Recaro A8 help?
10-21-2009, 09:15 PM
#31
Rennlist Member
Digging this thread out from the dead.
OK, a little background... I installed a set of Recaro A8 series 2s about 3 years ago. I am using Wedge engineering brackets and Recaro height adjustable sliders. When I installed them I decided not to cut off the inboard recline ***** because after I reupholstered them I couldn't stomach the thought of hacking them up. I also had an issue with the "height adjustability" of the sliders. Basically you can't adjust the rear height. There are three holes in which to bolt the sliders to the bracket. Unfortunately, the flange of the slider hits the floor, so you can only really mount it at the highest setting (the bottom hole). So basically when I was done installing, they were so high that when you pushed them forward to access the back seat the headrest hit the ceiling, and the inboard recline **** was resting against the center console (not good).
Flashing forward 3 years... I had today off of work and was hanging out at my buddy's shop and decided today was the day to cut down my height adjustable sliders, and cut off the inboard recline ***** on the seats. For reference, this is what the recline ***** look like (from my outboard side), notice the black plastic round center insert in the middle of the ****:
The whole job was really fairly easy, after removing the ***** (pop out the round center insert and pull off the *****) I just hacked off about 3/4" off of the recline mechanism bar on the inboard side of each seat. This left about 1/2" of the bar still exposed on the side of the seat. You can see a little of the bar is still exposed (I should also note that I made 3 cut outs in the open circle area of the plastic cover that I'll explain in a second):
This is how much of the bar I took off (the things that look like little black cylinders):
After I hacked off that little part of the bar, I decided to try to use the round center insert from the recline **** to cover the hole left from removing the ****.
You can see that there are 3 claws in the bottom of the round center insert. It almost fit in the hole left from removing the recline ****, but not quite. I had to make 3 small cutouts in the cover.
So, it ended up looking like this:
Now on to the sliders... The Recaro height adjustable sliders have 3 mounting holes, but you will only be able to use the highest at the rear unless you cut the flanges down on the inboard side. Although this is a picture of the slider mounted in its lowest position (upper-most mounting hole), I just wanted to illustrate what the 3 mounting holes looked like on an "uncut" slider. Previously I had been using the highest position (bottom mounting hole):
Here's the inboard side, which is the one that I cut. Notice that there is now only 1 mounting hole remaining. It's hard to see, but that mounting flange is basically sitting on the floor, too. Also check out the center console carnage. I guess that's my next project!
Hopefully this write-up will urge someone else to cut their inboard recline ***** and prevent further center console casualties like mine.
OK, a little background... I installed a set of Recaro A8 series 2s about 3 years ago. I am using Wedge engineering brackets and Recaro height adjustable sliders. When I installed them I decided not to cut off the inboard recline ***** because after I reupholstered them I couldn't stomach the thought of hacking them up. I also had an issue with the "height adjustability" of the sliders. Basically you can't adjust the rear height. There are three holes in which to bolt the sliders to the bracket. Unfortunately, the flange of the slider hits the floor, so you can only really mount it at the highest setting (the bottom hole). So basically when I was done installing, they were so high that when you pushed them forward to access the back seat the headrest hit the ceiling, and the inboard recline **** was resting against the center console (not good).
Flashing forward 3 years... I had today off of work and was hanging out at my buddy's shop and decided today was the day to cut down my height adjustable sliders, and cut off the inboard recline ***** on the seats. For reference, this is what the recline ***** look like (from my outboard side), notice the black plastic round center insert in the middle of the ****:
The whole job was really fairly easy, after removing the ***** (pop out the round center insert and pull off the *****) I just hacked off about 3/4" off of the recline mechanism bar on the inboard side of each seat. This left about 1/2" of the bar still exposed on the side of the seat. You can see a little of the bar is still exposed (I should also note that I made 3 cut outs in the open circle area of the plastic cover that I'll explain in a second):
This is how much of the bar I took off (the things that look like little black cylinders):
After I hacked off that little part of the bar, I decided to try to use the round center insert from the recline **** to cover the hole left from removing the ****.
You can see that there are 3 claws in the bottom of the round center insert. It almost fit in the hole left from removing the recline ****, but not quite. I had to make 3 small cutouts in the cover.
So, it ended up looking like this:
Now on to the sliders... The Recaro height adjustable sliders have 3 mounting holes, but you will only be able to use the highest at the rear unless you cut the flanges down on the inboard side. Although this is a picture of the slider mounted in its lowest position (upper-most mounting hole), I just wanted to illustrate what the 3 mounting holes looked like on an "uncut" slider. Previously I had been using the highest position (bottom mounting hole):
Here's the inboard side, which is the one that I cut. Notice that there is now only 1 mounting hole remaining. It's hard to see, but that mounting flange is basically sitting on the floor, too. Also check out the center console carnage. I guess that's my next project!
Hopefully this write-up will urge someone else to cut their inboard recline ***** and prevent further center console casualties like mine.
10-22-2009, 02:25 PM
#34
Rennlist Member
That being said, you should try the VW forums as I have seen them pop up there from time to time.
