Installing Recaro Sport Seats & tilt bases (‘73)

[mathfuzzy]

Hi gang,

I finally received a pair of replica Recaro sport seats and tilt bases from D’Eser yesterday (shipped 3rd week in March, customs delays due to tariff uncertainty, no tariff collected, in case you’re wondering).

It seems fairly straightforward, particularly since the seatbelt warning system was disabled in my car somewhere along the way. I’ve figured out that I won’t be re-using the seatbelt L bracket, as the belt and receiver both attach directly to the seat base. I looked here, searched the web, but not finding much by way of write up for what I’m planning to do over the weekend. I’ll take pictures and post whatever I learn.

Question to the group: is there anything I need to know before I remove the comfort seats and install the sport seats? Any, “oh, now that I’ve done it, I wish I would have known…” sorts of things?

Thanks!

[jim amato]

Subscribed! I received exact same from D'Eser in March and have not had a chance to install in a 67 912.

[dho]

Can’t help with the install, but I’ve been looking at those seats for my ‘71. JD and Jim, what is your experience so far? Please give us a review when you get them installed.

dho

[mathfuzzy]

Can’t help with the install, but I’ve been looking at those seats for my ‘71. JD and Jim, what is your experience so far? Please give us a review when you get them installed.

dho

Giulia, the owner, was great to work with. Shipped quicker than I expected and the seats are beautiful. Mine are leather with black / white / purple Pepita inserts. All in, delivered via FedEx, was south of $5,500.

I’ll take pictures and update this thread. I’m a bachelor this weekend, so fully expecting them to be in and have some driving time in them before Sunday is over.

[Richy]

You will need longer cheese head Allen socket bolts to mount the seat rails to the car , the sport seat rails are thicker . Porsche originally used grade 10.9 for these bolts , I believe available from Belmetric . Maybe the
after market seat rails are like the comfort sear rails .

[BOYER73S]

Hi gang,

I finally received a pair of replica Recaro sport seats and tilt bases from D’Eser yesterday (shipped 3rd week in March, customs delays due to tariff uncertainty, no tariff collected, in case you’re wondering).

It seems fairly straightforward, particularly since the seatbelt warning system was disabled in my car somewhere along the way. I’ve figured out that I won’t be re-using the seatbelt L bracket, as the belt and receiver both attach directly to the seat base. I looked here, searched the web, but not finding much by way of write up for what I’m planning to do over the weekend. I’ll take pictures and post whatever I learn.

Question to the group: is there anything I need to know before I remove the comfort seats and install the sport seats? Any, “oh, now that I’ve done it, I wish I would have known…” sorts of things?

Thanks!

I have always ordered with the 4 legs like original and installed on original tilts or the great replica bases from Joost in Holland, never bought their modern versions.

Looking on their site I think it will be a matter of installing the seat via the 4 legs out of the car (way easier this way), slide the seat back as far as it will go and lock in position, put a mat or carpet on your sill to avoid any damage, lift seats into approx position (you can see holes in the floor and the aside plate for seat screws, you should be able to attach 1 cheese head bolt on each side at the front, tighten, but not completely as you may need to be able to move seats from side to side to match up the rear holes. My assumption is they have 8 screws per seat so now slide the seat all the way forward and tilt seat all the way forward then you should be able to insert the back 4 screws and tighten them then slide seat back to the rear to insert the last 2 front bolts and tighten all 4 front bolts.

Attach seat belts then go driving LOL

[BOYER73S]

Can’t help with the install, but I’ve been looking at those seats for my ‘71. JD and Jim, what is your experience so far? Please give us a review when you get them installed.

dho

I love them installed on original or reproduction frames.

Brown ones in leather on reproduction frames from Joost
Black ones on original double lockers with original peanut headrests

I put recaro knobs on all the levers no one knows if they are real seats or d'eser seats.

