VT/VX RetroFit Guide for: VN/VP/VR/VS

[azkwazere]

VT/VX Seat RetroFit Guide for: VN/VP/VR/VS

PICS WILL BE UP LATER TONIGHT(WEDNESDAY---I HAVE TO WORK )

RETRO-FIT VT / VX Seats into:

VN - VP - VR - VS ​

The following guide gives instructions on retro fitting VT/VX seats into VN, VP, VR, VS model commodores.

Note: Some statemans and other models like utilities may also find use for these instructions

Degree Of Difficulty: HARD (with some parts at intermediate)

DISCLAMER:

*******

The following guide contains instructions which are provided by a non authorised member. The following instructions are illegal modifications to your vechicle, they should not be attempted by anyone as the void all warranty's, make the vechicle un-roadworthy and disrupt the highly engineered mounting points for general seat locations. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO, UNDER ADVICE FROM THIS DOCUMENT, RETROFIT VX or VT MODEL SEATS INTO YOUR CAR. The author takes no responsibility for any repercussions from the modification. By reading past the following stars, you are bound by this exclusion clause.

*******

ok, now thats over with! Lets retrofit!

Well start at the back and work our way forwards!​

 

[azkwazere]

STAGE 1:

-Rear Seat-​

PART 1:

Upper Portion (Where your back goes)​

VN Owners Note:

If you own a VN commodore, the rear portion of the seat is actually in 1 long piece! where as the VT/VX section is 3 separate pieces! Oh crap! yes, you've got an issue. You will have to drill some holes and bolt down the centre section. Ill cover this abit later however, if you don't want to drill holes, i wouldn't read on as it'll have to happened eventually.

Remove the back seat from your car. This is accomplished by the following:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Place your hand to the rear of the seat (lower bench) and push it into the space between the lower and upper sections, where your seat belt lockers come out.

2) Pull the bench up slightly

3) You'll notice that the bench will come up about 45DEG and then feel like it will not hinge any further

4) Grab either side of the seat and slide it towards the front of the car

5) It should pop out of its hinges one at a time, there are 2, one left one right. You will have to change side of the car to fully remove it.

6) If it doesn't come, try pushing the bench down at the front while pushing forwards.

7) Once removed, place it out of the way somewhere.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Back Rest:​

VN Owners: Please ignore steps relating to removing boot access portion as you don't have one.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Below each seat (Passenger + Driver Rear) there is a bolt, i believe it to be 10mm, it will need to be removed using a socket wrench.

2) Once the bolts have been removed, and stored away safely, Lower the centre section(boot access seat).

3) Grab the left and right side of the seat, either passenger or driver side, and slide it towards the roof. It will come, just be firm.

4) Repeat with the other section

5) You should now only have the rear centre seat still attached to your car... if you have more... go back and do all this again.

6) Return the centre seat to its upright position and undo all four bolts holding the seat in, store them away and remove the seat from the car, store it with the other portions

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You should have now removed the rear seat completely, well done! As i don't support the consumption of alchohol, please enjoy a wonderful, refreshing fruit juice, yummy

Lets fit some shiney new seats into your car hey?[/FONT]

 

[azkwazere]

Method ONE: Cut and Bend​

The VT/VX rear seat portion, uses a similar yet slightly different mounting system found in your car.

To FIT:​

1) You'll need to cut some of the foam from around the mounting hook using a sharp knife or razor blade.

2) Then, position it where it should go and see where the hook and catch are.

3) The hook may need to be slightly bend in order to meet the catch.

4) Once it is aligned, it will slide down onto the catch in a similar way you removed the the original section

5) Repeat this procedure on the other side

 

[azkwazere]

METHOD 2: New Mount System​

I did my second one a little different. RELY ON PICTURES TO EXPLAIN A LOT OF WHAT I CANT IN WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!

1) Measure the distance of the support wires on the rear of the seat portion (VT/VX)

2) Using a an angle grinder, cut a length of steel (3mm Flat) 20mm longer than your distance measured.

3) Mark on the steel, 10mm each end in

4) Using an anvil, and bash hammer, bend the steel up at either end using the 10mm mark as your bend radius point.

5) It should resemble a skateboard shape with the 10mm ends at a angle of about 90DEG

6) In the centre of the steel(between the 2 support wires), you will need to drill a hole to fit a very long bolt through.

