captaingowa
New member
A while back I came across a site that made custom seat rails to match many popular aftermarket seats.
http://seatrailfactory.com/
This company was pretty slow in getting me my seat rails (almost 3 months from order to arrival), also There is no U.S. employees.. All employees are in Japan, so dealing with the time zone difference and their non-stop Japanese Holidays can be very annoying. They listed a US based phone number though no one ever answers it.. So email was the only form of contact.. and Finally the seat rails did not line up correctly with the OEM RECARO seats that I had.
However if you simply must have RECARO seats in your ST165 keep reading.
1. You are gonna want to place a order for the following seat rails PART #'s T065SR and T066SR
This is what you get..
2. Get yourself some RECARO seats from eBay, craigslist, your friends, or the dealer if you've got money like that.. I personally chose the RECARO seats from the EVO 8 because the color was a great match for my ST165's blue interior.. I picked mine up off eBay in excellent condition for great price.
3. Start removing the OEM seat rail sliders that came on OEM Racaro seats.
You will need the following:
--3/8" Drive 6mm Allen Socket (not key, because of how tight these bolts are), and a good ratchet.
--Flat Head Screw Driver.
--Some plyers, Adj. Wrench, or Vice Grips.
--4" Cutting Wheel / Grinder.
--Drill With some Drill Bits that can Drill through metal.
--Some Black Rustoleum.
--M8 Washers to use for spacers.
--M8 Bolts x 1.25 25MM.
--14mm Socket -- So that you remove your factory Toyota Seats.
--Remove The slider handle by pushing two C-clips.. one from either side of the handle..
--The Slider adjustment bar should be easy to remove once C clips are off.
--Once you have the slider bar off now get your ratchet and a 6mm Allen Socket..
*Note* Take your time these bolts.. Most likely you will nee
to get some new bolts afterwards.
--There are 4 Bolts, all 4 of these bolts have Loctite Blue thread locker. So these bolts will not just break loose.
*Note* If you need new Bolts because the Bolt head was stripped out like below.. The Bolts are M8 x 1.25 25MM.
--Next get your Plyers, vice grips, or adj wrench. Your gonna want to break off the brackets that the OEM Recaro Slider attached to.
--Now things start to get fun. If you attempt to line up your new seat rails to the OEM EVO 8 Seats you'll see that the outer side of a the seat has spacers welded to it.. yeah just one side, and it really does not make sense because it's the inside that has the seat belt buckle mount, but the outside has spacer.
Anyways this is where you get out your 4" or 4.5" Cutter / Grinder or if you prefer a Dremel tool so be it.. Though it's time to cut.
--Once you have cut off the OEM welded in spacers, continue using cutter/grinder to smooth out the rest of the seat bottom to include the remaining OEM brackets that were broken off earlier. Just be extremely careful not to cut up the seat cushion.
--Once you have everything smooth you would think that all would be good however I was hit by another surprise.. Two of the holes on each seat rail do not line up with the holes on the seat.. I could not figure out if this was a difference in the Mitsubishi to RECARO actual seat or rather an error on the side of the Fabrication from Seat Rail manufacture.. Either way I was not about to let this stop me.. Time to break out the Drill and some titanium drill bits..
--Oh yeah you'll want to coat the bottom of your seats with some Rustoleum, or some primer at the very least to prevent rust prior to mounting them on the new seat rails.
--There is a ton of grease on these aftermarket seat rails so be careful when handling.
--Now if the bottom of your RECARO seats are dry lets move on.. There is still allot of dry LOCTITE blue int the bolt threads in the seats, to clean these out just use a good bolt and spray it down with some Teflon lubricant.. Repeat this process frequently until the bolts thread easily.
--Hopefully your seat rails included the necessary washers in order to clear the seat belt buckle bracket.. You'll understand when you get your seat rails. Though if not you need some more. I ended up using 3 washers per bolt in order to raise the seat significantly enough to clear the belt buckle bracket.
--Once you have the seat rail all bolted up to your RECARO seats, you are ready to remove the the OEM Toyota seats.. You will need a 14mm socket to remove your factory seats.. Once they are removed you'll want to remove the seat belt buckle and bolt it to your seat. Also the driver side seat has all sorts of electronic
stuff inside so you can say goodbye to all the electronic lumbar adjustment. (Sorry no Pics)
--Here are some installed pics:
---You can see how the seat rail allows clearance of a OEM MK4 Supra Amp..
--Comparison
Overall impression==== These seats are very supportive compared to the one that were in the Celica.. However the the original seats were a whole lot more comfortable, kinda like a old couch.. You sit more upright in the RECARO seats. The seat rails are very difficult to adjust front to back, they are no where near as easy to use as the OEM sliders. Though the rails lined up to the holes in the chassis perfectly.
