uglybastard
Autocross Champion
This weekend, i installed some Recaro seats into the mk6. this has been a project in the making for about 6 months now.
I bought them from one of those parts sellers in Southeast Asia who lists things on Instagram. yeah, i know, seems sketchy but i did paypal goods and services to cover the purchase in case i got ripped off. Warning to those buying these seats from questionable sources, ask for a shot of the serial number labels to make sure they're legit. This was back in Jan/Feb and the package got there from thailand in under 2 weeks via DHL. Which is pretty impressive considering how long the shipment lag was because of COVID things. They're legit Recaros, but have been recovered (black cloth / white vinyl).
I used eBay universal sliders, Planted Technology brackets, and hardware from home depot motorsports to do the rest. I also took the time to try and put the OEM airbag stuff on there with resistors to try and bypass error lights. I had to figure out my own hardware situation - not optimal but getting the sliders mounted went ok. I wanted hex-socket hardware to make sure i could get into the narrow space of the slider rail to tighten things up. finding low-profile allen keys that fit was a PITA. I settled on these, for the curious. I went through 2 sets of Neiko keys, not a fan. The sliders went on OK, i had to shape the slider bar myself which was not great since the bracket does not give much clearance. not impossible but difficult to get just right.
Along the way i decided to put new seat supporting straps as the original material was a bit flaky and worn. the straps were on eBay for a real reasonable price.
This made putting the passenger occupancy sensor in there a piece of cake.
mounting the bracket with the seat to the car proved a bit tougher than expected. the OEM bolts did not fit into all the ports to mount, so back to HDM i went.
before you ask, i have low-profile triple square socket set, and this clearly was not going to fit.
OEM bolts are M10x38mm triple square socket head, i bought some M10x25mm bolts (hex head) that work great. mostly. See i have one bolt hole (passenger seat, inner rear) that had a cross-threaded bolt a whole back and it took many ugga-duggas to get it to this point:
But the others bolted up real nicely and the passenger seat is secure:
Things I still need to chase with this include getting the airbag light to go away (either new resistors or coding), finding some cover or carpeting to cover that gap you see above, and getting the driver side slider handle situated, Passenger side is in there well but i took the drives side out after eyeballing it before installing the seat+bracket. Eventually i want to reupholster the centers on these. I'd also like to figure out a way to fix the fucked up bolt hole on the passenger. might end up needing the drill out and put a nutsert in it's place.
I bought them from one of those parts sellers in Southeast Asia who lists things on Instagram. yeah, i know, seems sketchy but i did paypal goods and services to cover the purchase in case i got ripped off. Warning to those buying these seats from questionable sources, ask for a shot of the serial number labels to make sure they're legit. This was back in Jan/Feb and the package got there from thailand in under 2 weeks via DHL. Which is pretty impressive considering how long the shipment lag was because of COVID things. They're legit Recaros, but have been recovered (black cloth / white vinyl).
I used eBay universal sliders, Planted Technology brackets, and hardware from home depot motorsports to do the rest. I also took the time to try and put the OEM airbag stuff on there with resistors to try and bypass error lights. I had to figure out my own hardware situation - not optimal but getting the sliders mounted went ok. I wanted hex-socket hardware to make sure i could get into the narrow space of the slider rail to tighten things up. finding low-profile allen keys that fit was a PITA. I settled on these, for the curious. I went through 2 sets of Neiko keys, not a fan. The sliders went on OK, i had to shape the slider bar myself which was not great since the bracket does not give much clearance. not impossible but difficult to get just right.
Along the way i decided to put new seat supporting straps as the original material was a bit flaky and worn. the straps were on eBay for a real reasonable price.
This made putting the passenger occupancy sensor in there a piece of cake.
mounting the bracket with the seat to the car proved a bit tougher than expected. the OEM bolts did not fit into all the ports to mount, so back to HDM i went.
before you ask, i have low-profile triple square socket set, and this clearly was not going to fit.
OEM bolts are M10x38mm triple square socket head, i bought some M10x25mm bolts (hex head) that work great. mostly. See i have one bolt hole (passenger seat, inner rear) that had a cross-threaded bolt a whole back and it took many ugga-duggas to get it to this point:
But the others bolted up real nicely and the passenger seat is secure:
Things I still need to chase with this include getting the airbag light to go away (either new resistors or coding), finding some cover or carpeting to cover that gap you see above, and getting the driver side slider handle situated, Passenger side is in there well but i took the drives side out after eyeballing it before installing the seat+bracket. Eventually i want to reupholster the centers on these. I'd also like to figure out a way to fix the fucked up bolt hole on the passenger. might end up needing the drill out and put a nutsert in it's place.
