Diy Installing New Seats

[allankt86]

Installing New Seats

DIY on installing replica SRIII Recaro Seats on Skyline 350GT Coupe (CPV35)

Tools Needed:

• 14mm socket wrench
• Flat heat screw driver
• Plier (Needle nose)
• Set of Allen Key (Optional)
• 0.5W or 1W 2R2 2.2 Ohm (NOT 2.2 k Ohm) Resistor (RED RED GOLD GOLD) to cancel the airbag light on dash (A pair can be bought from Jaycar for 45 cents)
• Wiring tape (Nitto tape)
• Scissors
• Cable ties (Optional)
• Hacksaw or metal cutting circular saw (Very very very optional)
• A few M10 x 1.25 (length depends on your seat rails) bolts and washers (Optional)
• A friend (Optional)
• Google (Optional)

Stock Seats Weight (Including Rails etc.):

• Drivers Side 26.75Kg
• Passenger Side 23.45Kg

Recaro Replica Seats Weight (Including Rails etc.):

• Drivers Side 18.30Kg
• Passenger Side 17.90Kg

1. Removing the stock seats (If you know what you are doing, it takes no more than 10 minutes):

1. Remove the rail/screw covers by pulling them up. The rail cover for the rear bolts needs to be pressed in the centre and then slide it out. Shaking it a bit might help remove them.

2. Use a 14mm socket and remove all 4 bolts.

3. Tilt the seat back to remove the harness under it.

4. Carefully remove the seat. For the driver side, moving up the steering wheel will give you more room to remove the seat. This can be done by yourself but having a friend will help. Folding the seat will also help removing it but luckily the coupe’s door is large so there will be no problem. The passenger seat is much easier to remove.

5. Remove the seat belt socket.

Good vacuum clean inside as you can reach places where you cannot when the seat is there. You may also find some money! I found around $3 in coins lol

2. Making SRS airbag canceller (do this before installing the new seats!)

When you unplug all the wiring harness for the stock seats, you will have the SRS airbag error light flashing on your dash board. This is because you unplugged the airbag sensor. You may need to do step no. 4 even if your new seats have airbags. If they don’t then follow the following instructions:

Resistor Package

1. Using a plier, bend both ends of the resistor so it becomes thicker
2. Insert (the side does not matter) it into the airbag wiring
3. Make sure it is firmly in place and touching the terminals inside of it

4. Run the airbag diagnostics/resetting. To reset the light simply turn the ignition to the on position, (you don’t need to start it). All the lights should stay on for their diagnostic check. As soon as the airbag light goes off, before it starts flashing, immediately turn the car off. Repeat this 3 or 4 times (turning to on then off) and the light should go away.

5. Wrap the resistor with wiring tape

6. You may want to organise the wires under the seats with some cable ties

3. Installing New Seats:

This will vary depending on what kind of seat and rails you get, but most of the part should be fairly similar. I got my seats from China (brought them with me as check-in luggage on the airplane lol). I had to dissemble the back part and seat part so I could pack it within accepted luggage size. The main problem that you may have is with the seat rails… The seller in China did not have the rails for the CPV35, so I got for the 350Z as the measurements are the same. However, I needed to do some modifications to use these rails. I had to cut the rails “cross bars” as there are a small “bump” on the floor on both sides. Took 4 hours to cut them using a hacksaw (wish I had a circular saw lol).

1. Flip the seats and install the seat brackets that move back and forth. You will need to press the place I circulated and move it back and forth to put the screws. For mine I used a 6mm Allen Key.

2. Install the seat rails (if you purchased one specifically for the CPV35, then you may not need modification).

3. Install the seat belt socket on the side of the seat rail. You may need a new bolt and washer to secure it in place.

4. Put the seat into position and tighten the bolts (stock bolts).

PS.: You will note that the driver side floor for the rails is not even. The left side is higher than the right. What I did was to buy a longer bolt and a few washers/bolt spacers to fill the gap on the right side as my rails were for the 350Z. The seat position ended up being a bit higher than stock ;( I bought a second hand seat rail for the CPV35 from Japan so hopefully it will be on a similar height as the stock. I am waiting my aunt to send it to me so this solution is temporary.