Enjoy..
http://seatrailfactory.com/
This company was pretty slow in getting me my seat rails (almost 3 months from order to arrival), also There is no U.S. employees.. All employees are in Japan, so dealing with the time zone difference and their non-stop Japanese Holidays can be very annoying. They listed a US based phone number though no one ever answers it.. So email was the only form of contact.. and Finally the seat rails did not line up correctly with the OEM RECARO seats that I had.
However if you simply must have RECARO seats in your ST165 keep reading.
1. You are gonna want to place a order for the following seat rails PART #'s T065SR and T066SR
This is what you get..
2. Get yourself some RECARO seats from eBay, craigslist, your friends, or the dealer if you've got money like that.. I personally chose the RECARO seats from the EVO 8 because the color was a great match for my ST165's blue interior.. I picked mine up off eBay in excellent condition for great price.
3. Start removing the OEM seat rail sliders that came on OEM Racaro seats.
You will need the following:
--3/8" Drive 6mm Allen Socket (not key, because of how tight these bolts are), and a good ratchet.
--Flat Head Screw Driver.
--Some plyers, Adj. Wrench, or Vice Grips.
--4" Cutting Wheel / Grinder.
--Drill With some Drill Bits that can Drill through metal.
--Some Black Rustoleum.
--M8 Washers to use for spacers.
--M8 Bolts x 1.25 25MM.
--14mm Socket -- So that you remove your factory Toyota Seats.
--Remove The slider handle by pushing two C-clips.. one from either side of the handle..
--The Slider adjustment bar should be easy to remove once C clips are off.
--Once you have the slider bar off now get your ratchet and a 6mm Allen Socket..
*Note* Take your time these bolts.. Most likely you will nee
--There are 4 Bolts, all 4 of these bolts have Loctite Blue thread locker. So these bolts will not just break loose.
*Note* If you need new Bolts because the Bolt head was stripped out like below.. The Bolts are M8 x 1.25 25MM.
--Next get your Plyers, vice grips, or adj wrench. Your gonna want to break off the brackets that the OEM Recaro Slider attached to.
--Now things start to get fun. If you attempt to line up your new seat rails to the OEM EVO 8 Seats you'll see that the outer side of a the seat has spacers welded to it.. yeah just one side, and it really does not make sense because it's the inside that has the seat belt buckle mount, but the outside has spacer.
Anyways this is where you get out your 4" or 4.5" Cutter / Grinder or if you prefer a Dremel tool so be it.. Though it's time to cut.
--Once you have cut off the OEM welded in spacers, continue using cutter/grinder to smooth out the rest of the seat bottom to include the remaining OEM brackets that were broken off earlier. Just be extremely careful not to cut up the seat cushion.
--Once you have everything smooth you would think that all would be good however I was hit by another surprise.. Two of the holes on each seat rail do not line up with the holes on the seat.. I could not figure out if this was a difference in the Mitsubishi to RECARO actual seat or rather an error on the side of the Fabrication from Seat Rail manufacture.. Either way I was not about to let this stop me.. Time to break out the Drill and some titanium drill bits..
--Oh yeah you'll want to coat the bottom of your seats with some Rustoleum, or some primer at the very least to prevent rust prior to mounting them on the new seat rails.
--There is a ton of grease on these aftermarket seat rails so be careful when handling.
--Now if the bottom of your RECARO seats are dry lets move on.. There is still allot of dry LOCTITE blue int the bolt threads in the seats, to clean these out just use a good bolt and spray it down with some Teflon lubricant.. Repeat this process frequently until the bolts thread easily.
--Hopefully your seat rails included the necessary washers in order to clear the seat belt buckle bracket.. You'll understand when you get your seat rails. Though if not you need some more. I ended up using 3 washers per bolt in order to raise the seat significantly enough to clear the belt buckle bracket.
--Once you have the seat rail all bolted up to your RECARO seats, you are ready to remove the the OEM Toyota seats.. You will need a 14mm socket to remove your factory seats.. Once they are removed you'll want to remove the seat belt buckle and bolt it to your seat. Also the driver side seat has all sorts of electronic
stuff inside so you can say goodbye to all the electronic lumbar adjustment. (Sorry no Pics)
--Here are some installed pics:
---You can see how the seat rail allows clearance of a OEM MK4 Supra Amp..
--Comparison
Overall impression==== These seats are very supportive compared to the one that were in the Celica.. However the the original seats were a whole lot more comfortable, kinda like a old couch.. You sit more upright in the RECARO seats. The seat rails are very difficult to adjust front to back, they are no where near as easy to use as the OEM sliders. Though the rails lined up to the holes in the chassis perfectly.
Enjoy..
thanks for sharing.