Seat Rehab/Cushion Swap/Heater Add

[s8ilver]

Snagged (stole?) a spare pair of Z3 Coupe seats on Monday, and had an idea to swap passenger cushions to my driver's side. So far, the lower seat cushion has been a cake walk (once you remove the cover the foam just lifts out). Snip 6 hog rings and the cover comes right off. Easy peasy. I'll replace the hog rings with steel zip ties on reassembly.

First challenge is the backrest cushion: I think I'll have to leave the foam in situ and just swap the covers, as I don't really want to mess with the backrest frame. The foam is really nice, and I'll steam it to plump it fully. I could disconnect the two recline cables, but I think there are a couple roll pins that would have to come out to swap the whole thing over. I also have no idea if the actual frames are the same between driver and passenger side. I'm assuming they are, but just swapping the leather seems to make the most sense here for my needs. Leather is worn but not torn, so could be refinished, but the passenger seat is perfect so why not just swap covers?

Other challenge is that the new seats don't have heaters, but I'm planning to use the heating pads that Kelvin found for his retrofit. My current driver's seat is either semi-comfy or scorched Earth, so a fresh pair of elements makes sense. I won't touch my current passenger's seat, as it's so rarely used. I'll transfer my connector ends to the new pads to keep everything plug and play as factory.

"New" seats are from a 2000 2.8, so I will have that leather loop on the top of my driver's seat. Oh well, I'll be different. Maybe I'll get motivated and swap L&R backrest skins as well.

Shop had some pretty interesting metal; I want to return just to look around. Goofiest part of the Coupe is that it's an 11/99 build, so I thought it would have the single connectors under the seats. Nope, it had individual plugs just like my '99.

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So simple without heating wires. Pretensioners were questionable, so I took them off and just plan to swap mine over.

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The shop: Turbo M50 build underway and some cool Nissans.

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