I have just finished fitting a middle row set of 07 Defender puma XS seats to my 03 TD5 110 XS, thought some of you might be interested in my findings...

I looked at fitting Discovery II td5 middle row seats, they will fit but I did not like the pattern and the seats needed a little modding, but if you can't find some defender seats disco IIs will fit, you need to mod the 40% seat slightly.

Anyway, I managed to buy some 07 defender full height seats with headrests and 3x3point belts, in black, brand new from a Land Rover garage in mid-Wales for under £500 almost complete.

My main concern is safety, I'd rather over engineer the fitting rather than have the seats fall out on an accident.. so if you like the new puma seats, here's a quick run down of what is required to fit them.

Modifications required:
1. Front of floor seat box: The new seat front/floor fittings don't line up exactly as the old middle row bench, so the seat box needed some additional holes and plates.

2. The new seats sit into the wheel arch, so I had to cut a hole in the inner wheel arch. Well away from the seat belt mounting, a hole 85mm X 200mm (pictures on request), this was backed with some carefully cut aluminuim channel section to match the contours of the wheel arch (100mm wide x 30mm deep) inside the wheel arch to keep the dirt out and grip filled + waxoyled.

Now the seats fit into the car, there appears much more leg room even with the front seats far back, but now the most tricky bit..

3. There is a new plate inside the load area on the floor for the seats to lock down onto, this is a heafty piece of metal that bolts through the floor with 6 bolts onto 2 plates that attach to the middle x-member. Bit of fiddling to get that to fit but it does.

4. re-waxoyl the affected areas

5. job done!

Seat belts all the same, same functionality as 07 seats, 60% and 40%, both fold forward for extra space. I removed 2 of the dickie seats but it's actually not necessary.

Last edited by bpman on 30th May 2008 12:17pm. Edited 1 time in total

Post us some pictures.


Also welcome to the forum .

Regards Pete
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Looks good Steve (bpman),, Glad my pictures for the "other side" helped ??
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www.wessex4x4response.org.uk

I have since tidied up the hole on the inside of the wheel arch and carpeted the area..

seats are working well in service.