WM Caprice seats

[roadrunnermick]

Got a head scratcher I can't work out, daughter smashed her 2011 wm caprice and as I was looking at parts so sell off I noticed the airbag wires on the front seats both sides have Ve Ute marked on the barcode stickers, clearly marked.the seats are definitely WM caprice so I took the back magazine holders off and noticed the airbags have been messed with and not clipped in properly also, surely if the car was side impacted they would have deployed and also wrecked the seats?not sure what other reason the seats would have had Ve Ute airbags installed.clearly no damage to the seats as they are in excellent condition.but definitely grubby finger marks and evidence that the airbags have been swapped out.any ideas for thoughts on why someone would do that,all I can assume is they deployed but I don't have damaged seats.

 

[roadrunnermick]

I was thinking they had been re skinned after a airbag deployment but the factory sticker is still on the current skin under the magazine holder.

 

[ephect]

It's possible that the airbags are similar between models or years and the panelbeaters replaced them with what they could get.

 

[figjam]

Any indication that the original seat covers have been re-stitched ?
A good motor trimmer can re-stitch them using the original outer holes in the leather, but underneath can show where the re-stitching started and stopped.
If that is the case, a special thread has to be used so that it can come apart and deploy the airbag.