That shouldn't take too long... WRONG!

[Rusty]

Fitted a new seat base to my leather driver's seat on Sunday afternoon. Though it might take 1 to 1.5 hours max with a few cups of tea etc.

Over 3 hours later I was still fighting with it. It went wrong when I had to destroy the original base to get the leather cover off as it was attached by the most annoying fixing method known to man. The whole base is held down with 20+ clips that all have to be bent to fit... putting them back on was a complete knightmare. Here is a blow by blow account of me putting it back together:



(drink, as it was hot and sunny)



(break to swear loudly and throw tools around the garage)



(Internal cheers to celebrate finishing. Plasters applied to multiple cuts.)

All done now and much improved , so prob. worth the effort.

Moral of the story:- Get it done by someone else and pay for it, unlike me!

[mcandmar]

You didnt read my heated seat install guide did you

[coupegt]

hm, i did it to mine a year ago, took aroudn 90 minuts, the metal clips holding the seat cover to the foam base is not that hard to get off, a pair of pliers and a flat screwdriver is what i use.

I do however not reuse the old clips when re assembling, i use plastic cable binders and they work great.

Nice you got it done anyway :-)

[Rusty]

You didnt read my heated seat install guide did you

No I didn't... link?

@ CoupeGT

I did think about using cable ties but didn't think that they'd be as long lasting as the clips. Would have made life a LOT easier though.

[coupegt]

Yep, the zip ties are alot easier to fastnen.

Have used it in 5 or 6 cars now, the first i made more than 7 years ago, and not one has broken yet, so i believe it´s pretty reliable.

If i should end up replacing a few in some years i would prefer it compared to have to re use the metal clips

Also, another advantage is that you can adjust the pull from the tie, and thus how much you pull down the seat cover.

Probably not good for much with the original covers, but I´ve been doing alot of custom leather interiors, and here it´s worth a fortune because it´s very hard to make the leather replica exactly like the original fabric, so small adjustmest during fitting makes it fit better

I do believe however, that you can get a speciel tool for the metal clips, like the one they use on the factore, which makes it alot easier to remove and fit.

[mark_s2]

Hi,

New to the forum and only just recently purchased an S2 avant however been into tuned audi's and vw's for ages.

Thought it might be worth mentioning for anybody attempting to replace seats covers in the future Frost in the UK sell hog ring pliers and I believe new rings. Takes all the pain out of trying to push the old ones back together again!

Mark