Question on seat installs

Has anyone ever installed seats from another car manufacturer?

I grew up with my VW GTI's plaid seats and I was dreaming of finding a way to install some in my '02 tacoma! I have the tools and know how to remove the seats from the GTI, but does anyone have any tips from experience for creating new mounting points for a different seat?

Width should work... I image that I'll need to drill and fabricate new points of attachment.

No airbag sensors to connect to, but I could see if I can wire the seatbelt connector to turn off the seatbelt light on the dash. (or mount the tacoma seatbelt receiver to the GTI seat)

Let me know if you have thoughts and a story if you've done something similar.

(this is my first post here at tacomaworld... previously I've been on vwvortex and golfmkv)

 

Welcome aboard

 

Yes you’d have to rig it up. I have not put different seats in. It wouldn’t match the interior, but could be more comfortable. Do you have pictures of the seats? And I’m sure you could disable the seatbelt light/beep

 

Mainly for the novelty of having GTI seats in my truck lol... I would eventually try to get the cloth on the door armrest to match the black cloth in the seat.
Photo attached

 

I installed 1999 camry power seats in my taco. None of the feet matched. I cut the feet off my stock tacoma seats and welded them to the camry, and I had to get creative with some plate for somewhere to weld the feet to. Really if you have enough time and welder you will figure it out. It was a PITA and took a while but the camry seats are 1000xs better than the stock taco seats and they were free.

The seat belt horn/ switch is the wire running into your seat. My 02 also was pre wired for power seats. I assume they all are.

 

Looks good. Height/size might be an issue with fitment or adjustments. Definitely take the old seat and put the new one in roughly before any drilling

 

grind away the feet welds off the tacoma, grind away the feet welds from the gli/gti, bolt the feet welds down, put the seats on top, align, mark it, weld it, sit on it, fart on it, fuck on it, piss on it, shit on it, sleep on it...etc...etc...

 

Pretty much this. You did forget curse at it alot and set the seat on fire a few times.

 

Thank you all for the tips! I'm hoping to get to this later this summer! (lol thanks @tony2018 )

 

Those GTI's you got are exactly what I was looking for. Searched for months for a cheap set to no avail, I ended up settling on some 90's Jetta seats. The install requires quite a bit of modifications (pics in my build thread) and I ended up not liking the tall bolsters for day to day driving. I put the Taco buckets back in but will swap back to the Jetta's when the truck becomes a dedicated offroad rig.

 

A much bigger step that I wish that I had taken when installing my BMW seats: After install, I realized that they made me "ride too tall in the saddle". I wish I had removed the double floor panel that is at the front of the seat rails. If that were removed, the seats could drop about an inch or more. You would then (probably) need to use some reinforcement plates for the bolts. Just food for thought.

 

So dope! I was having second thoughts about the taller bolsters as well... my truck also has a slight lift with not step rails.

Also a good point - fairly easy to remove the second floor panel? Thanks!

 

I would think it would not be that hard, diamond wheel, and a flap wheel. There is nothing in that cavity. High bolsters tend to floss you crack every time you get in.