making stock passenger seat into driver seat?
Apr 30, 2006, 03:36 PM
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making stock passenger seat into driver seat?
Hey guys,
I bought a set of stock evo 8 seats off another board member about 8 months back. They were to put in my RS coupe, and they work great. The only problem is that since they're ment for a sedan, they don't allow easy access into the backseat.
So, after 8 months or so of use, I've decided that I might put my stock passenger seat back in. I fully intend to keep the Recaro seat for the driver, but I want to sell the passenger seat. I know not too many people want to buy jsut a passenger seat, but I had read somewhere that the recaro seats can be switched from driver to passenger side simply by removing the recliner knob and moving it to the other side of the seat. is this true? Anybody have any ideas on if this is possible and what it takes to do it? Thanks so much,
Adam
I bought a set of stock evo 8 seats off another board member about 8 months back. They were to put in my RS coupe, and they work great. The only problem is that since they're ment for a sedan, they don't allow easy access into the backseat.
So, after 8 months or so of use, I've decided that I might put my stock passenger seat back in. I fully intend to keep the Recaro seat for the driver, but I want to sell the passenger seat. I know not too many people want to buy jsut a passenger seat, but I had read somewhere that the recaro seats can be switched from driver to passenger side simply by removing the recliner knob and moving it to the other side of the seat. is this true? Anybody have any ideas on if this is possible and what it takes to do it? Thanks so much,
Adam
May 2, 2006, 09:11 AM
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I just recovered mine and the seat belt bracket is different and the mounting hardware too. You might be able to get that off and then the seats are the same.
May 2, 2006, 10:48 AM
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yeah, the brackets and sliders are removeable. but if the seats are the same, that's great. I'll just be sure that the bracket has belt buckle attachment on it. But you're saying that the seats themselves are interchangeable?
May 2, 2006, 03:57 PM
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Has anyone actually done this on their Evo? It would be perfect for me, considering my passenger seat is in much better condition. I bet alot of people would do it if possible.
May 2, 2006, 04:46 PM
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I was actually planning to do this (swap my driver and passenger seats) this summer. My EVO has 60K miles on it so I want to even out the wear on the seats. Not to mention whenever I sit in the passenger's seat (once or twice a year) it is noticably more snug. In a past life I was an engineer for seat mechanisms and from what I can tell the swap looks pretty basic to me. If I get ambitious I might do a "how-to".
As far as I can tell you would need to unbolt the seat and slides from the floor brackets using the visible socket head cap screws in the front and rear (they are silver in my car). I would probably do the fronts first then slide the seat forward to get the rears. Next I would look at how the seat belt warning light is connected then disconnect it. From there you should be able to remove the seat from the car. Do the same on the other side. When you get them on the bench/floor/kitchen table/whatever you'll be able to see if they are truely the same. On the inside of the seat back (towards the floor console) is a cap. I believe if you remove that cap there should be a retaining ring of some sort which holds the recliner cross bar and recliner knob in place. Normally if you remove that clip you can pull the cross bar and knob out in one piece then slide them back in from the opposite side (allowing adjustment on the correct side when you swap the seats in the car). If that's the case, do that to both seats. Next look at how the seat belts are attached. It appears that there is a unique bracket for the driver's side and passenger's side that the buckle attaches to. I can't tell if they are bolted on or riveted directly to the upper slide (if so, it gets a little more involved). If bolted, swap them from one seat to the other. If riveted, I won't be sure what's the best method to swap them until I actually take them apart myself. From there you should be able to reinstall the seats on the opposite sides of the the vehicle. Make sure to reconnect the seat belt warning light on the "new" driver's seat. When rebolting the slides to the floor brackets make sure the Left and Right slides did not get out of sync with each other (it will happen if you bump the towel bar in the front of the seat when the seats are out of the vehicle). Like I said, I plan to do this sometime this summer but for now I DO NOT gaurantee that the above is absolutley correct (it is just how I plan to attack it). If it works for you, do a "how-to" and we'll all thank you for it.
As far as I can tell you would need to unbolt the seat and slides from the floor brackets using the visible socket head cap screws in the front and rear (they are silver in my car). I would probably do the fronts first then slide the seat forward to get the rears. Next I would look at how the seat belt warning light is connected then disconnect it. From there you should be able to remove the seat from the car. Do the same on the other side. When you get them on the bench/floor/kitchen table/whatever you'll be able to see if they are truely the same. On the inside of the seat back (towards the floor console) is a cap. I believe if you remove that cap there should be a retaining ring of some sort which holds the recliner cross bar and recliner knob in place. Normally if you remove that clip you can pull the cross bar and knob out in one piece then slide them back in from the opposite side (allowing adjustment on the correct side when you swap the seats in the car). If that's the case, do that to both seats. Next look at how the seat belts are attached. It appears that there is a unique bracket for the driver's side and passenger's side that the buckle attaches to. I can't tell if they are bolted on or riveted directly to the upper slide (if so, it gets a little more involved). If bolted, swap them from one seat to the other. If riveted, I won't be sure what's the best method to swap them until I actually take them apart myself. From there you should be able to reinstall the seats on the opposite sides of the the vehicle. Make sure to reconnect the seat belt warning light on the "new" driver's seat. When rebolting the slides to the floor brackets make sure the Left and Right slides did not get out of sync with each other (it will happen if you bump the towel bar in the front of the seat when the seats are out of the vehicle). Like I said, I plan to do this sometime this summer but for now I DO NOT gaurantee that the above is absolutley correct (it is just how I plan to attack it). If it works for you, do a "how-to" and we'll all thank you for it.
