I have been trolling for a pair of Recaro seats off and on for some time now and had basically giving up finding any until Rob did his Ergomed mod to Thundercat.

Rob had to use some of the parts for his mod and made no bones about the fact that the seats were now a DIY Recaro kit but I figured, what the heck, you can never have too many car parts in you garage, right?

I got them home and started doing research into what I would need to fill in the missing pieces. Turns out that most everything in the seats is the same between Recaro and Standard so I went looking for a pair of junkers.

The guys at the wrecking yard thought I was nuts. "You want a pair of seats but don't care what color they are or if the leather or padding is any good?" "Nope, the cheaper the better", I say.

I ended up with a Cashmere drivers seat and an Ivory passenger seat both is sort of ratty looking shape. This weekend I tore them down to scavenge for parts.

I imagine it's kind of like taking apart someones old couch, while your arms and inside the cushions and dust is flying around, you are best off not to think about what may have been spilled on it or what activities it may have been party to.

In the end, it was interesting to strip them down to their skeleton and there really isn't all that much to a seat once you take all the padding and leather bits off.

Standard Seats (Passenger Side)


Basically it's a tube frame with some cross mesh on the back for rigidity. There are two small wire loops to support the side bolster, which is probably why there are so many complaints about the lack of support in the standard seats.

On the upper left is the airbag module, and the upper right is the headrest control module. Headrest motor on the lower left of the seat back and tilt motor on the lower right. Lumbar balloon and pump is in the middle, and the notorious headrest mechanism at the top center.

The seat back mounts to the the lower track with rails to slide forward and back. This is a passenger seat so doesn't have the height adjustment, but the drivers side is the same basic layout, just with more motors and lead screws.

The seat bottom is really just a sheet metal pan that the foam pad sits on. The leather wraps around the pad and clips to the metal pan and that's really all that holds it together.

All around there is quite a bit of stuff packed into the space, which is probably why the XK seats weigh 6000lbs.


Recaro Seats (Driver Side)


This was rather enlightening, especially since I lusted after the Recaro seats for so long.

I'll start with the seat bottom: it's the same. Same base, same motors, same wiring, same sheet metal pan even. The only difference is the foam pad. Don't get me wrong, it looks way better and more supportive, but it's all foam and leather skins.

And the seat back: it's the same too... almost. It actually is the same frame with a few modifications. The headrest mechanism is gone and a fixed tube loop welded in it's place.

There is a much larger bolster frame welded in, which is where the extra support comes from, but you can still the vestigial mini-wings from the standard seat. And the bracketry for the head rest module is still there too.

My guess is that Jaguar shipped out a standard seat frame to Recaro for modification, rather than doing up a whole new design.

There are some differences. The lumbar mechanism is a mechanical device rather than an air bladder and there is a little sub wiring harness with two relays to run it. That is the only part I have found that is actually labeled as being from Recaro GmbH.

The padding is completely different too. The foam is in 3 pieces on the back rather than the single piece of the standard seats, two separate bolsters and a center section.

I thought I would share what the insides of our seats look like on the off chance anyone was interested.

I'll be getting these recovered in a black and tan theme to go with the rest of the car and will follow up with some pictures. Might be a few months though, it's too hot to be out in the garage to do very much this time of year.

I've also got a box full of seat parts if anyone needs something. Things like adjustment motors, headrest mechanism, a NED and SDZ headrest, etc.

 

I was hoping that was the case. By the way sorry I didn't invite you in to see the car, it actually wasn't at the house (it was still getting the new sills sorted and hadn't come back from the stereo shop yet) and I was short on time. Thanks for posting this, I'd always thought the seats didn't really look that different from the ones that were in my older XK8. By the way, the new seats are wonderful except for one thing, they have lighted buttons which means I need to rework the power to them (it is always on) otherwise I end up with a dead battery.