It took me quite me around 12-15 hours across 3 days to finish this project. If I do it now, with the correct direct bolt on parts, I think I can finish it in less than 3 hours.

I noticed that the quality of the seat is not as good as the stock, in terms of back strength. When I accelerate, I can feel my back tilting back a bit (like you can do in an office chair for eg) but lateral hold is quite good. The seating position is a bit too high too. But considering the price of them, I cannot complain at all! It was $100 per seat and $50 each rail. I had to buy another rail for the driver’s side from Japan but it was still around $85. I got 4 point racing seat belts too but could not install it (didn't bother trying too hard).

I consider this mod purely for looks rather than performance because the stock seats were not as heavy as I expected and the back support is only fair.

I hope this helps you if you would like to install new seats!

[bluenoir]

Great work man.

I've been having airbag lights too - and it's probably from my seat harness as the code indicates. For the resistor, say that will "close" the circuit in the driver's seat airbag - would that cause malfunction of other airbags? I don't really care about the driver's seat airbag anyway coz no one ever seats at the back.

If that works I will be heading off to car yards and look for a used v35 seat straight away!

[allankt86]

Thanks bluenoir!

Humm... I think the other airbags will work because the system kind of thinks the seat has airbags..

I did the resistor trick on both sides so I guess if you are only planning to do one side, then it will be no problem and the other seat's airbag, pass and drivers airbag will deploy without any problem.

Where can you find a wrecker with V35s? I've never seem a coupe around in VIC eastern suburbs.. saw only one sedan but the seats are pretty crappy haha

[Ben C34]

So you are taking out a seat with an airbag in it?

I imagine that would be illegal right? And it seems kinda silly to me.

[allankt86]

Ben, yes you are right. The new seats needs to have ADR certificate and an engineer needs to inspect it and give me a mod plate? certificate? or whatever they call it. But I'm still young and stupid :]

[mycarhasposessedme]

Great write up mate, appreciate your time doing it, but those seats look dodgy as shit.

Dammed if i'd let one of my kids ride in a car with those in it.

I guess your trying to achieve a racy look on a budget but this is potentially your life your playing with.

Even without considering the lack of an air bag, Id hate to think how they'd perform in an accident situation.

Damm straight they'd be illegal & friggin immoral.

Cheers.

[allankt86]

Hey Trevor

I know that haha in fact my car is back with stock seats at the moment (gf said stock are more confy lol).

But what I wanted to show is how to do it on our cars. Next time I go Japan I'll try find some decent real Recaros ;D

[bluenoir]

Thanks bluenoir!

Humm... I think the other airbags will work because the system kind of thinks the seat has airbags..

I did the resistor trick on both sides so I guess if you are only planning to do one side, then it will be no problem and the other seat's airbag, pass and drivers airbag will deploy without any problem.

Where can you find a wrecker with V35s? I've never seem a coupe around in VIC eastern suburbs.. saw only one sedan but the seats are pretty crappy haha

There are a few in Sydney but parts availability is always a luck thing. I often get lazy and ask JLM to source it for me coz they have contacts and won't rip me off on parts price.

Will check with the tech guys I know (may start looking at my own seats first) to see if this trick will work.

I agree with other guys too on buying Chinese knockoffs - for small things that may be a good idea but a seat is kinda crucial for your safety, especially when our cars are somehow fast.

[camr33]

I thought the seats would actually weigh a bit less than they did. Still look cool though!

[allankt86]

bluenoir - I see, yeah please let me know whether the trick will work. Thanks for the work of advice ;]

As per my previous post, my car has the stock seats back due to comfort issues with the bucket seat. I know you never know when accidents will happen but since it is so easy to change them over, it is nice to have them in once in a while.

camr33 - maybe because they are reclinable.. full buckets are much lighter, like 8-10Kg. That's of course genuine recaros or sparcos.

[Fayter]

I was wondering wat seat rails would fit some sparco r600 in my v35 coupe

[mxfly]

Bottom mount bride rails specific for a v35