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May 2, 2006, 06:12 PM
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okay, so i've already got the passenger seat out. Tomorrow I'll pull the driver's seat and see how much of this i can confirm. That is, provided it's not raining like a sieve tomorrow...
May 4, 2006, 10:59 AM
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okay, so it's the first day in a few that it hasn't been raining non-stop. I got the seats out of the car and into the living room to tear them apart. This will work, but it's a little more complicated than originally anticipated. Now, to elaborate:
Moving the adjustment knob to the other side is easy. You basically just pull real hard on it, and it slides off. then you pop the cover plate off the other side. You'll see a bar go through the seat, but it sticks out a couple of inches on the knob side, and is pretty much flush on the other side. This needs to slide through the seat so the knob can re attach to it on the other side. So hit it with a hammer, and bam! your knob is on the other side. Removing the brackets and resetting them on the other side is pretty simple and straight forward. You just get your socket set out and away you go.
Now, here's where it gets a little tricky.
On the inside of each seat, there's actually a place where the bolt for the seatbelt buckle attaches to the seat. Unfortunately, it's not on both sides of the seat, just one. So, if you want to get the full top and bottom of the seat swapped, driver side for passenger side, you'll have to do this:
1) remove both seats from car
2) remove the brackets and sliders from teh bottom of each seat
3) remove the adjustment knob and cover plate from each seat
4) with a set of vice grips, remove the bar that holds the seat back and the seat bottom together (this is the bar that the adjustment knob attaches to). Do this with both seats.
5) remove the seat back from both seats.
6) working wiht only the seat bottom, unscrew the plastic side plates from both sides of each seat and swap them to the other side, thus allowing you to position the buckles on the correct side of the seat.
7) do steps 5-1 in reverse, making sure that you put the brackets on the other seats, so that they mount into the car correctly.
If the seat bottom is in good shape, you could skip a lot of steps simply by swapping the seat backs. If you did this, you would pretty much only need to do steps 1, 3-4.
The other option, i guess is just to swap the brackets and the drill a new hole for the seatbelt buckle, though i don't imagine that'd look too good.
Moving the adjustment knob to the other side is easy. You basically just pull real hard on it, and it slides off. then you pop the cover plate off the other side. You'll see a bar go through the seat, but it sticks out a couple of inches on the knob side, and is pretty much flush on the other side. This needs to slide through the seat so the knob can re attach to it on the other side. So hit it with a hammer, and bam! your knob is on the other side. Removing the brackets and resetting them on the other side is pretty simple and straight forward. You just get your socket set out and away you go.
Now, here's where it gets a little tricky.
On the inside of each seat, there's actually a place where the bolt for the seatbelt buckle attaches to the seat. Unfortunately, it's not on both sides of the seat, just one. So, if you want to get the full top and bottom of the seat swapped, driver side for passenger side, you'll have to do this:
1) remove both seats from car
2) remove the brackets and sliders from teh bottom of each seat
3) remove the adjustment knob and cover plate from each seat
4) with a set of vice grips, remove the bar that holds the seat back and the seat bottom together (this is the bar that the adjustment knob attaches to). Do this with both seats.
5) remove the seat back from both seats.
6) working wiht only the seat bottom, unscrew the plastic side plates from both sides of each seat and swap them to the other side, thus allowing you to position the buckles on the correct side of the seat.
7) do steps 5-1 in reverse, making sure that you put the brackets on the other seats, so that they mount into the car correctly.
If the seat bottom is in good shape, you could skip a lot of steps simply by swapping the seat backs. If you did this, you would pretty much only need to do steps 1, 3-4.
The other option, i guess is just to swap the brackets and the drill a new hole for the seatbelt buckle, though i don't imagine that'd look too good.
May 4, 2006, 07:28 PM
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As I started poking my head under the seat a little more it looked like the slider mechanism would have to be dealt with also. Sounds like you didn't have too much trouble though. I might do this sooner than I had planned. Thanks for the tips.
