Making Recaro seats more comfortable

[Dave2013M3]

Ha Dave I actually traded stock seats for these and don’t regret it, feeling good about this mod idea but we’ll see.

I got to ask why did they switch out? I think Andrew from Lethal has a good idea. Have an upholstery shop disassemble and maybe adjust the bolstering.

Sponsored

 

[Mikepol2]

You could possibly bring them to a good upholstery guy and have them modify them to your liking. They are racing seats, they are not meant to be comfy. They are designed to keep you from moving by hugging you.

I got to ask why did they switch out? I think Andrew from Lethal has a good idea. Have an upholstery shop disassemble and maybe adjust the bolstering.

No upholstery shop needed - I have the driver's seat disassembled and have a plan for modifying the foam part of the bolster to make them a little less restrictive but still supportive. Will be posting enough pics and instructions to choke a horse if it works!

 

[Dave2013M3]

No upholstery shop needed - I have the driver's seat disassembled and have a plan for modifying the foam part of the bolster to make them a little less restrictive but still supportive. Will be posting enough pics and instructions to choke a horse if it works!

Can't wait to see it...

 

[Andrew@Lethal]

No upholstery shop needed - I have the driver's seat disassembled and have a plan for modifying the foam part of the bolster to make them a little less restrictive but still supportive. Will be posting enough pics and instructions to choke a horse if it works!

Awesome, please post some pics with the progress and finished product.

 

[P2]

The best, easiest and most cost effective way to make Recaro seats comfortable is to not get them in the first place. There.... problem solved.

 

[P2]

If you are re-engineering the seats to be more comfortable, doesn't that make them Not Recaro seats any longer? I would also speculate the amount of financial investment it takes to "re-engineer" those seats... It just seems to me that if you have to do all of the work to make them more comfortable doesn't it just make more sense (labor and financial) not to have them in the first place? Just sayin'....

 

[WildHorse]

If you are re-engineering the seats to be more comfortable, doesn't that make them Not Recaro seats any longer?

And you're removing the built in safety aspect of the seat. One size 'fits all' recaro seats doesn't exist unless your under 170 lbs with narrower shoulder widths. Seats charts are there for a reason.

 

[Dave2013M3]

Thats why I would never get them...if I have to disassemble and re-engineer a seat...why? Just don't get it. Mike however loves to tinker and I am grateful for it.

 

[Dave2013M3]

I’m an engineer and like to tinker with stuff. They say the easiest way to solve a problem is to tell an engineer it’s unsolvable...

“What? You can’t have comfortable Recaros? Hmm well let’s just see about that...”

Be gentle with the engineer jokes now, I know we get a bad rap.

One time I went to buy a new car for my wife and the salesman asked what I did for a living. When I told him he groaned but then quickly tried to hide it. When I asked why, he sighed and said “I never make any money selling to engineers but have to do twice as much work.”

Mike are you at all concerned about the functionality of the airbags upon modification?

 

[Mikepol2]

To all of you skeptics I would say please be patient, but I understand your thoughts. Too many posts above to add in here as a reply, but all I'm modifying is the side bolster foam to make it a little less firm. No mods to the seat structure itself, no safety concerns, not going anywhere near the air bag. When it's done it will be impossible to tell visually that any mods were made because the seat cover will retain the same original shape and will cover the mods. So far my total cost is zero, and depending on what I can find in the garage to use for a tool, should be zero when I'm done. I'm not sure how effective it will be but am taking crude before and after foam deflection measurements for objective evidence beyond "I think it feels better".

 

[Dave2013M3]

To all of you skeptics I would say please be patient, but I understand your thoughts. Too many posts above to add in here as a reply, but all I'm modifying is the side bolster foam to make it a little less firm. No mods to the seat structure itself, no safety concerns, not going anywhere near the air bag. When it's done it will be impossible to tell visually that any mods were made because the seat cover will retain the same original shape and will cover the mods. So far my total cost is zero, and depending on what I can find in the garage to use for a tool, should be zero when I'm done. I'm not sure how effective it will be but am taking crude before and after foam deflection measurements for objective evidence beyond "I think it feels better".

You need to drive here to S.Cali so I can test fit it...

 

[Mikepol2]

OK mods complete. Short summary: I cut a pattern of holes into the side bolster foam to maintain the shape of the bolster while reducing the amount of pressure put on the driver's ribs by the bolster foam. Can't take it for a test drive yet but initial reaction sitting it in the first time is that you can still feel the side bolsters touching you but with less clamping pressure. One of those mods where it's more comfortable, but how MUCH more would depend on each person's body type.

The step by step long story:

1) Remove the seat from the car. Pry up the four plastic covers that hide four Torx T50 screws and remove the screws. Unclip the airbag connector from underneath the seat. Remove the seat by reclining it all the way forward, telescoping the steering wheel all the way in, and tilting the top of the seat towards the center console to pull the seat track out of the car first.


2) Remove the seat recline handle by reaching behind the handle from the rear with a longer flat blade screwdriver, and releasing the C clip that holds the handle in place.

3) Remove the seat height adjustment plastic handle by reaching behind it and pressing in a black plastic tab to release it from the metal bracket that the handle slides over. I couldn’t see that this was how it was removed until it was too late, I used a soft mallet to gently tap the back of the handle to knock it off the metal bracket and broke the tab off.

