Adapting recaro seats for an e30

[goosiegander]

Given the hens teeth rarity of genuine recaros for the e30 i am wondering how difficult it is to adapt ford or vw seats to the e30...

Is there a way to mount them onto the e30 frame for the tilt/slide/height adjustment?

I assume this has been asked before no joy with the search function...

Any advice appreciated!

Brgds Chris

[Bally]

hi same question anyone done this...

[stonesie]

And another wondering


I saw a set of high back recaros out of an astra GT/E go for £20 on that auction site the other week

[nickso]

just cut and shut them onto the e30 subframes. these are mine but not converted by me, bought them already in the car. looking at the way it was done it looks easy enough though.

[DanThe]

Are those vaux or rover seats nickso?
Dont look too bad

[nickso]

rover 800 i believe but ive never seen one with them in. the only thing they dont have which i would have liked is the adjustable leg extension. drivers one has adjustable lumbar though which is good for my back.

probably for sale soonish as i wont need them in the track car when the cage and buckets go in.

[A1BMW325iSport]

look like rover seats to me, edit: yea mostly like are 800 ones

i have as new set of m3 interior (recaro fronts, 2 seater rear bench)

[DanThe]

I had a set of rover recaros in an E30 I bought about 6 years ago, the pattern looks similar but I cant remember exactly

[stonesie]

Thats the rover pattern alright.

[e30_singh]

Looks fantasticly stock but with a sporty look, I like it

[xavier]

Anyone know what other cars came fitted with similar seats? I have heard that some Hondas did. Obviously the old rs2000 did, but they v. hard to come by.

[StuBeeDoo]

I did this with Sapphire Cosworth Recaros. Sorry I haven't any pictures of work in progress.
The Ford-spec seats have a welded-on frame extension and this has to be removed. Once that's done, you need to weld captive nuts or bolts into the base frame. Then you need to fabricate adaptors to fit the bases to the E30 runners (or get lucky like me and find some pukka Recaro ones). The bolster covers will have to be cut and re-stiched to suit.

You can fit Escort RSTurdo seats on the Ford runners but you need to fabricate new seat belt mounts, and if you or your passengers are over 5'8" your head will be wedged against the roof.

johnl320 had Rover Recaros in his project E30 and IIRC they were on the original runners. These may be the simplest to fit, but I'm not certain.

[Bally]

Thanks . will get the runners off old bm seat and recaro and have a look.

[320ise]

i wanted to do the same with my e30 a year or so ago but never got round to it, i still have the black sierra saph cossi seats in my spare room! there very rare seats out of a police saph! some plod has chased porches in them lol, they are for sale too if anyone is interested! not after silly money for em either.

[Rickbmw1984]

im happy that i bought my e30 with a near mint set of recaros with the leg extensions!

[StuBeeDoo]

very rare seats out of a police saph!

A pair of these popped-up on eBay just after I passed the point-of-no-return with mine.
TBH, I would have preferred them.

[nickso]

Looks fantasticly stock but with a sporty look, I like it

you might not have said that if you saw how the back seats didnt match at all.

[e30_singh]

you might not have said that if you saw how the back seats didnt match at all.

If that was my car, and the back seats did not match at all. I would remove the back seats and strip the whole rear end. So its only furnished for the front and rear is bare.

[StuBeeDoo]

Looks fantasticly stock but with a sporty look, I like it

you might not have said that if you saw how the back seats didnt match at all.

If that was my car, and the back seats did not match at all. I would remove the back seats and strip the whole rear end. So its only furnished for the front and rear is bare.

..... And if it was my car, I'd have had the rear seats re-trimmed to match the fronts.

[nickso]

Looks fantasticly stock but with a sporty look, I like it

you might not have said that if you saw how the back seats didnt match at all.

If that was my car, and the back seats did not match at all. I would remove the back seats and strip the whole rear end. So its only furnished for the front and rear is bare.

..... And if it was my car, I'd have had the rear seats re-trimmed to match the fronts.

i did consider it but the price was going to be too much to justify and it really didnt bother me that much.