be ok.

Actually......if I go to FF-2009 I'll probably be sleeping in the car someplace, using this mod. Might save me a two day's motel bill. [^]

 

I'm gunna try this 2moro =) when i go to the drive-ins, this is gunna b great

 

Did it!

Before

After!

Might not seem like a big deal, but wow, what a difference! Thanks for the mod idea bluefront! Highly recommenced this mod too. You either like it or don't and you can just put a pin back in if you don't like it.