Photo Essay - Fitting Recaro Seats To A Ba/bf Falcon

[PhilMeUp]

I’ve always been wanting to find better seating for my taxi. I tried a set of XR6 seats a few years ago, but they have the same base and as the standard XT seat (which breaks easily). I ended up going back to the standard XT seats.

If anyone’s wondering, BA and BF XR6/XR8 seats have the same bases and rails as a standard XT. Which means that XR6/XR8 seats will bolt into an XT, as long as the recipient car doesn’t have airbags in the original seats (and the replacement seats don’t have airbags). The seats in my previous BF were from a BA XR6.

I haven’t worked on an FG yet, so don’t know if Recaro seats will fit in. It would be a safe assumption that it would just be a matter of different adaptor brackets, although there will be a problem if the FG has seat airbags.

The Falcon seat base is pretty weak, and it doesn’t take much to break it. This is very common in the taxi world, and workshops are always welding them.

The front two corners of the base tear easily, and eventually the front of the seat will break free and move around, especially when cornering. This is what they look like when they start to tear:





I’ve had my standard seat base welded and beefed up. It now looks like this:









But after 12 hours of throwing the car around on a weekend night, I’m a tad tired. The standard seats also don’t offer much side support, and so I was curious how a Recaro seat would go.

You can find Recaro seats on eBay and Gumtree easily enough for around $1,000 a pair. Stuff that - way too expensive. Do some homework and work out what cars came with Recaro seats standard - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recaro#Cars_with_OEM-installed_Recaro_seats

It turns out that the Proton Satria GTi had Recaro seats. Do some looking around and find one for wrecking. I’ve seen wreckers selling the seats for $500/pair. I paid $350 for mine, although they needed a decent clean.

Recaro seats are also symmetrical - you can fit one on either side of the car. Just remove the side adjuster knob and swap it to the other side.

One of the seats that I bought:



















Almost all Recaro seats have the same base. The exceptions are some of the OEM ones fitted to cars as standard. I found a bunch of Suzuki Ignis Sport seats that are Recaro, but those ones don’t have the standard base. But if you are going to make up your own brackets then that is an option.

I wanted to make sure that I had myself covered legally, so I ordered adaptor brackets from my local Recaro reseller. At $220, they were way overpriced. It also turns out that they reduce the distance that the seats can go back, so I’ll be taking them to a metal fabrication place and getting them remade (once I clarify the legal requirements). When I do that (ie when I get around to it) then I’ll publish the dimensions here.

The adaptor brackets - The bit at the top of the photos is to hold the adjustment switch in place:

[PhilMeUp]

Putting it all together was easy enough. I wanted to keep my original seat ready to use if required, so bought a set of driver’s seat rails ($50) and an adjustment switch ($25) from a wrecker. This meant that I could put together a complete seat, and putting the original one back in is now a simple bolt out/bolt in job if required.

The brackets bolt to the seat with six M6 x 30 bolts (with a spring washer on each one). You can see at the end of the brackets the bolts that normally bolt directly to the rails poking through from the seat.



The rails have now been bolted back on.



A close up of one of the bolts that comes out from the seat base and through the adaptor bracket and rail mounting.



Because I wanted to have a complete separate seat, I bought this panel for $25 so that I could get the adjuster switch from it.



The other side of the side panel, showing the switch.



The button unclips and pulls off easily enough. The switch can then be removed from the plastic panel.



The switch will then be attached to the plate that is welded to the side of one of the adaptor brackets.



This bit of alluminium then holds the switch in place. Two bolts come through from the top of the metal plate. It’s important to position the switch correctly so that the small rods are in the middle of the holes in the plate.



The adjustment switch in place. Not exactly classy, but it works.



The assembled seat, ready to be fitted into the car.



To remove or fit a Falcon seat, there are four of these bolts with a Torx T50 head. Removing them with a ratchet is fiddly, so I use a ratchet to loosen them and then a cordless drill to completely remove them.



When removing and fitting a driver’s seat, there are these three cables that connect to the seat rail. Note: BEFORE removing a seat, set it to its maximum height so that it is easier to remove and attach these cables. Each one has a different way of clipping in. With the grey one, the clip is actually underneath, so once you have the bolts removed you lean the seat back and reach under it. I use a fingernail to pull a bit of plastic downward.



One advantage of the Recaro seats is that they recline forward. Makes it a bit easier to get them in and out of the car, and will also be useful if you want to fit these into a ute. Don’t forget to remove the headrest before moving a seat in or out of a car, otherwise will get stuck against the top of the door frame.



Another view of the seat reclined forward.



The finished job.



I don’t like how the adaptor brackets hold the adjustment switch horizontally instead of the usual vertically, but I’ve gotten used to it. When I get the brackets remade, part of it will be to have the switch in a vertical position.

Was it worth doing? Yep! I like the lower back and side support that the Recaro has. And the Recaro base doesn’t tear like the Falcon one does. I’m much less fatigued at the end of a 12 hour shift in the car.

The only problem that I’ve had is when I’ve tried to get my wallet out of my pocket when in the car. I’ve lifted my waist by pushing my shoulders back into the top of the seat. This has put excessive pressure on the seat base and torn out one of the bolt mounts. I’ve done this three times now (idiot).





I’ve got four Recaro seats - the Proton two that I originally bought, plus two individual ones that I’ve bought cheaply ($100 each - too cheap to ignore). I’ll get the broken ones repaired, sell the Proton pair and keep the other one as a spare. This also wouldn’t have happened if the adaptor brackets let the seat go back as far as it should do, so getting the brackets remade will prevent this (and it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t need the seat to go so far back).

If you want front seats that are more comfortable then replacing either both seats or the driver’s seat only is definitely worth doing.

If anyone in Perth is interesting in doing this and has metal fabrication skills then let me know. I’ll bring the seat, we can make some replacement brackets and then publish the dimensions on here for everyone else.

Something that I haven’t covered here: There are plastic covers that go over the bolts that hold the seats in place. Because I seem to be removing the front seats semi regualrly I’ve left them out of the car. They clip into place.

For Recaro parts, replacement foam, etc, there is the Capital Seating web site - http://www.capitalseating.co.uk

Some threads about replacing the seat bolster foams:
http://mk2vr6.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=8264
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3681901-DIY-Recaro-foam-seat-repair-%28OEM-replacments-available!%29
http://77e21.info/recarofoam.htm

[barnz]

Nice write up mate, you got me thinking now. I find my g6e seats comfortable but nowhere near supportive enough when things get spirited.

Do the fg's have the problem with the piss weak seat base?

[sr71]

Thanks for the great information ( and links )