black plastic side rails on front seats

[skookumchuck]

anyone had problems with the black plastic side rails on the front seats of their commodore. mine's a vy and blowed if i can get the right ones to fit. has anyone fixed them without buying new ones every time ? i've spoken to a few people and they say they are always replacing them. must be a fault or weak plastic. seems silly just because a couple of screw lugs break you have to replace the whole side !

[dah_man_ben]

are you talking about the plastic skirting around the side of the seat where the electric button is?

[Oh_Your_Blind]

yeah i think thats what he means. Its the same with mine too, they catch when i move the seat forward and crimple

[dah_man_ben]

yeah mate, they are absolute pricks of things. snapped in my dads VT, VY and VE.

Snapped in my VY not long ago... easy to fix, but $44 from Holden for a whole new plastic part... pretty crap when its just plastic thats gonna snap again! Okay, so stuck with this predicament a couple of months ago I did some research on how to fix it, and a friendly bloke on here helped me out. ONly cost me bout 10 bucks in total!

Take a look at this,

Broken Seat

This will help you mate. It worked perfectly for me and the actual side of the seat is absolutely strong as and heaps more stable than before. I don't see it snapping any time soon.

Hope it helps,
Ben.

[VjamesY]

Yep, same probably as me, Its always been snapped off from previous owner.
Pain really, need to buy a few bits and peices for my vy that have broken and worn down anyways.

[Villan_au]

Yep, same probably as me, Its always been snapped off from previous owner.
Pain really, need to buy a few bits and peices for my vy that have broken and worn down anyways.

Yep mine was the same and all i did was just get a small peice of metal that was in a L shape drill a hole perside and fixed that to were it had snapped off now looks just a good as new one for no cost only time.

[skookumchuck]

thanks calaber and da man ben ! i'll give it a go.
cheers

[dah_man_ben]

no probs mate and make sure you use high strength araldite and let it cure for AT LEAST 24hrs otherwise all your concentrated work will be down the drain.

good luck mate let us know how you went. took me about 3 days all together cos I made sure it was completely glued properly.

[skookumchuck]

no probs mate and make sure you use high strength araldite and let it cure for AT LEAST 24hrs otherwise all your concentrated work will be down the drain.

good luck mate let us know how you went. took me about 3 days all together cos I made sure it was completely glued properly.

i will . i'm just looking at a couple of other possibilities. i'll let you know how i went. i love it when you work something out that's better than buying a part and it's works out better like you did with the gluing. a bit busy this week but i'm going to work on it.
cheers

[skookumchuck]

done it ! took the side rails off and thought about it for a bit. i explored putting glue in the hole etc. but i just made an L shaped piece of metal the same size as the plastic one that broke off at he end of it and drilled two holes - one to fix it to the seat and one to fix it onto the plastic rail. on the drivers side i had to bend it a bit to fit as there is a bit of molding near the hole i drilled. i just banged it with the end of a block splitter and got the slight V shape.
i found that if i tried to put it on with the L shaped bit of metal attach to the side rail it was too difficult to fix into the seat. so i took it off fixed it to the seat then fixed it to the side rail. believe me it's a lot easier that way!! I fitted everything back in place and put on the big wheel that adjusts the back and painted the silver screw black. It's not even noticable, and with a car seat cover, it covers it completely !

[Calaber]

Well, yeah, your way is easier, but seat covers are not an option with a leather interior, so I didn't want the screws showing under any circumstances. Horses for courses - both methods work and save the owners around $40. It just seems odd that such a simple repair doesn't occur to so many people and they replace the busted bits with expensive new ones instead of trying to fix them.

[dah_man_ben]

Seat covers shouldn't really be an option with side airbags either considering they come out of the seat... oi Paul did you get my email about the side strips I put on my car?

[Calaber]

Seat covers shouldn't really be an option with side airbags either considering they come out of the seat... oi Paul did you get my email about the side strips I put on my car?

Ben

Dead right about the air bags. some guys forget they have them. Yep, got the e-mail and forgot to respond. Check it now.