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Rear Headrests

Y

yardape

NAXJA Member #272
Location
Maryland
Since I'm considering buying another XJ I'm trying to make it child safe. As you all know, the rear seats have no headrests which make it not only uncomfortable but dangerous in a rear end accident. Children should also not ride in the passenger seat of a vehilce that has an airbag. Has anyone fabricated (or purchased) a good rear seat headrest for the Cherokee? If not I may end up eventually with a Grand. TIA
 
Thanks. That's a start but way overkill for what I'm looking for. Anyone else?
 
My soon to be 4 year old rides in a child seat with a built-in headrest... the wife's car has one with buil-in cup holders too

Check out the selection at any kids-r-us
 
I have never done it before but couldnt you take the upholstery off the rear seat and the cusions until you get down to the frame and then weld some headrest mounts on there. I dont know if it will work but it sounds good to me.
 
yeah id rip the seat apart and check out whats under the back part. If its got some good sized metal in that location id just weld some sort of bracket and then go to a junkyard and take the headrest and holders out of some other car. Put that all together and cut the top of the back seat and you would be set. Id say its more work to do this then just swaping some sort of new backseat. id take the seat apart and just weld some tubes where the headrests are a little higher and then get it reupolstered. ive seen euro xjs with this so you could always make freinds with someone over there and have him do some junkyard scroungin.
 
Check with our german or european contingent, I've been told that european XJ's have rear headrest as a legal requirement over there...
 
If you wanna go extreme, take out the rear bench and do captains chairs.....with headrests. There's got to be a lot of people online who have done this.
 
Yep here in Oz every single XJ has rear head rests standard and ZJ front seats ;)
 
The headrests come out to allow the seat to fold down. Heres a few pics from my Aussie XJ since this question comes up every now and then.

Cheers
Steve

aaa.jpg


aab.jpg


aac.jpg


aad.jpg
 
Why not try and buy a new seat back for a Euro spec Limited? They are all made over your way, so it should be possible... You wouldn't necessarily need the headrests, since they're exactly the same as the ones in the front, so you could save some money and grab them from a junkyard.
 
Chancer said:
Why not try and buy a new seat back for a Euro spec Limited? They are all made over your way, so it should be possible...
Click to expand...

Not exactly... The EU-spec XJs were built in Austria. I'm assuming this was also the same plant that built the non-US RHD models.

You wouldn't necessarily need the headrests, since they're exactly the same as the ones in the front, so you could save some money and grab them from a junkyard.
Click to expand...

Ah, but, that depends on the trim level. My '01 Sport had the high-back seats with the integrated headrests that were non-adjustable. Having been in and driven XJs in both Europe and the US, there are some things that don't quite translate between both versions. Headrests are one, diesels are another.

Also bear in mind that Australia has its own compliance requirements. While they're pretty close to most EU regs, there's also a lot of overlap with the US. It's a fairly unique environment in that regard, so anything we're discussing here may not necessarily apply.

As a footnote, I for one would love to have a back bench with headrests. But that's just me.
 
Jeep won't sell euro parts here in the US, another example on the 97 plus is the switch panel in the center bezel, euro ones have a 4 slot panel vs 3 here which would give me room for a factory switch to control a set of driving lights. Someone sent me the part number and I took it to the dealer to order, parts guy said he he can see it but it's not orderable here in the US, export only..
Annoys the heck out of me, got that wasted accy plug that I can't use because the stick in 5th gear blocks it and any adapter thats in there will make 5th gear unusable...
 
Well I think my 10 year old might get way annoyed at me if I tried to put him back in a child seat. Maybe I need to go to a junkyard and rip a backseat apart just to see what's inside as suggested or find a place to buy a whole backseat. I want a euro seat! Ughh!!!!

The only other option is to have an airbag kill-swtch installed in the front. As I recall there is a place that will do this not too far from me for under $300.
 
Last edited:
I have only ordered two factory service manuals off of ebay, so i am not a big ebay expert... but can't you get a back rest off of ebay ?

If not call a europran junk yard, or the euro equivilant of car-part.com/ or www.junkyarddog.com i don't know anyone in europe but they have 275 million people they have to have this over there too. The Euro guys on the board could probably be helpful with a link to a euro junkyard. If all the ricer guys manage to find JAPAN SPEC parts how hard can it be for us to get Euro and aussie jeep goodies.
 
Importing a reat seat from Europe would have very expensive shipping charges.
Although more fabrication would be involved, I would rather try to adapt a rear seat from another vehicle into the XJ. This way you would also get a 60/40 split folding seat ...with head rests.
 
Not to kill your enthusiasm but rear headrest bench is rare in europe too. They are not only built in Austria because i got one in my '89 US-built daily driver. There are 3 head rests on the rear. Those are really rare and i've been offered 300 EUROs already to exchange it. :wave:
 
This is all very instructive. Does anyone know what is actually inside the rear seat back besides foam? Perhaps with some careful measuring and modification, a Grand Cherokee seat back could be modified to fit leaving the lower seat bottom intact. The Grand Cherokee is not that much wider than the XJ. Any thoughts?
 
I am considering making a Rusty style "sport bar" that mounts in the bottomof the rear cargo area. However it wouldn't go all the way to the roof. Bolt or Weld it down really good and mount some headrests to it. I am working on this solution so that I can also mount the top point of a three point seat belt to it. I may end up bracing it with a diagonal piece of tube to give it more strength. I have a 89 Daily driver that I really needs three point belts in. Headrests will be something I will need in the future, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone.

The bar I am thinking of would mirror the vertical angle of the back seat and then bend up and over the seat, move across the seat to the other side then bend back behind and down to the floor. This would offer the most fleibilty in the kind of headrest that could be used. Similar to how the Aussy units go in, but they would actually slide down into this bar and fasten with bolts and nuts instead of long studs.

Thoughts?
 
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