7) Drill the whole using an appropriate drill and bit to match your bolt that you will use.

8) Slide the bolt through the whole so it points towards the bends you just made

9) Tack weld the bolt to the 3mm steel strap

10) Position the strap you've just fashioned under the support wires on the seat so that the bolt points away form the seat.

11) The bolt will pass through a whole which exists in the rear of the car.

12) Once the bolt is through, it may require force to get seat to fit snug, pack the bolt using an appropriate washer(the whole in car is quite big) and then secure using a large wing nut fitting

13) Repeat procedure on other side.

Diagrams will explain a lot of this, sorry its so complicated, it works REALLY well!

 

[azkwazere]

- CENTRE SEAT -​

VN Owners: This is where youll have to place the seat in between the the two rear portios and mark the holes using a texta or some description.

- Then, using a drill, make pilot holes for al four screws.

- You can then use large self tapping 10mm bolts to hold the seat in place.

- For evey one else, just bolt the seat in using the bolts from the old centre seat, get it aligned and tighten them up!

 

[azkwazere]

- Lower Seat Bench -​

This again has to differnt methods, they are both quite effetive, one is alot quicker and easier than the other, i will explain both!

Method 1: Re-Trim​

As time went by, holden ditched the flor catch idea for seat securing and went ot a seat catch concept. This catch consists of 2 Lage black clips located under the VT/VX seat (see pics).

Curently, you have no practical use for that clip... Or the wire for that matter as its not gonna help at all, so, lets remove it.

1) The wire base frame is held on using clinch clips all the way round the seat base, you will need to remove all the clips to free the wire base.

2) This will also need ot be done on your original seat, as we need the wire frame from that.

3) You should now have to completly useless seat baseses and two wires frames, yay!

4) Position the seat frame wire(from you car) on the VT/VX seat base, ensure you have it the right way!

5) Clip the new frame to the new base using clinch clips similarot the ones you remeoved from the seats just before.

6) Assuming youve done it right, which you should have, it will reinstall the same way you old seat did.

7) Positoion the seat so that the wires run through the floor catch, Press down firmly over the catch points, the seat will drop into position.

 

[azkwazere]

Method 2: Smash, Bend and Fit​

As time went by, holden ditched the flor catch idea for seat securing and went ot a seat catch concept. This catch consists of 2 Lage black clips located under the VT/VX seat (see pics).

You are going to utalise these clips! They wont just drop onto the catches unfortantually, but they can be modified to!

1) Using a hammer or large screwdriver, remove the black clip casing from wire base. Dont be gentle as there useless afterwards anyway, just dont ruin the seat!

2) You should be looking at 2 wire loops.

3) We are going to bend these loops to form new catches to position onto the catches on the floor.

4) Position yourslef so you are upright, the seat is on its side with the base facing you, and the back of the seat facing away from you.

5) Using a LARGE, i mean big, screw driver, slide it through the loop so that it is running east west to the seat.

6) Turn the screwdriver clockwise so that the clip starts to bend, stop when the clip has rotated 90DEG.

7) The clip on the seat should now be running (the hole) east/west insted of north/south.

8) This is where it gets a little tricky, Lay the seat down as it would normally be in the car, Using a torch, try to identify where the clips need ot be to get them to meet the catches.

9) Remeber here that the seat is differnet to the old one so it may have to sit further back.

10) Bend the hooks accordingly to make it fit.

This is trial and error thing until it fits to meet your car, each side will be difernet. Just keep at it until the seat fits to meet your needs.

Well, no matter what methods you chose, your back seat should be fitted nicely, well done. Lets take some time appreciate our work, enjoy another fruit juice then tackle those front seats!!

 

[azkwazere]

- FRONT SEATS -​

Ok, the front seats are alot harder, they dont just drop in.

When the VT was build, the floor design changed heaps, a new wheel base ment new seating arrangements, which means the mounintg points on the VT seats are totally different.

There is 2 ways, maybe more, to accomplish the retro-fit, ill tackle 1 in great detail and ill touch on the other.

Lets get your old seats out first,

- REMOVE ORIGNIAL SEATS -​

1) Its really easy, slide your seat all the way forward using the slide bar under the seat.

