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Seat upgrade and arguably a corresponding downgrade
The foam on my driver's seat had sagged. The rest of the seat and the leather cover was in good condition. I had been doing a bit of research and was looking at buying a replacement foam pad. I think they are about $140 plus shipping from the UK. I hadn't been able to find any in Aust.
Then I started thinking that I had done a similar thing with an old BMW convertible I had. I bought a LHD parts car that had the leather seats I wanted. The drivers was a bit worn on the bolsters and base cushion, but the passenger side was in great condition. As it was LHD car, I ended up with the good condition passenger seat on the driver's side. There was a bit of mucking around with the folding mechanism, but I got it to work without having to recover the seats.
So back to the Disco. The foam on the outside was collapsing on the driver's side. But on the passenger side the seat was like new. From what I gathered from the previous owner, I don't think the passenger seat had had much use at all. So I initially thought about just swapping the seats over. But the floor mountings won't allow it as the seats mount to the tunnel on the inside. The sliding rails are riveted to the mounts, so there was no real way of doing that easily. Then I found this thread here.
This thread http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...hions-d2a.html lists out the steps to swap out a base cushion from another car. It sounded easy enough with the poster saying it took him an hour to swap them over. The other night, I thought I have an hour to spare, so thought I would have a go. Well 2 hours later...
I think perhaps it was easier, as he had a seat out of the car to remove the first cushion so you get a better idea of how the cushions are attached (or maybe it's just me). I spent an hour getting the passenger side cushion out while it was in the car, and ended up destroying some of the plastic strips that it mounts to the base with. It really was a PIA. So I managed to get the seat cushion out and then went to bed. After a bit more thought, I decided to remove the seats entirely and do it all off the car. Doing so was quite a bit easier and only takes about 10 mins to get a seat out (when you know what you are doing). Although getting the cushion off without destroying the plastic strips is still a challenge.
So, I will do the writeup with the seats removed, which is how I did most of it.
1 Remove the seat cowling/covers. There is a top cover held on by 2 screws. Bottom cover that comes off in one piece. It covers the side and front of the seat base. Held on by 2 screws on the side, one screw in the front on the tunnel, and on the back side there is a press in plastic clip.
2. Unbolt seatbelt and other electrical attachments. Pry off the plastic cover to reveal 17mm bolt.
Remove plugs from the base of the seat. I think they are just sensors to tell when the seat is occupied?? Although I drove around with one seat out and it unplugged and I got the red SRS light. You need to remove a couple of plastic bits that hold on the cable. Pointing nose pliers from behind will allow those to be pushed down. Unplug the yellow plug. Electric seats will probably be different.
3. remove the seat bolts.
For some unknown reason these are etorx or star nuts. Conspiracy to make us buy more tools, or to make you think do I really want to remove the seats?? Yes I did? I don't understand it. It is not like they are some special security nut, that requires you to go to the dealer to get your seat out. Or is it to stop you accidentally unbolting your seats?? But I digress?
I used a Fragram socket that is multipoint and covers all etorx and other normal nuts, a big middle finger to those special bolt designers. It was an 11mm. So I'm not exactly sure what the correct etorx size is.
There are 4 of them, 1 on each corner. 3 of them just screw straight into the body. Note that the rear outside bolt goes through the floor. You will need a 17mm socket on that from below. It was easier to undo it from below. Put this bolt aside, as it is slightly longer (otherwise you will put it in the tunnel side, and then have to remove it again when you cant get the nut to go on the shorter bolts)
4 Then fold the seat forward and pull it out. The rear inside leg will catch on the carpet, but just wiggle that out.
5 the seat legs are different lengths, so it makes it difficult to sit it on the bench. But you will manage. A towel or something else is a good idea as you will need to flip the seat around a bit and will have the base and back on the bench or floor at times. Wind the seat back as near flat as you can (this relaxes the seat back cover). The way I did it was to remove the rear of the cushion first. The bottom cushion cover, has the seat back covering it at the rear. So you need to remove that first.
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some pics of the underside of the seat.
The 2 little black tabs, will push off. They are a bit tricky as they have gripper teeth on the underside. Once they are off, push down on the long plastic strip. This will reveal another plastic strip which is the base cushion cover.
