Ever wanted to fit winged back/bucket seats to the mk3 fiesta but only managed to find the SI or late mk3.5 seats,
and got them home to find that the mounting positions are all wrong?
Well this problem can be rectified by simply swapping the seat runners over.
Also in this guide I will show you how to swap over the rear seats,
door cards and carpet over to match the dark colour trim from the seats.
This guide is for both 3 door and 5 door models.
Tools Needed:
screwdrivers (Various)
Socket set
Torx Bits
Parts needed:
Si front seats
Si rear seats with hinge for middle if required
Si door cards and furniture
Black mk3 carpet.
Black Trims
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Si Seats
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Nice
Looks Nice
Applies to:
All MK3's With Horrid Seats
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First up we will begin by swapping the door cards over.
Front doors
Get in the car and remove all the door furniture including the interior handle and pull handle,
these are held in by screws underneath, place the screws in a safe place.
Remove the electric window switches if fitted and place to one side then remove the 3 screws
that hold the door pocket to the door, remove the pocket and place to the side.
Slide your hands under the edge of the door card and release all the poppers around the edge.
Pull up the door card and lift away, either keep it safe and sell it or throw it away.
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Get the SI door card and look at it and you will notice that on the lower spec cars the door handles are of a lozenge shape with two screw holes where as the si handles are dog leg shaped with 3 screw holes, so the door fixing positions will need to be altered.
You will need to get the little spring clip and the plastic threaded bung from the door and these will need to be put in the door.
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The threaded bung needs to be pushed into the hole in the door that is between the existing threaded bungs
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The spring clip needs to be pushed into the hole at the side of the interior l
atch pull handle this is what holds the top of the dog leg handle to the door.
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If you have electric window switches in the door and the si door cards came from a
car with manual winders, you will need to cut the door card from behind where the wires will protrude,
simply use a Sharpe knife to do this.
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Clip the door card onto the top of the door and gently push it down onto the spring clips.
Push the wires and plugs through the newly created holes in the door card and push the door
card to the door and listen for all the clicks as the card is secured.
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Fit the door handle to the new door card and screw it down in the 3 places
(2 under the dog leg part and 1 on the base) then push the trim over the grab part and push it home,
it will only fit one way. Feed the wires through the holes in the door pockets and
connect the switches back up to it and hook the pocket to the door card and screw
it home with the screws that you saved from your old door cards. Lastly fit a bung
in the winder hole if required (Available from ford for about 50p) if you have a
5 door car you need to fit the rear cards now.
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The Rear doors require the same attention to the fitting of the dog leg handles as the front.
You need to first remove the old door card; this is done by wrestling with the manual window winder
release clip! Use a screwdriver to prise the clip free and pull the winder off.
Unscrew the fixings under the lozenge door handle and the single screw that holds the interior handle to the door.
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The rear doors require 2 spring clips to hold the handle in place,
one in the middle of the door and one again like the front door at the side of the interior handle.
Simply cut the plastic sheet and push the clips into the holes provided.
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Fit the new door cards, handles and push the window winder back on.
Repeat this for all the doors and that's it for the doors, now to move onto the rear seats.
The rear seats now need to be removed from the car. These seats are horrid, not soft or anything.
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This is done by undoing the 3 screws on the front edge of the seat base.
Push the seat base backwards to release it from the hook. Feed the seatbelts through
the holes in the base and remove the base from the car.
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to remove the back seat back you need to unscrew the four or eight torx screws that hold the seat to the brackets.
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If you are fitting the split seat from the SI to a lower spec car you need to fit
the middle mountings. This is done by firstly removing the plastic bungs from
the mounting holes already in the car body. Then screw the middle mount down to the specific torque.
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While the back seats are out you may as well replace the plastic trims that run up
the side of the back seats from grey to black. Remove the screw from the rear
section next to large pin and remove the pushpin plug from the bottom section,
then pull up on the trim to remove it from the metal clips.
Screw the back seat cushions back onto the hinges then feed the seatbelts through
the holes in the base and hook the base onto the hook but do not screw the base
down unless you already have a black carpet in.
Now that's it for the rear seats, now to move onto the front seats……
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The front seats require a lot more work than simply swapping them over
as the sub frames are completely different.
First you need to remove your existing seats from the car using a 10mm socket.
Slide the seat completely back and undo the bolts inside the runners then slide
the seat forward and remove the bolts to the rear of the runners and withdraw the seats from the car.
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You now need to dismantle the old seats for the sub frame. This is done by tilting
the seat back and removing the two plastic screws under the cushion base.
This will then give you access to some nuts under the cushions and springs.
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Remove the nuts and withdraw the runners, keep them safe with the nuts and don't mix them up.
Repeat the above for the SI seats. Shown below is the si seat with the mk3.5 runners
and the mk3 runners side by side with the mk3.5 runners.
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The mk3 runners have a little nodule stuck to them which need to be removed as
it will obstruct them fitting flush with the SI seats.
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Push the mk3 runners onto the base of the SI seats and tighten them up nice and tight
then put the cushion base back on and secure that back on with the plastic screws.
Below is the seat with the mk3.5 runners (Left) and the mk3 runners (Right).
As you can see they were totally different.
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Repeat this for the other front seat and now decide whether or not you want to fit a black carpet into the car.
If you want the black carpet you will need to find a carpet from a mk3 as the
floor design changed from the mk3 to the mk3.5. All I can say here is good
luck in finding a decent mk3 black carpet as they are like gold dust!
I however managed to find one in mint condition at my local scrap yard for a very low price.
As far as I am aware there is no difference between the 3 and 5 door versions.
Start off by removing the side trims/kick panels from the car, this is done by removing
the number of plastic screws down the side, 2 metal screws to the rear of the car
under the back seat and the 2 metal screws near the front of the car. Pull the trim
free taking care not to snap any of the plugs that are behind the screw holes.
Next remove the centre console as described in the fitting of one in another guide on this site but in reverse.
Remove the seatbelt anchor point from the middle of the car, this bolt will be very very stiff so take care.
And the last thing to remove are the clips that secure the carpet at the front of the car under the dash and the pedals.
With all the above removed you can proceed to remove the carpet from the car to reveal the underlay/sound deadening.
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Refit the black carpet into the car and refit all of the above but don't forget to
change the centre console and side trims to the black ones
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With the carpet in you can now screw the back seats in along the edge, you may need
to drill new pilot holes as the mounts may be in different places.
Lastly fit the new front seats into the car taking care not to over tighten the mounting bolts.
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There you have it, a guide to changing almost the interior over to the black trimmed SI style Wing backed seats. As you can see they look a lot better than the old ones.
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Hope this guide is some help,
thanks for reading it all
Guide Written and © On 12 June 2006 by Andrew Whiteman (AW3K)
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