[urq] RE : Seat heater element for urQ/Coupe

[QSHIPQ at aol.com]

I tried the swap in both the 83 and 85urq's I have available (hey it paid  in 
loose change under the seats!).  You can certainly put the pass seat in  the 
drivers rails, and get it locked in with the pin (L-A's question, no seat  
belt without some more work tho).   The key 'structure' part of the  seat, the 
fore aft lower seat backbones *are* interchangeable (read:   The lower "L" 
backbone slider faces to the left on both the PS and DS  seats). The adjuster rod 
lever can mount on either seat frame on either  side in any Urq.  All Urq's 
have predrilled screw holes for the front  hoop, and the rear mounting tab can be 
ground off and bolted to the other side,  btdt.  There is a locating dimple 
in the top of the rail in the back, and  the metal seat bucket and seat foam 
already has the identical clearance  notched out on both sides of both seats to 
change the adjuster location.
 
I looked for this on the urq seats several years ago because  the recaro seat 
frames for the 4k/urq/cgt have the identical  universal adjuster mount (read: 
you can put the adjuster lever on either  side with 4 screws).

For a permanent PS recliner function, the seat belt issue can be  resolved by 
indexing the rail tabs on the seat frame, and rewelding the brackets  to the 
uprights, btdt.   Took maybe a half hour to do the whole  job.  I have also 
done the front floor mounting bracket swap (~27USD)  for the 'other' side of the 
car (IOW, put the left front floor bracket into  the right front floor).  
This allows you to leave the adjuster on  the existing side of the seat frame.  
Both ways to skin that  cat take about the same amount of time IME.
 
Good call on the universal seat heaters.  I used some universal toyota  
application on the last type 44 install I did.  I still wince when others  in my 
house a 'full knee' on the leather tho....  Doh!
 
SJ
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 4/2/2007 12:46:19 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
seiche at shadetreesoftware.com writes:
FWIW, seat frames CANNOT be swapped from  side to side and be functional 
due to the center fore/aft adjuster and seat  belt latch bracket.  Also, 
while late CGT seat frames will fit on early  ur quattros, the center 
fore/aft adjuster lever position was swapped (lever  is on the inside of 
the center bracket), so you won't be able to use  it.  (The adjusters 
were moved back outside of the center bracket on  the RR ur quattros 
because of the humps for the twin cats, so if you are  lucky enough to 
find a set of seats, or bases from an RR car, they will go  right in an 
early ur quattro.) a Some people just pull the pin manually to  adjust 
the seat.  In my '82 I got a new set of center seat brackets and  welded 
them in to work with the '86 CGT seats that I have.
...

As  for heating elements, the (crappy) originals are NLA, but you can get 
sets  of new elements with controls on ebay for ~$175 or less shipped.  I  
bought a set of these from heaterseats.com for my wife's car a couple of  
years ago and the quality was excellent.  Installation wasn't bad  
either.  I will be putting a set of the elements from the same place in  
my seats as well.  What is nice about these modern elements is that the  
elements are not just one wire, but rather a lot of parallel elements so  
you will not lose the whole thing if there is a break in the wire.   This 
configuration also makes it possible to cut sections out of the element  
without affecting operation, which was necessary on the seats in my  
wife's car.

HTH!

Steve
 



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