[mathfuzzy]

Okay, done. If it weren’t for a seatbelt bolt that was stuck in the old L bracket, it would have been max a two hour job. That alone was three hours of grief, before I finally took a Dremel tool to the bracket and cut the bolt out. Always something, right?

In the end, it’s a very simple process. As Clyde mentioned, best to get the seat all setup with base attached outside of the car, and then “just” bolt down the sliders / base to the chassis. I forgot to insert the headrest both times, but easy to tilt the seat back so you have room to work.

Here’s the obligatory ‘before’ shot:





Steps:

Remove the seat back - it’s literally just two screws on either side that hold it onto the base, and getting it out of the way gives you more room to work when you unscrew the rails.



See those cheesehead bolts on the rail in the front - unscrew them, then move the seat up (if you sit on it, don’t forget there’s now no back…ask me why I’m telling you this) and unscrew the the bolts at the back of the seat rails. In my case, the base was now easy to just lift out of the car.

Now unbolt the seatbelt receiver and seatbelt. In my case, these were both attached to L brackets, and getting to the bolt (which was between the seat bottom and the L bracket in my car) is a PIA. I found that if I sat on the seat, it pulled the sides in, which made it easier to access the head of the bolt. Mine required a 19mm open end wrench. Your experience may vary.

Once you pull out the seat, this is what you should be looking at:




(Check it out, the driver’s side still has the wiring for the seatbelt warning system (USA ‘73))

There’s not much to do to install the seats to the tilting bases. It took me a few minutes of looking at both to realize that the bolts for attachment are in the attachment holes in the tilt bases. I know, duh, but it took me a while to figure out how the hell the seats attached to the bases.

You’ll find there are four posts at the bottom of the seat, each with 3 holes for height adjustment. I’m 6’3”, so mine are mounted on the top most hole. Once you’ve figured out that you need to take the bolts (13mm head) out of the holes, the rest is easy.

Turn the seat over
Insert the tilt base between the four seat posts
line up the holes
reinsert the bolts through the seat brackets and tighten.

That’s it, you’ve assembled the seat. A few things to remember, the seats and brackets are side specific. You want the adjustment knobs and bracket tilt release to be on the door side of the seat. Once you figure that out, it’s pretty obvious. One thing I learned on the first seat that made the second seat easier, was to thread the bolt at the tilt mechanism release first. It’s kind of a bugger to get to, and you can’t really get a socket on it, so it’s easier if you make aligning with the bracket threads flexible. I ended up having to tighten this one with an open end wrench, the other three were easy to get a socket on to tighten, although if you’re mounting to the top hole, the seat side fabric kinda gets in the way (so be patient).









Now line up the rails on the base with the holes in the chassis and insert either the cheese head bolts that you removed from the original seats or the black bolts that Giulia includes (if you’re installing the D’Eser repros). I found the back ones to be a little challenging, and easiest to access if you tilt the seats forward. I had to hold the seat up while threading the back bolts. This caused a little sweat and stamina. There’s probably a better way, but I managed and this worked. Remember not to tighten all the bolts until they’re all in and you’re happy with the way the seat slides.

I installed the seatbelt receiver before installing the seat. And installed the seatbelt after the seats were in the car. This worked well. I took a couple of trips to the hardware store for the bolts to attach the receiver and seatbelt to the seat. It’s not the same bolt as the 12mm that I removed from my car and the old bolts wouldn’t have worked because it was too short. I ended up figuring out that the right bolt is 10mm x 20mm, .125 pitch, NOT the 12mm .125 pitch that I removed. I’m not positive that these are the perfect bolts, but they worked.

And here’s the finished product:

[Tyrrell3]

They looking fantastic, well done on getting them fitted.

[dho]

Nice work, JD, they look great. Can you provide a review-how is the fit and comfort compared to the comfort seats, original sport seats and to other replicas, if you know? Perhaps Clyde and Jim can chime in with their opinions also.

Thank you for the photos and install comments!

dho