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6 First you need to remove the other 2 metal tabs. Note the pairs of tabs are slightly different. Thicker ones go on last. This plastic bit is a PIA to get off. Mine was brittle. You can see from the profile that it also hooks on from the underside too. Plus it has 3 little gripper teeth in the seat rail for that added degree of difficulty. I struggled with this. But the way I found to be the easiest. When looking from the front and above the seat, push the material down and then sort of roll the plastic strip under the seat at the same time. This seemed to release it.
7 push the seat fabric and the cushion parts forward and through the gap between the seat back and the cushion. It's a bit tight, but it will fit through.
I cant seem to get my photos to upload full sized sorry about that. I'll need to read the faq
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these are the additional gripper teeth that want to hold the plastic strip on.
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8 the side rails are the difficult part. They are made from a brittle plastic that has been sewn onto the fabric. As they have used a straight stitch it has just perforated the plastic so it will basically tear along that line very easily. Plus the profile of this strip makes it incredibly difficult to get it off. I destroyed them on mine. However, I noticed that it was already broken on the outside of my drivers side, and it didn't seem to make the seat move around. (I have a fix for this below)
side profile of the side plastic strips.
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some more pics of the plastic side pieces.
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Once you either manage to get them off, or simply break them like I did...this will now release the seat cushion so it is only the plastic strip at the front holding it on. I removed it the same way as the rear. Sort of rolled it forward and under to release the strip. Now your cushion will come away. Sorry no pic of that, but it looks the same as the rear.
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some pics of how the seat foam had collapsed. I was luck as my wasn't too bad and the actual leather was in good shape.
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10. I fixed the broken plastic side sections, by sewing on some 25mm webbing to each side. I then used a plastic side release buckle on one side. But then thought I could use a plastic tensioning strap for the other which I had from an old backpack. Basically I just used one of those adjuster straps you have on a backpack strap (from an old backpack I had cut up).
I have a walking foot industrial machine as I muck around making camping and other stuff for my bike. But, the sides of the seat are only vinyl, it is fairly soft and I don't think you would have too much trouble sewing it with a domestic sewing machine. So ask your wife/mum or have a crack yourself. Also you could get one of these speedy stitchers Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl (get the smaller needles though) and just sew it by hand. Or really you could just use a upholstery needle and some pliers to do it. But I like the speedy stitcher. It will be covered by the cover plates so no one will see your dodgy sewing.
There are people selling the 25mm webbing on ebay by the meter or I think spotlight sell it all too (they are just expensive). You will only need 1m though and two buckles. The side release buckles can be bought there too. Or you could probably cut up one or two old back packs and get all the materials you need from there for free. You can sew on the buckle to the strap first but only sew it on the side that will be on the tunnel (you wont be able to feed the buckle through the seat rails from the door side of the seat). I have a big roll of the webbing, so happy to post you a meter of it for a few bucks. Or swing past if you are in Perth.
some pics of the straps and how I attached them.
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11 with the new strap installed, it is time to reinstall. Largely the reverse.
Put on the front section first
Fold the cushion down and push through the material and foam under the seat back.
Reattach the rear plastic strip. Then push down on the cushion to make sure it is all sitting as it should be and the fabric is pulled through.
Reinstall the metal tabs.
Reinstall seat back plastic and metal tabs.
Tension the newly installed strap.
Put the seat back in the car (remembering which is the longer bolt)
some pics of the finished seat. It is like a new seat. I didn't realise how I was sitting off to one side. A lot more comfortable now. My wife hasn't noticed the difference on her side. It is actually not that bad on the passenger side, as you seem to sit closer to the console. Well that's how Im justifying it.
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Cost of mod:
($4.00) I found the coins when I removed the seat
Costs to date $632
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The other job I'm working on is installing the cargo barrier that came with the car. The previous owner had it given to him by one of his mates, when he sold his car. It came with everything except the fixings that are bolted up into the top of the car. Milford see to want an exorbitant amount of money for the fixing kit. So I'm looking at making my own.
This is what I got. It had been sitting in his shed for a few years and was rusted. all of the bolts were rusted in to the mounting plate.
I was only able to get two of the bolts to turn. The ones with the plastic heads were frozen and I didnt want to stick multigrips on them for fear of destroying the plastic.
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