I think he went cammo to be different.

Boy oh Boy i've been busy

my car earlier today......

Mrs Pasty's car

in seriousness I am collecting my new bits tonight

mega excited!

A nice 3 hour round trip and it's collected

You never know what you're going to get from an eBay seller but was a top lad.

Had a couple of VAG cars on the drive and a Vito van full of bits & pieces

Was more than happy to stand in the snow and talk cars including stories of building an estate VRS Fabia for his Mrs and dog

i slithered my way off his driveway with a car full of ***drum roll*** a mk4 Golf Recaro interior in black and red

Result!

Admittedly they're not in factory condition with a slightly soft base bolster, a few small holes, and what look like repairs to the drivers seat base and needing a damn good clean but for the price i don't think i can complain.

All that's left now is clean the hell out of them, find a donor set of Fabia seats for some front subframes; and a donor set of rears so i can get the rears them retrimmed with the Recaro cloth (and maybe foam)

Good choice! Mind if I ask how much you paid?

I think mine were £110 with a tiny of cracking to the plastic underneath the seats. Comfy though!

yeah i'm happy Joe

The dirt is only superficial, the holes are tiny, and I'm assuming that given the subframes are being changed i'll be able to turn a soft outer drivers bolster into a soft inner passenger bolster

Only real concern is making the rears fit which could be plenty of work for a reupholsterer so could be a big bill.

We'll see i guess.

I'll drop you a Pm about the price

If you've not airbags in the Fabia you could just give yourself the passenger seat on the driver's side and be sorted that way around? Which is what I was sorely tempted to do. *Edit* - sounds like that's what you're planning to do anyway?

FWIW, when I put mine into my Polo (6n2) I unclipped the rear covers from the Golf bases, took the foam off and popped it onto the Polo based and then put the covers back onto the Polo bases. It needed a bit of foam trimming but it was the easiest option and easily doable in a couple of hours. The fabric isn't a perfect fit, but it looks reasonable enough unless you're a perfectionist/knew what it used to look like.

Edited 21 January, 201313 yr by TriggerFish

Thanks Joe with no airbags in the Fabia to worry about the fronts are easy.

The rears is a suck it and see really.

In my mind i was just gunna take the covers off the fabia seats put the golf ones on and pull the whole lot tight!

I doubt it'll be that simple though.

I'll probably take the 4 pieces to a retrimmer and get an expert opinion first

Ive been wanting to do this with some heated mk4 recaros in my elegance.

Bit scared to rip my standard seats apart though with never doing it before :3

Are the recaros heated? Didn't even realise!

I'm off to find if you can retro fit the switches...

Personally if it was me (and it is) i'd be buying a donor set of standard seats to dismantle "just in case"

There's a full interior on eBay at the moment for £40! only issue for me is that it's in Sheffield! (which'd be less of an issue for you!)

I'll be putting together a full comprehensive guide of the process as i work my way through it

Thanks Joe with no airbags in the Fabia to worry about the fronts are easy.

The rears is a suck it and see really.

In my mind i was just gunna take the covers off the fabia seats put the golf ones on and pull the whole lot tight!

I doubt it'll be that simple though.

I'll probably take the 4 pieces to a retrimmer and get an expert opinion first

If these fit straight into a octy mk1 then the covers will be slightly bigger, im talking millimetres & should be fine, mine are with only a few niggles around the headrest surrounds

Cant wait to see them in!

Thanks Jon good to know.

All I've done is get them into the garage and not really investigated very far.

Hopefully gunna dismantle the Golf bits so that i can take them indoors and clean them down, that way I'll be indoors in the warm and they'll be indoors in the warm so might actually dry out (rather than freeze!)

I know my local breakers has a Fabia in which could act as a donor (i think it may have had the awsome tan interior!) but they wanted something ridiculous like £100 a seat!

Time to dust off the powers of negotiation....

