Whipped across town at lunch time to collect my first donor part.

A driver seat deemed not good enough to sell on at full price but good enough for me as I only ant the subframe. Personally i can't really see why they couldn't sell it at full price

Shall hopefully begin the deconstruction over the weekend when hopefully I'll have some new spline bits

I've also emailed a local upholsterer about a price for the work on the rears.

Fingers crossed its acceptable!

If its any help in regards to costs, i had three quotes, a local one man band £50 with no definite time scale, another local guy £80-100 dependant on the headrests, charged £70 as it was very easy (his words not mine) and did it with in 2 days. Last guy quoted £90 and said a week, another company but had a few people HTH

Any ideas how hard it would be to rip the heating part out of my elegance seats, and fit into the recaros? Mmmmmmm

Sat in a set of heated recaro mk4 seats in a friends golf. Defintely a winner (y) good progress pasty!

Were those seats from someone who had a brown trouser moment, just before crashing their Fabia?

Any ideas how hard it would be to rip the heating part out of my elegance seats, and fit into the recaros? Mmmmmmm

I'd think it'd mean extra deconstruction on the Recaro's.

You'd have to separate the material from the foam to put the heating elements in.

Having not taken a base apart yet (and given i have no need to i won't be) I can't be sure but I'd imagine it'd mean snipping some connecting rings which hold the material in place.

Not sure though.

Were those seats from someone who had a brown trouser moment, just before crashing their Fabia?

I see what you're saying but I'm pretty sure it's rust Sam.

As much as i love a baragin i think even i'd step away from purchasing a "poo seat"

There are hog rings holding all the cloth together to the foam, pain in the neck to remove and reattach!

yeah i encountered some when taking the rears apart

I managed to unclip the bars but left the rings as i couldn't see a way of putting them back in!

I assumed that would be a job for the upholsterer!

I see what you're saying but I'm pretty sure it's rust Sam.

As much as i love a baragin i think even i'd step away from purchasing a "poo seat"

Have you sniffed them yet?

I bet you will do now just to be sure :p

eBay special spline bits ordered.

2nd class postage though so expect delivery mid next week.

weekend with no seat dismanlting then :(

I guess i could clean them instead....

The set does come with a 1/2 inch drive bit so should i really struggle to undo the bolts i can plug them into my impact wrench which is normally reserved for wheel nuts!

Pasty, the other half says you need a pair of hog ring pliers if you go for the full deconstruction. Personally I think she's been watching too much Kirstie Allsopp...

Kirstie's Homemade Recaro Fabia Interior??

As said i think i'll leave it to the experts!

Rears can follow the fronts as and when to be honest.

I've been running for 2 weeks without them already and i ran the Ibiza for 6 months without rear seats!!

Pasty, the other half says you need a pair of hog ring pliers if you go for the full deconstruction. Personally I think she's been watching too much Kirstie Allsopp...

U can chop the rings off using side cuts... then use small cable ties when re-fitting

Thats how we do em anyway

Decided that it'd be a load easier to put the rear covers in the washing machine than it would to clean them by hand so that's what I did.

Pulled the hog rings apart with a combination of pliers and screwdriver and popped the covers off the back rests (no hog rings on the bases). Then it was a case of sliding the retaining bars out of their material sleeves and job done.

Currently upstairs drying now and look a ton better already.

I did consider doing the same with the fronts but the dismantling is the easy part, I have a horrible fear I'd get the covers off and never back on again!!

I did consider doing the same with the fronts but the dismantling is the easy part, I have a horrible fear I'd get the covers off and never back on again!!

yes i recently did this to send one of my vrs covers on, that would not be going back on if i removed it on the new seats i had lol.

Get a steam cleaner on the fronts!

Yeah I think I'll let a pro put the rears back together (along with any modifications) and just scrub the fronts down.

Worst case theres a local valeting guy who does an interior valet including seat shampoo for £30 which is about the same as the cost of 24 hours with a rug doctor!!

eBay special spline bits ordered.

2nd class postage though so expect delivery mid next week.

weekend with no seat dismanlting then :(

I guess i could clean them instead....

The set does come with a 1/2 inch drive bit so should i really struggle to undo the bolts i can plug them into my impact wrench which is normally reserved for wheel nuts!

if you can get your hands on a halfords trade card their tools are of a very good quality and at a reasonable price ....

Had mine half leather keeping the same centers and im well pleased with it. Bought a spare set of vrs seats to use in the meantime which will soon be for sale once valeted.

A lot of people knock eBay but..... my spline bits have arrived!

Tonight I shall mostly be... dismantling stuff and if i'm really lucky maybe even putting it back together!

good luck!

well i need more than luck :(

I now have a deconstructed Fabia drivers seat

a deconstructed Golf passenger seat,

and a Golf drivers seat with 2 rounded off bolts

That said the process is incredibly easy.

Remove all trim

separate back from base

remove foam

repeat for donor

and then follow steps in reverse to put back together

I have given up for now though as i can't get the Golf drivers seat apart and it looks like the Recaro's had an extra bit of bolster support welded on to the bases so i'm unsure of continuing or not

trim removed

simples - half a dozen torx bits and it pops off.

most difficult bit is getting the small plastic covers out of the holes in the height adjustment lever without damage

deconstructed goodness

As you can see here the recaros (left) have the extra loop of metal that slots right up into the bolster

given the Fabia bases don't have this i'm concerned that fitting the foam without the extra bracing will mean it just collapses in super quick time and offers less support as the bolster will essentially have a big hole in it!

that coupled with the rounded of bolts means bad times indeed.

I think I might need to go and knock on the garage door of my next door neighbour.

The son is always in there working on restoring old motorbikes and customising BMXs so i'm pretty sure he'd have the machinery to be able to hack through the bolts and potentially removed and reweld the support bars to the Fabia bases

If only i'd actually spoken to him in the 2 years since we moved in next door!! :S

I have been watching with interest to see the progress as I have toyed with various ideas of changing the interior.

I did find the following thread (don't know if I am allowed to post links to other forums so sorry mods if I'm not!)

http://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3953&start=15

I know its a different vehicle but the concept is the same. Some way down page they say they fitted the seat foam without the welded supporting bars and the support is fine without. If that makes any difference in your decision to continue or not.

Thanks Sam yep that's exactly the same process.

Although obviously Caddy drivers don't have to worry about fecking about with the rears

Shame I didn't spot that before though as the block caps warning to not cross thread the bolts due to locktight fitting would have been very useful about an hour ago and meant a lot less swearing!

I'll see how helpful the guy next door is. If he offers to do the welding for a couple of beers awesome if not i might just carve some foam from the donor Fabia seat and stuff the cavity (oooh matron!)

I think the problem you have is that your donor Fabia seat frame is from a poverty model classic/comfort and not a Vrs,my seat base on my Vrs has worn through revealing a metal loop similar to the one in your photo.

Good call. Hadn't thought of that.

Wanted to get away without ripping the VRS seats to pieces if I could.

It's all redundant if I can't get the bloody cross threaded bolts it though....