front seat retro-fit?

[tommy rr]

Hi All,

Anyone one know how tough it is to install 88 S4 front seats into an 82? Or if its even possible?

Thanks!

[MPDano]

Did it in my 81 Euro. Rails will bolt up but are a little bit off, makes the movement tight, but doable. There is a power source under seat as well.

[tommy rr]

Awesome,

Thanks!

[Danglerb]

What is harder is going from later seat to earlier as the early seats have the seat belt on the tunnel and later have them on the seat base. Seat belt clip though may be a slightly different style or size, early car matching same age 944 as I recall.

[tommy rr]

Thanks!

[aluminum]

911 Seats also Bolt right in . I bought some Recaro Seats that where in a 911 with dual power motors and they work / Fit Perfect with no rail Changes ( used the 911 rails )

[Landseer]

They bolt in but the later seats don't mate with the early mounting rails, and vice versa.

You will see this during installation. The old seats settle onto the rails, the newer seats don't. This is not trivial. In front or rear impact the bolts are in stretch because as the seat slides realative to the mount the rails make it lift. But with the retrofit, the bolts are in sheer. Seatbelts are just an ornament in this case.

Just don't hit anything or be hit.

[Fixer]

Did not know this^

I bolted manual 930 seats right up to my '83S.
The holes aligned perfectly.
The 930 was a 1978 model.

[MPDano]

Neil put some Boxster Seats in his as well.

[77tony]

Installed 997 seats in the 94. T

[Danglerb]

Originally Posted by Landseer

They bolt in but the later seats don't mate with the early mounting rails, and vice versa.

You will see this during installation. The old seats settle onto the rails, the newer seats don't. This is not trivial. In front or rear impact the bolts are in stretch because as the seat slides realative to the mount the rails make it lift. But with the retrofit, the bolts are in sheer. Seatbelts are just an ornament in this case.

Just don't hit anything or be hit.

Need pictures as I am not understanding this well.

From memory I recall a rectangular welded in structure made of square tubing, could be just a cross piece in the front and rail pieces on each side with nothing in the rear, I don't recall the details. The square tube has holes in the top and a couple floating plates with threaded holes the bottom of seat rail is bolted to. The bolts clamp the two metal sections together, so no shearing until the force overcomes the friction between the metal pieces.

[Landseer]

The lower piece (car) has a profile.
The early seat has a matching profile.
One fits into the other. If you try to slide the seat for/aft without the bolts in place, the fitments cause the seat mount to rise upward relative to the car mount. That is by design.
Early seat kind of self-centers on early car, right over the bolt holes.

Late seat fits late car similarly.

Later and early don't match.

When you put a later seat on an early car, the seat doesn't self center and drop into place, it slides all around. You can stll bolt it down, no question. It fits in that respect.



I'll take some pictures later today.

[Landseer]

Pics will need to wait til Monday night, sorry. got onto another tangent.
I did confirm visually what I stated about the mismatch in the base profiles.
Early matches early, late matches late. Most choose to ignore this it seems.

[Landseer]

Pics will need to wait til Monday night, sorry. got onto another tangent.
I did confirm visually what I stated about the mismatch in the base profiles.
Early matches early, late matches late. Most choose to ignore this it seems.