There's also a trimmers just around the corner so i might call in for a chat

I do love a project

They're not all heated. :(

Check underneath - if you've got one (yellow?) plug, it's for airbags. You'd need another one for the seat heating.

ah i think there was only one cable, i'll check.

I wasn't THAT bothered anyway

Are these supposed to have big red No1's on them??

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vw-polo-gti-seats-interior-6n2-Seat-Lupo-/321058805245?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4ac09895fd

They're 6n2 seats - wont fit without work, and I speak from experience - not very comfortable anyway! I'd not bother if I were you.

not keen on em, me want leather!!

Are the recaros heated? Didn't even realise!

I'm off to find if you can retro fit the switches...

Personally if it was me (and it is) i'd be buying a donor set of standard seats to dismantle "just in case"

There's a full interior on eBay at the moment for £40! only issue for me is that it's in Sheffield! (which'd be less of an issue for you!)

I'll be putting together a full comprehensive guide of the process as i work my way through it

Youre a star! Aha. Will probably influence me to have a go myself

And yeahh some of the ones are, im 99% sure ive seen some. Mmmm s3 recaro leathers :3

They're 6n2 seats - wont fit without work, and I speak from experience - not very comfortable anyway! I'd not bother if I were you.

+1

i have vrs seats in my fabia + 6n2 polo gti seats in my polo + the vrs are more comfortable aswell as a little wider

... and i used to have recaros in my mk4 golf.. very similar to the fabia vrs seats just abit bigger + stiffer bolsters

You want 9n polo interior if you want anything.

That'd bolt straight in.

Spent 20 minutes examining the recaro's when I got home.

Only one plug for the airbags so no heating.

At least that saves me that headache anyway!!

Managed to get the plastic trim off the subframe along with the height adjustment handle.

Now just need to get myself some spline bits so I can undo the bolts holding the back rest to the base.

It actually seems a lot more difficult to do than I was expecting (or my expectations were set way low!)

Looking good pasty head. Nice to see something new. My TT seats are still in Alistairs company being operated on, looking forward to them though. These sound a bit easier if its just frame swapping.

The TT ones should just be frame swapping too....

I think all VAG seats will use the same base but with different subframes attached...

The bolts your on now are the last of the bolts, just the base plastic clips on to the frame to come off then work backwards again!

Yeah i say "more difficult" but it's only taken me 20 minute so far and at least half of that was spent looking for small nuts to remove to get the trim off - which the Golf seats don't have!

There are only 3 visible on the Golf seats I think the 4th one is higher up the back rest inside a material pocket.

Scabby standard seat sourced from the local scrappy for £30

That'll give me something to experiment on and get the process down before swapping my VRS seats for a complete standard set

Another couple of hours spent playing tonight.

I have learnt:

There is no way in hell the rears are going to fit without being reskinned.

The slot in the back rests for the Golf latch to go is about 2 inches lower than the Fabia one.

The rear bases also have differently positioned hooky bits underneath so that's not easy either.

As a precaution then I have slipped the covers off and removed the undercarriage.

This was by far the easiet part of the process so far!!

I also pulled apart the larger rear back rest.

It took me ages to force the first plastic edge of the material out of the metal back plate until I realised said plate was going in the bin anyway so I use a screwdriver to bend the retaining edges out of the way and it slid out no probs?

Had to also snap the plastic trim around the head rest supports as they wouldn't budge either.

On that note the head rests won't fit in the Fabia seat back so the head rests will need retrimming too.

the middle of the material is held to the foam by rings though which i'm loathe to remove just yet hence it being still attached.

Then came the fronts.

I've exposed the spline bolts on both seats now

But there is no way that I can undo the bolts with just the screwdriver attachments I have (even when I put it onto a drill) they simply refuse to budge.

Will order some 1/2 inch drive ones so I can get a ratchet on there.

Either that or I'll go visit my tame mechanic and his air ratchet!!!!