I'm looking to get some new front seats for my 97 Van but don't want to spend $400 a seat. Some of these aftermarket race/sport seats are pretty affordable, but I'm not sure how they'll attach. One dealer told me I had to get the frame welded to the seat to affix it to my van. Are seats this hard to swap out? Or should I just get comfortable with spending $800 on seats?

Most seats attach just below the slide mech. An Aluminum adaptor plate should make the seat you want attach to your floor and/or swivel.

https://www.vanning.com/threads/ubb...l-seats-anyone-seen-them.html#Post754790

The aftermarket seats I've had have come with rails underneath which you would bolt to a plate like Frscke1 said. If you already have pedestal type seats, they may already have the plate.

When you go to remove your current seats, you may find that if there is a slider system to allow fowards/backwards adjustment of your seats, the sliders could be swapped directly into your new seats, which probably don't include sliders right out of the box. If your seats don't currently include sliders, this would be a golden opportunity to install some. They're ridiculously inexpensive, like $15 or so per seat.

Be sure to use decent quality bolts to hold seats and mounting plates together.