Replacing beige interior, possibly leather??

[waue1978]

Ok, Im down to 2 options really as car electrics aint really a strong point, Could I find a electric drivers seat out of a GLX and swap the base over, and retrim the leather base so the seat wouldint have an ece and just need a live and neg feed, would an earth still needed to be soldered onto the switch?

Yes - if the seats aren't memory seats then they only need a live & earth feed to the yellow plug. The only reason an earth needs soldering to the drivers seat switch on a memory seat is because the power is routed through the ECU.

But surely if you are brave enough to strip the leather & retrim a GLX seat base it would make more sense to strip the leather seats & transplant onto your manual bases?

[Roylewaa]

Ok, Im down to 2 options really as car electrics aint really a strong point, Could I find a electric drivers seat out of a GLX and swap the base over, and retrim the leather base so the seat wouldint have an ece and just need a live and neg feed, would an earth still needed to be soldered onto the switch?

Yes - if the seats aren't memory seats then they only need a live & earth feed to the yellow plug. The only reason an earth needs soldering to the drivers seat switch on a memory seat is because the power is routed through the ECU.

But surely if you are brave enough to strip the leather & retrim a GLX seat base it would make more sense to strip the leather seats & transplant onto your manual bases?

Funny you said that as thats what ive decided to do, Ive been to the breakers and got a drivers seat out of a Rapier and going to retrim it from the leather seat, Only snag is the seat out of the rapier doesent have a side airbag, will I be able to transfer the side airbag either out off the leather seat (or original beige seat) and its wiring aswell to the manual Rapier base? Ive put the rapier seat in the car for now and sure enough the side airbag light is lit
I did initally go hoping to find a leccy GLX seat but the car was crushed last week
I cant use the existing drivers beige seat as the previous keeper was quite a big guy and the frame is badly snapped and bent, hense another reason why I killed 2 birds with one stone and went for leather

[Roylewaa]

Right, Ive got the driverside leather seats stripped of the metal frame, A little problem has presented itself, the rapier seat does not have an side airbag or arm rest, when I strip the covers off it will the frame have the parts welded to it to connect the side airbag and armrest??

This wouldint be an issue if the original seat frame wasint so knackered, I tried for half an hour to seperate the back frame from the base with no luck so im guessing it doesent seperate??

Any further info would be massivley appreciated

Thanks so far for the help and comments, love this forum

[highlander]

If the original seats in your car didn't have side airbags, and your new seats do, then don't try and wire up the side airbags.

Leave them disconnected; the car won't know any better, and when you come to sell the car on, just make sure you tell the new owners that the airbags in the seats won't fire. Or find a way to remove the "Airbags" badge from the seats.

[steve_earwig]

I'm afraid you'll have to see what you find, the parts diagrams are rather generic in that respect and airbags aren't mentioned in the descriptions. They do show the frame to be all one bit, so I guess there's rivets at the hinge points which you're not meant to mess with (drill out, nut & bolt?)

And a new seat frame is... 633 fecking quid!

[plod]

Electrics definately aren't my forte

but with the seat ecu and wiring conversion kit off Ade on the coupe club, plus an extra 20 feet of cable, even I managed to convert my manual cloth over to electric leather.

Look at it this way, you've saved a bomb with the stuff you got for £50, so treat yourself and buy the conversion kit off Ade
His prices are dearer on ebay - obviously to cover listing fees etc, so contact him through the coupe club, and you usually get discount.

[Roylewaa]

If the original seats in your car didn't have side airbags, and your new seats do, then don't try and wire up the side airbags.

Leave them disconnected; the car won't know any better, and when you come to sell the car on, just make sure you tell the new owners that the airbags in the seats won't fire. Or find a way to remove the "Airbags" badge from the seats.

The original beige seats in my 406 did have side airbags, its the rapier seat I got (for the frame) that hasint
Ive took a few pics as they say 1000 words
Heres some pics of the current state of the seats

The original grubby horrid beige broken seat

side airbag on it

broken frame on it in 2 places



The leather seat cushions ready to go on

And the exec frame

Here are my concerns that the Rapier seat hasint got, framework and bolt studs for the side airbag on exec seat frame

and finally mount for seat armrest

[Roylewaa]

Spend all day yesterday and today, welding and repairing original drivers seat then swapping the leather over to it. done, then ran a feed from the ciggy lighter for the passenger seat, done

A bit weird tho as the passenger seat is electric and the drivers manual, but never mind it's in and to be honest im sick of the sight of it at the moment as now the airbag light is flashing, ive messed around with the red connectors but still its flashing

must admit looks nice tho, especially with the car being black aswell


Kind of did'nt really know what to do with the electric control so glued it in the hole


Sod the puddle lights, they're now reflecters
Alot of work for an interior swap I must admit, there was me thinking it was easy as my last interior change to leather was a mk2 Mondeo and that was all plug and play
The rears, black seatbelts are next on the agenda, really could'nt be bothered to change the carpet, so its getting a deep clean

Thanks for all your advice chaps, really appreciate it

[Archangel]

Electrics definately aren't my forte

but with the seat ecu and wiring conversion kit off Ade on the coupe club, plus an extra 20 feet of cable, even I managed to convert my manual cloth over to electric leather.

Look at it this way, you've saved a bomb with the stuff you got for £50, so treat yourself and buy the conversion kit off Ade
His prices are dearer on ebay - obviously to cover listing fees etc, so contact him through the coupe club, and you usually get discount.

Sorry to slightly hijack this but had to mention Ade is the guy who also does the strut braces and all this info about the seats makes me determined to fit the Coupe seats I bought for £0.99 ! even if I have to strip and retrim because I now know it is possible to do .

thx guys

[Gary406]

roy. i changed my seatbelts to black

it cost me a total of £85 tho cos 1 of the bolts snapped that fixes the clip into place

worth it tho. still gotta fit front ones yet they are still grey.

good job by the way. i wouldnt do that with the seat. wouldnt know were to start

[Roylewaa]

Cheers Gary, It was my father in laws D9 I did the interior swap on, I was a little miffed with him as he sold the car 2 days after I faffed on doing the interior swap

That driverseat was a right pain, It took me 2 days all in to do the seat including welding the collapsed base, I'm more into stripping things rather than the electric side of things, and with it not being my car I wasint to concerned about the drivers seat being leccy, If it had of being my car I would of soldiered on and did them both electric