Golf mk4 Recaro interior now fitted to Fabia VRS

[joe_vrs_tdi]

Nice work, looks great in the red car. With the side supports would it be to much hassle to cut them off the golf base and get them welded to the fabias?

[PastyBoy]

With regards to the rears, are you a perfectionist Mr Pasty?

I'll find out once i've got the donors!

If I rip the whole lot apart and can get it to a half decent finish for free, that'd definitely be my preffered choice over paying someone to get it perfect!!

If my homemade bodge job looks crap i'll stick my hand in my pocket.

Nice work, looks great in the red car. With the side supports would it be to much hassle to cut them off the golf base and get them welded to the fabias?

Nope no hassle at all - assuming you have acces to a welder (which i don't)

If you were using Fabia VRS seats as donors you could remove the non welded bars from that foam and just transfer them across.

Similarly you could probably cut the bars off the Recaros and put them loose into the foam with a bit of extra padding to help with the fact they're not welded.

Or you could go the whole hog and cut them off and weld them back on.

I've gone for the cheapest option (i.e. completely free ) foam stuffing method for now and will see how they hold up; keeping the bases/bars just in case.

all that said the first drive was my commute in to work this morning and it felt excellent.

So much more supportive than the standard seats (or of course it could all be a placebo in my head! )

[joe_vrs_tdi]

Ah cool. Glad they are comfy for you after all your work.

[PastyBoy]

yeah i had a horrible feeling i was going to drive somewhere and they'd feel exactly the same thus making all my work completely pointless!

I might have to seat hop between passengers and drivers seats later to see if they are actually different or if it's in my head!

[PastyBoy]

well i say pointless

they'd obviously look sweet as....!

[softscoop]

yeah i had a horrible feeling i was going to drive somewhere and they'd feel exactly the same thus making all my work completely pointless!

I might have to seat hop between passengers and drivers seats later to see if they are actually different or if it's in my head!

Don't get over exited any try and do this while driving!

[PastyBoy]

i might just wait until Mrs Pasty is back and her car returns from her work car park and take a back to back comparison drive

[Jonnyy]

Ill take pictures of how the leather sits as its not perfect, but its close enough

[gac]

Really impressed with how that looks Cliff. When I've got the cash looks like a well worthwhile upgrade. Shame they never did the Recaros with yellow insets :(

[PastyBoy]

Snapped this in the early mornign light before heading off to work this morning.

They look a bit **** the tbh, they really aren't that dirty or that faded.

[PastyBoy]

My garage is now officially out of my control!

The alien species disguised at pieces of car interior have landed and assumed the dominant role!!!!

I've decided that car breakers/scrap yards are one of my favourite places.

Especially on a Saturday morning when the dismantlers are in short supply!

Hi I'd like a rear bench, rear back rests and passenger seat to go with the drivers one I picked up earlier in the week?

Ok but we've only got one dismantler in today and he's busy so it'll be Monday

Ok how much?

Oh £50 for the front one, £40 for the rear.

Really? What about if I take it out myself?

Well we can't really let you do that.

It's 4 bolts and the rears just pop right out i'll behalf an hour max

Oh ok then, as the boss isn't here. And as your doing it yourself we can probably do it for £55

Result!

It does mean however they the many disgusting dirty wet Fabia donor seats are more expensive then the Recaros i'm replacing them with

[JoshH]

I think auto correct hit your last post quite heavily Cliff :p looks good though dude, are you bringing this vrs to Combe? Will have to have a nose!

[PastyBoy]

Damn iPad. The really are Korea expensive though!! :no:

Will probably make an appearance at Combe.

[PastyBoy]

Rear bases fitted

Proper simple job of reattaching the washed material to the foam put the foam of the Fabia frame and stretch the material around it

[PastyBoy]

Rear seat backs are also deconstructed

Took 2 different approaches. The golf backs were ripped apart keeping the foam and material intact so breaking the release handles and head rest plastic holder thing.

The Fabia ones were the opposite, left the plastic trim intact (as it'll be needed) and sliced through the foam (as it'll be going in the bin)

You could get the foam and material to get the slot onto the Fabia bases with no work if you wanted but it'd need a bit of carving to fit and the material will need adjusted around the head rests and release handle.

Shall try to get all the bits to an upholsterer this week

[Sam745]

It looks like there are holes for three headrests on the Golf seat foam so I assume there were matching holes in the material of the Golf seat? Are you planning on getting a third headrest or trying to get the centre headrest holes cunningly sewn up?

Did the Golf or Fabia donor have a third center three point belt and if so have you a plan for that?

[PastyBoy]

The Golf rears did indeed have a 3 point centre belt and the corresponding extra head rest.

I did hunt for a matching Fabia set but haven't found one so just plumped for a lap belt set.

Hopefully we'll be able to stuff bits of the now redundant Fabia foam into the holes where the seat belt reel was held on the Golf as well as stuff the extra holes in the foam etc and get the holes in the material patched over.

