time consuming project

[Huw Powell]

> I was wondering if anyone has attempted a seat swap in an
> 80/90? 

Yes, but I was only parts of the project.  Sold an interior to Mark 
Vogt, from a power seat car, to put in a manual seat car.  Don't know if 
he did it or not.

> I have an 80Q that I'm driving with cloth manual
> seats, and a 90Q parts car with nice leather power seats
> (memory too), and I'd really like to swap them.  Issue #1 is
> the front mounting points. The power seats use bolt-through
> rails, while the manual one uses the central bracket which i
> think is welded to the floor.  I won't know how hard this
> will be to fix until I get the seats and carpet out of the
> way in the 80.

The two cars floor pans have two different bits of sheet metal welded to 
the floor pan, crossing the floor from sill to tunnel.  In manual, it 
holds the bracket for the center adjustment rail.  In power, it has the 
two welded in nuts on each side for the seat fron mounts.

Strip out the donor carpet, take many photos (make sure they came out 
well) then mark and cut out the sheet metal, with excess.  Bring those 
pieces with your car, carpet and seats out, to a good welder.  Or you 
might be able to bolt down those pieces, it's been a long time since I 
saw exactly what they look like.

The rear tracks are the same, at least.

The carpets are cut slightly differently, but it doesn't matter much 
(slits and holes for mounting bits)

> Problem #2 is wiring.  I'm not even sure how
> much I'll have to swap over from the 90, but it appears to
> be a LOT, as there's a bundle in the door for the memory
> buttons, and several connectors on the drivers seat. I've
> followed the drivers seat harness to underneath the dash,
> where it disappears behind all the other wiring. This looks
> like fun.  The passenger side I suspect is routed in a
> similar way, but much simpler, as all it should have is 12V,
> ground, and the heater wires.  Oh, and I assume there's a
> module hidden somewhere for the memory functions.

In order of complexity... the power function is *really* simple, just a 
heavy red (battery power) and brown (ground) wire.  The power seats are 
"always on."

Then there is the six wire seat heater connector.  If you had heated 
seats, this will be easy.  If you didn't, and they work (check first), 
you'll need to swap over the switches, the two relay like modules, and 
the harness.

The memory (which I consider fairly useless, and actually removed from 
my car) is all contained under the driver's seat, except for the four 
switches in the driver's door.  You'll also need to swap the switch 
panel to use this function, of course.

> Am I in
> for a collossal project, or is it maybe not all that bad?  

Not too awful, especially if you really want those seats.

I would recommend pulling the dash out of the donor car and stripping 
out harnesses.  The power seat memory harness should be discrete, not 
entangled with any other functions, the only hard part about installing 
it will be cramming it through the door jamb accordian.

The rear seats are a simple swap, as would be things like door panels if 
you want them to match as well.

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi

http://www.humanthoughts.org/