Fitting A1 / A2 seats into your Fox by the brit

6 minute read

Fitting A1 / A2 seats into your Fox 

Compliments of the brit @ http://forums.vwvortex.com

9-30-2003

UPDATED 9-17-07 for photos. They might be slightly different, but they'll work.

Here's one for the FAQs  

Case in point - one very sad pair of original fox seats. Sure, they match your back seats, door cards, and they don't clash with the body point, but come on, admit it - they suck.

Removal

Get a 10mm socket and look under the seat - there's a small bolt going through the foremost hole in the central runner. Remove it, and put it aside.

You have to remove a small piece of the trim behind each seat - it's on the door side, and has a single phillips head screw on. Put them aside you can refit them later, or throw them away and save the 0.0001lbs.

Now sit in the seat as you would normally while driving, reach under the seat and grab the handle for adjusting the front-back position of the seat - and push the seat backwards using your legs. You can do this from outside the car with your hands, but it can be tough to move so just sit on it and be prepared to fall over backwards when the central seat runner comes out of it's bracket.

The seat is now flopping around in the middle of the car and can be removed.

Making the new seat fit

Turn both your old fox seat and your new seat upside down next to each other. Look at the two metal pieces that slide onto the runners in the car. You should see that the A1/A2 seats are about 0.75" wider than the fox ones, but are an identical design. You're aiming to get the new seats to fit into the same runners so you're going to have to 'modify' them. 

The above photo shows the difference in distance that you have to correct. You can choose to hit both sides in, or just pick on one side. I chose to do just one side, as the side that didn't have the seatbelt mount wanted to bend truer than the other side. 

The piece that is running vertically in the above photo is that part you have to bend. (having a picture of your old car in the background increases modification skills by 35%). Now, when you hit it, don't hit the piece that slides into the runner, as it will just fold and won't fit into the runner anymore - aim to get the whole supporting leg to angle in slightly from further up - this means you won't damage it structuraly either...   You could be a pro and bend the metal by apply an even pressure to it rather than a trusty hammer.. you decide.. (but the hammer works fine!).

Refitting

Okay, you've bent it and test fitted it by dropping the seat in and eyeballing the width. Before you fit the new seats make sure they have the plastic clips on the runners as seen below :

This is the VW designers way of stopping their seats from rocking around as you drive. You'd be surprised how many people don't fit these  

Okay, slide the sliders (and their plastic clips) in the runners and slide the seat forwards - if the seat it pointing straight forwards it'll slide, you normally have to wiggle it to get it to move. When the center runner gets to the bracket, slide it in until it hits the spring loaded pin. Pull the pin out so the runner can proceed, but make sure to place the adjusting handle into it's location on the pin at the same time. You can only fit it into the pin at the same time as you are sliding the runner through the bracket. If you don't the handle won't release the pin to allow the front/back positioning.

NOTE: On the pin in my fox, i had to bend the piece on the pin slightly to allow the A1/A2 seat's adjusting handle to slide into it. I suspect this wasn't a VW pin, so you shouldn't have a problem, but if you do, just bend the latching piece out to accept the handle.

Now, refit the little bolt in the front hole in the central runner, put the piece of trim in behind the seat, and sit down to admire your work 

This is what you should now do with your crappy Fox seats: