New Seats

[Atik]

Not totally sure, as I've never driven a Recaro specced VR4. They are regarded as very comfy seats and very supportive, no doubt, but I'm just not into cloth seats. I prefer my armchair style luxury which is why I opted for the leathers in the first place when I changed my interior.

I only saw John's seats but didnt get to sit in them last time we met, but I was suitably impressed with the looks that I have followed him, albeit in the beige leathers as I like them Plus it would look odd having half beige and half black leathers in the car.

[giblet]

I do like armchair style luxury, might try an find a cheap set of standard rear leathers for the vr4 and copy you john with the s8 seats as i really wanted heated ones

[Atik]

There was a set of leather seats going for £100 for a Galant saloon. Ended last week on ebay

[Atik]

Mmmm, got leather?



So comfy and supportive. Gotta clean them up properly now and play around with the electrics. Cant wait to get them in the car.

[John TheAntique]

And now the fun begins eh?
Are you happy so far?

[Atik]

I'm chuffed to bits. And I even got a £1 present which was stuck between the leather panels

I need to take some time to clean them now. Thanks for the wiring diagram John. I managed to find some additional help on the seats too so I am in good stead to get these up and running soon.

Must also give a massive thanks to the guys at Prestige Motors, the breakers who I bought these seats from. Phoned up on Monday evening and made the order, shipped out on a pallet on Tuesday and delivered today (Wed) at 10am. Mounted to the pallet using screws they were very secure and well wrapped up.

[John TheAntique]

I agree, I got a fantastic service too and they are extreemly helpful.

[Beastlee]

I will have to see if I'm keeping the car, if I am I can think of a lovely birthday present for June

[Atik]

Done! These are now fitted in the car and look and feel AWESOME. I have wired up the electric adjust controls, but am still stuck on the heated bits. I'll get to that soon though.

I ended up fabricating my new rails out of aluminium flat bars, angle bars and C bars. The mild steel frame that I originally planned was proving to be VERY difficult to work with and this was a very complicated fit due to the uneven mounting points of the original seats. They are sitting about 1 inch too high, but with the right seat adjustment, I cant feel the difference.

I'll get pictures loaded up tomorrow once I have cleaned up and hoovered the car. I also now have my twin cup-holders in front of the armrest! Woo.

[miller]

wow sounds wicked Atik, any pics? I need a sit in yours at the next meet!

[Atik]

Yup got some pics to post up, but I havent got any pics of the final install as its too dark out now and I still have LOADS of aluminium filings in the car from all the drilling! I'll clean it up tomorrow and will definitely get some pics up.

Its a mod that I would DEFINITELY recommend. A heck of a lot of hard work fabricating the base, but well worth the comfort and support.

[Beastlee]

Atik,

Sounds great. I'm playing with Pro Engineer at the moment and would really like to set about creating a template for seat swaps. Could you possibly knock up a quick sketch with dimensions so I can put it into the CAD package and create a part for future use in the club. I can see that the number of seat swaps can only increase and even if we don't all fit S8 seats the modifcations can't be too drastic can they?

[Atik]

Thats a great idea Lee. I will try to work something out for this over the next week. I have my old seats in the front room at the moment so have access to them for measurements.

I'll post up some form of a descriptive 'how to' soon.

[VR4WGN]

cant wait to see pics dude...

[Atik]

These seats are simply amazingly comfortable. I went for a good long drive today and I have found them to be a massive improvement over the UK V6-24 electric leather seats, which in turn were a massive improvement over the stock PFL VR4 Type S seats.

First few pics are of Gowf fabricating the original planned mild steel frame. We managed to get one (kind of) ready for fitting, but it wasnt perfect as the mounting would have been very awkward and tight. Plus it took much longer than anticipated and after 6 hours we gave up and I planned to continue the following day.

The following day, I learned that I cant weld

So I decided on using aluminium to fabricate the base. I figured that the original Audi seat rails are made of aluminium, so they must be strong enough to use the same material. I used some flat bar, angle bar and C bars and bolted a frame together. The pics show the underside of the passenger seat. There are a few support bits missing which I used to add some additional strength when actually fitting into the car.

The driver side seat was pretty much identical in shape except that I bolted the frame to the rails using two bolts instead of one.

Must point out that the mounting points in the car are NOT symmetrically opposites for the two seats. The mounting points are different for each seat and the height is also different for every bolt position

Another pic to show the difference between the Galant driver seat and the Audi driver seat. Both seats are in their lowest position with the back rest tilted at roughly the same angle.

Finally a few shots of the seats in place. They do sit a teeny bit higher than they should, but it cant be helped due to the location of the bolt holes.

[Beastlee]

Excellent work guys. If you can hide the fabrication they would almost look factory fitted!

[John TheAntique]

Congratulations Atik they look good, well worth the effort aren't they. When it warms up a bit I might do some "how to" photos in more detail so people have two methods of construction. I tried to send you a PM yesterday but I think my box was full. Did you get it??

[Atik]

Definitely worth the effort. They need to be driven in to experience exactly how good they actually are. I suspect there may be a few more making similar mods this year. They can be worked around if you want.

I got a PM regarding the car audio kit. But, I need some further help with the wiring for the heaters in the seats. I'm still stuck on them. Any chance you can help me locate where each pin and wire is traced to (obviously when it gets little warmer).

[Confused]

They look great, Atik!


If you want rid of the standard front seats, please let me know how much!

[Nutter_John]

My only concer Atik is the strenght of the Ally in the event of an acident