4) Remove one T20 screw from the inside front of the plastic trim panel and one from the rear. The panel has one attachment spot in the front and one in the middle that mate with metal brackets in the chair base, and two plastic tabs between the two adjustment handles on the top. I used a soft mallet to gently tap upwards below the recline adjustment handle to release from the two tabs on top, then slid the cover forward and off the seat base.

5) There is also a small plastic cover on the inner console side of the seat. Remove one T20 screw so that the plastic cover can be slightly bent away from the seat to make it easier to remove the seat cover, there is a screw holding it in place from the inside that cannot be removed without removing the seat bottom.

6) Recline the seat all the way back to have better access to the edges of the seat cover.

7) Unhook the black plastic barbed tabs at the bottom of the back of the seat to begin removing the cover. There is a 3 inch long portion on each side that can be disengaged by sliding it out sideways. There are two vertical tabs running up the back of the seat cover that also have the same type of barbed connectors. I simply used a screwdriver and started at one end of the channel and twisted to open the channel, and the barb came right out. Finally, unhook the long center black barb along the bottom of the seat back, it joins the cloth part of the cover to the leather back.

8) Now from the front, reach between the seat back and bottom and gently bend the long horizontal black tab a little bit and pull the bottom of the seat cover out to the front. Pull the side edges of the cover up and out from the metal brackets on each side, and begin to gently peel the cover up and off. There is a long black barbed connector running up each side of the inside of the cover between the two side bolsters. It snaps into small orange plastic connectors molded into the foam. Do not pull hard, or the orange connectors will pull out of the foam. Use a small screwdriver to open the orange connectors so the barb comes out.

9) On the center console side of the seat, you can peel cover up far enough to expose the bolster. On the door side, the air bag strap is sewn into the seat cover so you can only peel it up about halfway, making that side harder to cut the holes but not impossible.

10) The bolster construction is a very substantial steel bracket on each side that is welded into the seat assembly, with foam covering the brackets. There is a cloth backing on the foam to protect it from the seat bracket. Looking in from the back it’s easy to see. These certainly could not be bent outwards to give more room in the seat, nor would you want to if for no other reason then it probably wouldn’t fit back in the car again. On the center console side of the seat, there is no airbag, it’s just foam on top of the metal bracket. However, on the door side of the seat, there is a black electrical airbag wire that runs inside the steel bolster bracket. The airbag itself is on the outside of the metal bracket. I pulled out two black plastic plugs that attach the wire to the seat frame and pulled the wire back to make sure I did not hit it with the cutting tool (not much chance of doing that based on where the holes went but was just being careful).

11) For a cutting tool, I used a piece of 1/2 inch NPS copper plumbing tubing about 7 inches long, it's .625 outer diameter and .575 inner diameter. I sharpened the end a little bit with a bench grinder. To make a cut, just push gently into the foam while twisting. I didn't like the first two holes, they kind of tore the foam while cutting, so I used fine grit sandpaper to smooth out the ground area. Then used a small rounded file to file the inside of the cutting edge, it tends to roll over and become dull after every one or two cuts, so you'll dress the cutting edge with the file every couple holes. The third hole cut much cleaner and the foam plug came right out all the way down to the cloth backing. Like anything else, there is a skill to making clean cuts. Make sure the end of the tool doesn't wobble back and forth. Don't push too hard, let the cutting edge do the work. It will cut the cloth backing, you'll learn the feel of when you're near the backing so you can stop. Then reach all the way to the bottom of the cut with needle nose pliers and pull out the plug.

12) Next I laid out locations for cutting the rest of the holes. There is a curved valley molded into the foam that follows the contour of the bolster, and just inside this area appears to be the stiffest, densest foam. I laid out the holes approximately 1.25 inches apart, then I eyeballed six more inside that radius, then one in the center. In the picture they are marked with white hole punch reinforcements to make it easy to see where I intended to cut. After getting everything laid out where I wanted the holes to be, I used a sharpie to color in the center of the stickers so I could pull them off before making the cuts, and started cutting the holes.

13) After cutting the holes I tested the deflection using a 20 lb dumbbell and compared it to the stock foam. Seemed like a little more would be better so I added four more holes.

Reassembly was easy except for getting the two vertical barbs on the inside of the seat cover to snap back into the orange clips in the foam. I wasn't able to get all of them back in but did get a couple in by putting my finger behind them from the back of the seat and pushing the barb in from the front.

So there you go. I'd say if you love the idea of the Recaros but can't stand driving with them because they crush your ribs, give this a shot before getting rid of them. If you disassemble and reassemble correctly, there's no way to tell that you modified the foam except by how the seat feels when you're done. Good luck guys!

 

[Mikepol2]

Update - took it for a short ride this evening and the modified seat feels great. Still keeps you planted in turns without feeling like the side bolsters are rocks.

 

[Hi-PO Stang]

Very interesting approach to making the Recaros comfortable . Very nice of you to share. I am 5 foot 10 inches and 160 pounds and the Recaros fit me perfectly. I must be representative of the model Ford used to design the Recaro seats.

 

[Mikepol2]

Very interesting approach to making the Recaros comfortable . Very nice of you to share. I am 5 foot 10 inches and 160 pounds and the Recaros fit me perfectly. I must be representative of the model Ford used to design the Recaro seats.

It seems like people between about 180 lbs and 220 lbs are the ones with the most trouble getting comfortable, just based on posts I’ve read here and in other threads... wonder why. Or maybe the sample size is too small to say that’s accurate.

Sponsored