May 4, 2006, 07:51 PM
#11
Originally Posted by steevo
Has anyone actually done this on their Evo? It would be perfect for me, considering my passenger seat is in much better condition. I bet alot of people would do it if possible.
Last edited by trinydex; May 4, 2006 at 07:55 PM.
May 6, 2006, 09:29 PM
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In my case the driver's seat has zero signs of visible wear. However you can definately feel the difference between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat. Otherwise I would agree, if it's got visible wear, cuts, etc. you might as well get a new one.
Originally Posted by trinydex
wouldn't you just want to wear out a newer seat again instead of going through the trouble of converting? cuz you'll still have one worn seat.
Nov 26, 2009, 12:33 AM
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not to bump a 2 yr old thread but anyone have pics of the passenger sliders? i bought a passenger seat for my oz rally and the slider on it looks to be a universal to me but i dont have anything to compare it to. any help would be appreciated.
josh
josh
Jun 14, 2010, 12:59 PM
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okay, so it's the first day in a few that it hasn't been raining non-stop. I got the seats out of the car and into the living room to tear them apart. This will work, but it's a little more complicated than originally anticipated. Now, to elaborate:
Moving the adjustment knob to the other side is easy. You basically just pull real hard on it, and it slides off. then you pop the cover plate off the other side. You'll see a bar go through the seat, but it sticks out a couple of inches on the knob side, and is pretty much flush on the other side. This needs to slide through the seat so the knob can re attach to it on the other side. So hit it with a hammer, and bam! your knob is on the other side. Removing the brackets and resetting them on the other side is pretty simple and straight forward. You just get your socket set out and away you go.
Now, here's where it gets a little tricky.
On the inside of each seat, there's actually a place where the bolt for the seatbelt buckle attaches to the seat. Unfortunately, it's not on both sides of the seat, just one. So, if you want to get the full top and bottom of the seat swapped, driver side for passenger side, you'll have to do this:
1) remove both seats from car
2) remove the brackets and sliders from teh bottom of each seat
3) remove the adjustment knob and cover plate from each seat
4) with a set of vice grips, remove the bar that holds the seat back and the seat bottom together (this is the bar that the adjustment knob attaches to). Do this with both seats.
5) remove the seat back from both seats.
6) working wiht only the seat bottom, unscrew the plastic side plates from both sides of each seat and swap them to the other side, thus allowing you to position the buckles on the correct side of the seat.
7) do steps 5-1 in reverse, making sure that you put the brackets on the other seats, so that they mount into the car correctly.
If the seat bottom is in good shape, you could skip a lot of steps simply by swapping the seat backs. If you did this, you would pretty much only need to do steps 1, 3-4.
The other option, i guess is just to swap the brackets and the drill a new hole for the seatbelt buckle, though i don't imagine that'd look too good.
Moving the adjustment knob to the other side is easy. You basically just pull real hard on it, and it slides off. then you pop the cover plate off the other side. You'll see a bar go through the seat, but it sticks out a couple of inches on the knob side, and is pretty much flush on the other side. This needs to slide through the seat so the knob can re attach to it on the other side. So hit it with a hammer, and bam! your knob is on the other side. Removing the brackets and resetting them on the other side is pretty simple and straight forward. You just get your socket set out and away you go.
Now, here's where it gets a little tricky.
On the inside of each seat, there's actually a place where the bolt for the seatbelt buckle attaches to the seat. Unfortunately, it's not on both sides of the seat, just one. So, if you want to get the full top and bottom of the seat swapped, driver side for passenger side, you'll have to do this:
1) remove both seats from car
2) remove the brackets and sliders from teh bottom of each seat
3) remove the adjustment knob and cover plate from each seat
4) with a set of vice grips, remove the bar that holds the seat back and the seat bottom together (this is the bar that the adjustment knob attaches to). Do this with both seats.
5) remove the seat back from both seats.
6) working wiht only the seat bottom, unscrew the plastic side plates from both sides of each seat and swap them to the other side, thus allowing you to position the buckles on the correct side of the seat.
7) do steps 5-1 in reverse, making sure that you put the brackets on the other seats, so that they mount into the car correctly.
If the seat bottom is in good shape, you could skip a lot of steps simply by swapping the seat backs. If you did this, you would pretty much only need to do steps 1, 3-4.
The other option, i guess is just to swap the brackets and the drill a new hole for the seatbelt buckle, though i don't imagine that'd look too good.
But after doing this, the sliders are still attached to the seat by four(?) bolts with a domed head and a hex insert (5 mm). These will not come undone. I found an hex bit attachment for my 125 ft-lb impact wrench and applied that to three of them. All it did was strip the hex inserts in the bolt.
Do I even need to take the sliders off the seat? Is the seat-buckle attachment bracket part of the same bracket as the one the sliders are attached to? Am I supposed to be moving the sliders to the other seat?
Can you please give more details, and show pictures? Thanks.
