ask aboothman, he put the leathers in his '06 WRX TR and he had to do quite a bit of modding.

 

Ya, this thread is full of misinformation already.

Mods/parts required:

- Seats
- The blue seats above are Evo VIII, and possibly earlier seats. The all leather are from the Evo VIII and IX, with the SSL package.
- For parts replacement, the seat is the Recaro Sport Sportline. Go through Speedware Motorsports for replacement parts. They are great to work with, cheap, and knowledgeable.

- Seat bracket (to attach to stock Evo Recaro slider).
- I used the Speedware bracket for the Sparcos, but it works for the Recaro since they have the same bolt pattern. Only issue is, the seat adjustment bar hits the front of the bracket, so the seat will not stay in place without being raised about 3/4". OR, you can get the Recaro flat slider. Ross at Speedware knows exactly what is needed, since I worked with him on a couple different solutions.

Otherwise, call Wedge Engineering in SoCal. They have a bracket with no modification required for bolt in, but it requires some cutting to lower the seats from their highest setting. In my opinion, the Speedware bracket is more secure IF you can get the attachment points raised without using a spacer.

- Grade 8 or better hardware
- 3k ohm resistor for airbag plugs.
- If your stock seats have side airbags you MUST do this, or your ENTIRE AIRBAG SYSTEM WILL BE NOT BE ACTIVE!!! Our cars turn off the airbag system once the system determines that one part of the system is missing or not working properly, including the passenger airbag light on the clock pod.

- Swap the passenger side seat occupancy bladder from your stock seat to the Recaro. Not too hard, just takes a little while to get it out of the stock seat.

- Remove the seat position sensors from stock seats, and put them in the proper place on Recaro. This sensor tells the airbag system how hard to deploy the airbag, so it is pretty important that you mount it on the Recaro. You can fab up a bracket, or use zip ties.

You can get the Blue Recaros for around $600 a pair on average. The SSL (leather) can be found from $800 to $1200 for a set. Add in $200-$400 for mounting hardware.

In my opinion, there is not a better seat for a daily driver. Granted I am about 6' and 170-180, so I have a JDM *** Bigger folks are not so comfortable in them I have found out. These Recaro have less padding, so you will probably lose the STI "bobblehead" effect, especially with aftermarket suspension. They are not horrible on long trips either, but I am a bad judge since I am used to long periods of time in harsh conditions, so I kinda ignore discomfort sometimes

This is the seat that the WRX and STI should have come with from the factory. If you have the cash, and actually want to rock a Bride or similar fixed bucket on a daily driver be my guest. If you want a best bang for the buck seat, this is it!!

Finally, go search NASIOC and IWSTI for EVO Recaro threads. I know there is 1 or 2 on NASIOC, and one really good one on IWSTI.

 

OLD interior shots.

 

Forgot to mention a couple things:

To fit the aftermarket Recaro slider (NOT bracket), you will need to go at your seat with a dremel or grinder to remove some of the mounting tabs for the stock slider, seat position sensor, etc.

I recommend keeping the stock slider, and get a bracket to match.

Also, try NorcalEvo or EvolutionM.net for seat deals. I actually saw a couple good deals on NorCalEvo in the last couple weeks. Ebay is worth a try, but watch out for knockoffs. or mislabeling (which we should all know about Ebay by now anyway!!)

Any finally, don't overpay!! You will screw the rest of us who want these seats if you do.

 

lol I knew you would chime in here. Not such the easy swap but oh so lovely when done (not for fat chicks).

 

WOW! aboothman, your input here is priceless, I know many of us have thought of doing this at one point or another and guidance like this is of imeasurable value, thank you. It looks like I may possibly be in over my head, good to know though before I take the plunge. If my car didnt already have 90k miles on it I'd probably be more willing to drop the $$ and time into an improvement like this. they do look f%$@'n awesome in your car.

 

When it comes down to it, it is pretty easy. If $$ is a concern, go for the Blue Evo VIII seats, unless you are getting a really good deal from dude. I think Wedge sells the set of brackets for under $200. The rest of it is just doing some reading and taking your time to do it right.

The best part is, once you do it, it can be swapped into ANY Impreza, and even most Legacies.