2) Grab your set of allen keys and start undoing the 2 bolts on each rail.

3) Depending on if the seats have been removed, the installer may have put locktitght on them, so they may be a little stiff. Leftly loosy Righty Tighty!

4) Once those two are done, slide the seat all the way back.

5) Youll now notice another 2 bolts, remove these 2 aswell.

6) You should now have a seat undone laying against your bck seat and a handful of 2 short, 2 long allen key style bolts. good stuff. Put them aside and remove the seat, be careful not to damage the interior, once the seat is out, do want you want with it.. maybe not burning it as there may be asbestose in it as VN's could be dodgy hahah. lol.

7) Repeat this exaclty on the other side, you should nowhave no front seats!

 

[azkwazere]

RETRO-FITTING-



Method 1: Custom Rails (The Detailed One)​

Basically, the seats need somehting that will conect them from the VT mounts to the current mounts you have.

If you have a look, the current rails are equally flat mount points, Holdena ctually made a riser on the oter sides to make it flat!

The VT/VX ones look like /---------| (well kinda) youll see on your seat.

So, we are going to make a bracket which will look kinda like this: /________

1) OK, useing 5mm X 30mm(20mm'll do) Flat steel strapping, youll need to cut a length around 1meter long, youll actually need 4.

2) The next part is hard. We need to asertian where the bend needs to be! Measure out the Distance on the VT/VX seat rail where it angles off. It will be about 50mm. (The original VT/Vx mounting hole area).

3) Measure out that distance on one end of the steel and allow 10-15mm Bend radius buffer.

4) Using a score, mark the bend point.

5) Place the steel strap into a LARGE steel vice with the prospective bend at the top.

6) Grab and OXY Blow torch and begin to heat the area around the bend point.

7) Once its hot (red isnt nessary, itll be easier but itlll take foreever, 5mins of constant heat should be sufficeint) lower the strap in the vice (dont use your hands!) and only allow the 50mm or so end to show, ie, close the vice on the line of the bend.

8) Grab a large shifter, close it over the end of the steel and bend it forwards.

9) Youll need a bend which is about 70DEGs on itsself.

10) Were trying to make somehting that will fit onto the VT/VX seat bend, an adaptor plate essentially.

11) It will make the VT/VX rail flat, see the atatched images.

12) Once cool, compare it to the rails and see if it is bend enough, if not, bend more or less to suite.

13) Next up we have to make mounting holes for the VT/VX seat to bolt to!

14) Align the new rail to the current rail and mark the mouting holes onto the steel.

15) Drill the holes using a drill bit which ill alow for a bolt to pass through it.

16) Using a bolt and washer combo, secure the rail to the VT/VX seat

17) This last step is explained will in the pictures!

18) You should have at this stage, a VT/Vx seat, with one rail attached to a steet strap, if oyu lay it on te ground, it should sit fairly upright.

19) Go off and make another one for the other rail repaeting the above steps.

20) Now we need to make more holes...

21) With the straping still attached to either rail, take the seat out to your car.

22) Lay it on the origianl mount points.

23) Move the seat to the full front position,ie, as far as it will go forward.

24) Position the seat so that it is at the closest position it will ever need to be to the steeringwheel. This is very importnat to get right. As its at its fulmost front position, it can only go back from here. So, make sure its aligned correctly!

25) Mark the floor mounting points against the new rails.

26) Remove the rails form the VT/VX seat and drill the new holes according to the original mouniting bolts.

27) Take the rails and the original moutning bolts to the car and affix the rails to the floor.

28) Then, Take the seat to the car and affix the seat to the rails.

29) This is where it all goes to ****, somethig will be wrong and youll need to make changes. Trail and error.

30) Once done, repeat on the other side.

 

[azkwazere]

METHOD 2: Swapping Rails.​

There also exsists another way, however, youll loose all fancy electrics that come with the newer seats.

You need to take rails off the VN/VP/VR/VS seat and attach them to the VT/VX seat.

I havnt tackled this way before, i know its a bit fiddly as you have to retrim the base abit.

member 1991_vn2nv has done it this way, he MAY be able to answer your questions, i merly included this as a alternative to my rail way. Airstrike, site admin has also finished his seats in a similar manner.