S2000 Seats - Big Old Wires?

[bbjon]

Hi all - I'm looking for a bit of advice about fitting the seats I just got hold of. Short story follows - feel free to skip to the smilie for the question!!!

I popped my elan into storage last November whilst I moved house and am getting it back again soon Yay!!
Like anyone missing their car would, I spent those long months knobbing around on ebay buying little "present's" for when it came home.

So there's lots of little bits and pieces of switches and buttons and a set of Jamie's most excellent door seals all sitting waiting to go on in the garage.
I have to say I love my Elan but unfortunately I really, really hate the interior - it's this one:

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=25227

It may be to some peoples taste, but not mine! I know some of you have retro fitted S2000 seats and they look pretty good so on one of my late night ebay trawls I bought a pair
They were only £125 and are blue but that doesn't matter as I'm going to refurb and recolour them anyway.


After looking at my lovely new seats - having a bit of a sit on them and giving them a little clean - I noticed three whacking great wires coming from each. One goes to the seatbelt clip so I know what that's for but I don't know about the other two? I guess my worry is that they might be for some sort of airbag and I'm not that keen on being exploded! Can anyone whose already put a set of these in let me know if the cables of doom are normal?

cheers

Jon

[par]

I dont think any of the S2000's had seat airbags, mine was a 52 plate and certainly didnt have them, I also have S2000 seat fitted to my Elan but are currently removed so will check this evening which wires they may have.

Retrofitting heated seats was quite popular on S2000's so may be what the extra wires are for.

[Elanlover]

Possibly seat belt related but those would run up to....wait for it...a seat belt of course. The other possibility is a weight sensor that tells the car when a person is in the seat (instead of a package) so the airbags know when to trigger in an accident. Are they on both seats?

[dapinky]

Mine didn't have any wires (except the seat belt ones).....

..... but they do now that I've added seat heating pads. (I would expect them to be for heating, but you never know....)

AFAIK there were never any airbags in the seats - but if there are, it will have it written on the seat structure, either as an embossed 'Airbag' logo, or a fabric tag attached to the seam stitching in the relevant location.

[par]

Just checked my S2000 seats and they only have the wire for the seatbelt clip.

Worth exploring further where they go to as you may have the added bonus of heated seats

[bbjon]

Thanks for getting back to me - yep the seats are now stripped back and they do indeed have heater pads. So I'll worry about wiring them later -

First job is to repair the collapsed foam on the drivers side - then prep the leither for re-colouring...

[dapinky]

Here you go - have a look at how i rebuilt the collapsed bolster on mine when i got them......

http://wikilec.com/view/S2000_seat_repair_%26_heaters

[bbjon]

Thanks for the link - putting the fillet of new foam in is a brilliant idea - I've only ever built them up from the outside previously. I'm going to be doing a full colour change from Blue to a Maroon colour and can do a project thread if anyone would be interested in the process?

[dapinky]

I did mine with stuff from furniture clinic.

The kit wasn't quite enough, though, and I ended up buying some more dye and finisher (I went for the semi-matt) - but i did do both seats (including the back), both door cards, centre console/armrest.

If it is just for a pair of seats, then it will probably be enough (unless you cock it up like i did and needed to re-do one seat face as it wasn't dry when I left it and the central cushion stuck to the bolster - needing to redo half of the seat ).

I tried to do some of it with the provided airbrush (but ran it from my compressor), but then just used my small touch-up spraygun as it was far easier to cover larger areas. The biggest pain was ensuring it was properly dry before adding the next coat - I did mine in the garage in Winter, and needed to use a hot air gun to make it quicker. I developed a system where i could spray with one hand, whilst directing hot air with the other to avoid runs in the 'paint'. Although I didn't change the colour, some of the old leather was very worn, and I have no problem with assuming that their claims of total colour change is easily possible with 3 coats of colour... I did three anyway, just because I had it. And an extra couple of coats of sealer just in case {which is probably why I needed to buy more}.

[bbjon]

I haven't used the furniture clinic kits before - it looks quite comprehensive. I've tended to either go to gliptone or vinylkote - depending on material. I used Gliptone dye/paint on my old Excel and Vinylkote paint got used on the family plus 2 (vinylkote also do a paint which can be used on velour which is pretty cool).
For the application I definitely agree a spray gun is the way to go - I tend to use a cheap hvlp mini gun although airbrushes are perfect for localised repairs and getting into the difficult folds.
I've never done an actual complete change of colour before so I'm looking forward to seeing how well it comes out I think I'll start with a complete colour wash by hand with thinned dye to try and get a good 'base' colour and go from there.
I'll let you know how I get on (odds on I end up with sort of mottled bluey / purple bruise coloured seats but it will be fun anyway!)

[bbjon]

So - quick update,

The wires were for heater pads - but they were should we say 'inexpertly' fitted so I've removed them.

I can confirm that the furniture clinic medium kit contains sufficient 'stuff' to turn blue seats red.

One big 'gotcha' was with the vinyl panels in the Honda 'Leather' seats - if you're doing a full change you need to buy some of the 'cross linker' and 'adhesive promoter' (basically a nasty two part glue to try and help the water based dye get a key on the vinyl.

[dapinky]

One big 'gotcha' was with the vinyl panels in the Honda 'Leather' seats - if you're doing a full change you need to buy some of the 'cross linker' and 'adhesive promoter' (basically a nasty two part glue to try and help the water based dye get a key on the vinyl.

Oops, yep - I forgot to mention that the rear panels are vinyl, and the coulourant sticks better once it's been treated

Technically, if the surface is unbroken, it can be just cleaned with the supplied liquid, but for better adhesion, a surface prep is better.

I already had an aerosol on the shelf of adhesion promoter for when I have sprayed plastic bumpers, so it just had a quick burst of that (it can be bought from any car body supplier)

[bbjon]

The vinyl sections were a pain - I ended up painting all of them separately and then doing the rest of the leather before sealing the whole lot.
I'm slightly paranoid about how well they'll stand up to use - I guess time will tell.

Fitting them next - dapinky - I found your post on using aluminium plate which I think I'll copy - I got my car home yesterday So I'm going to pop them in tomorrow.

Having said that my runners don't look the same as pictures other people have posted the rear mount that's further back isn't a 'loop' style mount like the other three it's a box section so a bit of fettling might be required!

runner.jpg

[bbjon]

And - to bring this thread along to a conclusion - here are a few pics - now they are in.

Now I just need to do the red carpet and the interior is finished

[texas2201]

seats look fantastic