Hi Tia, .... I see your asking about E24 seats – I have just joined the forum and I posted this information in answer to a similar question yesterday.
I have made the conversion using a full set of E24 Highline electric Recaro type seats into my CSi. There is a bit of work involved but the result is very worthwhile. It's the difference between sitting 'on' your CSi and sitting 'in' your CSi.
Rear seats just drop in, All you have to do is cut a small hole in the back of the plastic shell to accommodate the metal clips on the rear bulkhead. The back of the rear seats sit about 30 - 40mm taller but that looks fine. I also fitted the rear headrests - relatively straight forward. You have to bend the metal legs and make fixing brackets for the bulkhead. I also made two finishing trim panels for the rear shelf.
The front seats require more work. I wanted to save all the original parts so everything was removed very carefully so that all could be replaced if I ever decide to put back the original seats.
You start by removing the seats and carpets. There are two seat rail supporting brackets on either side - the one on the outside houses the rail ratchet lever and this complete assembly has to be removed. The rail support on the inside can stay. To remove the outer support you carefully drill out each spot weld (5mm bit) you will be able to remove the full bracket without damage. With this removed the seat will drop in and sit on top of a cross member. Ideally this should be removed also for the seat to sit properly down on the floor, but obviously it can’t – it’s a structural part of the chassis. You will use it however, to bolt the front of the new rails. You then need to make two new supports for the rear of the rails. I used two steel brackets bolted to the floor.
Because I didn’t remove the original inner rail the seat is slightly off centre and closer to the door. It’s not a problem and in fact it provides more space in the centre so that the seats can be reversed and the electric controls are easy to access. What I mean by reversing the seats is that the passenger seat can be used on the drivers side (usually the better of the pair in a set of second hand seats).
Next is to sort out the carpets. Because the carpet is in sections you could just replace the modified section under the seat but I decided to replace the whole carpet. You can use the original as a template but even so it’s a tricky job to manipulate the carpet into all the corners.
I also built an extension to the centre console housing the handbrake and the radio speakers.
There is a spare terminal on the fuse panel for accessories and I used it fro the seats – very simple wiring operation.
I’m new to this forum and I’m not sure if I can paste photos - but if you send me your email address I can send them to you.
All the best, .... Gearoid