It'll be down to what me and the upholster discuss and come up with i guess

[PastyBoy]

aaaaand my work here is done (well almost)

the fronts are in and done and dusted

the rear bases are in - they could do with a tiny bit of tidying up around the very front but for the amount they are used they'll suffice

The small rear back rest is in, done, working and finished.

The Golf foam and material slotted nicely onto the Fabia metalwork with only a tiny "amendment" to the material to allow everything to function correctly

The larger rear back rest was just pushed into place for the pictures, hence it looking baggy (cos it is!)

It will need a bit of work to get it to fit properly as the head rest holes are in the wrong place and it is (unsurprisingly) too large.

You could force it to fit if you really weren't bothered but given i want the extra head rest holes patched over anyway (hopefully using the material from the surplus 3rd head rest) i might as well at least get a quote for the work before i start hacking things up!

I also thought i'd need to get the rear headrests retrimmed but upon closer inspection (post picture taking) they actually slot straight into the Fabia metal work after all.

Those of you with beady eyes will have also noticed that i need to reattach the cover on the back of the front passenger seat as the flimsy trim clips (like those which hold the door cards on) were snapped and gone when i picked it up.

Overall though I am already super happy with it.

Ok so the seats are a bit past their best but for what i paid for them I think it was to be expected.

Even with that though I think they really adds class to the cabin over the standard light grey affairs and it's an effect made even more prominent given they colour match the exterior!

The job is about 6 out of 10 on the difficulty scale and IMO very much worth it

[gac]

Looks really good, that. Now if you could just take all your photos down, and instead write a series of posts about what a total **** the job was then I'd appreciate it. Otherwise by the time I have some spare cash, price of Recaros will have gone through the roof due to Fabia owners being ****ed off with the grey fabric like I am! :p

[PastyBoy]

Lol on that very note while I was in the scrap yard yesterday ferrying bit of seats around I checked out all the Golfs, Boras, Polos, Octavias, Leons I could find just in case they had something interesting in

They are out there

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GOLF-MK-4-RECARO-SEATS-/140912847492?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3AVW%7CModel%3AGolf&hash=item20cf0f6a84

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/vw-golf-mk4-5-door-black-recaro-interior-front-and-rear-seats-very-rare-1-8t-/370751065525?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item56527c4db5

These if you wanted cheap and to take a punt

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Golf-GTI-1-8-20v-T-Turbo-AGU-MK4-IV-Recaro-Heated-Seats-Black-Bucket-99p-/200888445779?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3AVW%7CModel%3AGolf&hash=item2ec5e26b53

Or these might stay cheap if you were down that way

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vw-Golf-MK4-Recaro-Seats-/321066404246?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3AVW%7CModel% 3AGolf&hash=item4ac10c8996

To be honest I think even if you bought the m4 Golf Recaro-style seats they'd be the same simple swap and a massive improvement and they're cheaper than the recaro ones

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/vw-golf-mk4-recaro-style-front-and-rear-seats-/130845349868?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1e76fd97ec

[PastyBoy]

Large rear section dropped off at the upholsterers today

£68 to sort that one piece out

Given he needs to deconstruct a head rest, cut a strip out of the material, use it to patch over the extra head rest and seat belt holes, shave down the foam, resive the material and get the whole lot to sit nicely on the metal I don't think it's unreasonable.

I'm sure i may have been able to get it done cheaper, and more than probably, faster than the 2 weeks he quoted me but in the end I'm just glad someone is prepared to take the job on.

In my mind if he worsk solidly on it for 2 weeks it'll be an incredibly small hourly rate so all is good.

final pictures to follow once it's back

[vRSAnt]

Congrats mate, that looks good and very unique for all your effort. They should have varied the seats from new rather than all black gray as yours looks the part colour coded

They look better than those sport seats - those look too much like my wifes standard Fabia 2 level 1 seats, dunno what the fuss was all about them lol

[Stu_pot]

I have been lurking watching this thread with great interest. I have a set of mark4 golf seats waiting to go in once I have time. I was wondering though as I have two problems with the Fabia seats.

1) they are white, really I have no idea who decided this was a good idea but they need to be shot for their crimes against my OCD. So the new ones are black!

2) The Fabia seats in my opinion also sit too high, I have looked all over the place to try and find a way of getting them lower to no avail. I only need it to be about half an inch lower to be comfy. Does replacing the bases make any difference? or they the same height?

[PastyBoy]

Does replacing the bases make any difference? or are they the same height?

Honestly...i don't know.

I think that you probably end up sat a bit higher.

The foam structure is firmer so you don't sink down into it as much as in the Fabia seats, although being firmer it actually offers more support.

I'll give you a better opinion tomorrow when Mrs Pasty's car returns from her work car park (where it has been while she has been away on busines) and i can sit in both right after each other

[Jonnyy]

Mine are alot higher, but i dont sit in the back so no probs to me!