G20t seats using B14 rails
G20t seats in a B14
A while ago I upgraded my B14 seats to G20t black leather seats with power and overall I was really happy with them. Noted they did sit noticeably higher, but they are way more comfortable and I love the look. Long story short, I didn’t do anything fancy the first time I installed them, minus adding a spacer so that the seats didn’t tilt because I was using the g20 rails. It became a pain though because despite my best efforts of not using the back seats other than for text books, I still have passengers here and there. So here is a write up, my first one so hopefully it is good, on how to install G20t seats using your existing B14 rails so you can utilize the nice sliding forward mechanism our seats came with, rather than the painfully slow power option you get when you just install the G20t seats with their own rails ( assuming they are the power seats ha)
First thing you are going to need is your new set of G20t seats and your old pair of B14 seats.
Step 1.) We are going to start with the G20 seats. What we are going to do is take off the entire G20 back and put it on the B14 rail. To start you have to take off the back section of the g20 seats. There are 4 white plastic pieces that keep the back in place.
Step 2) once you get the back off you will see that there are metal clips that are being used to keep the leather attached to the seat. Your going to have to take them off because eventually you are going to have to pull back the leather to get access to the bolts that attach the back to the frame
Step 3) Once the clips are off, pull back the leather and you can see the bolts keeping the back on. They require a metric 12 socket to take them off. There are 2 per side.
Step 4) Now that the back is off, switch focus to the B14 seat. From what I read, its best to do this job in parts because if you try to do it all at once, switching the bottom pan and the back section together, it’s a pain in the ass because the rail doesn’t keep its solid shape and what not. On the B14 seats its relatively easy to get to the bolts that keep the seat in. First un attach the plastic piece that keeps the front part of the fabric attached to the back. From there, pull up the fabric about half ways, then move the foam out of the way and now you have access to the bolts. The B14 bolts require a metric 14 socket to take off. There are 2 on each side. Once you have take all 4 bolts off, the back part of the seat comes off
Step 5 ) Attach the G20 back where you just took off the B14 back. Use the metric 12 bolts for the G20 back when re-installing to the B14 rails. Now you are about half way done
Step 6 ) Taking the pan off is actually really easy. There are 4 bolts on both the G20 bottom section as well as the B14. Take the G20 pan off. Next take off the pan from the B14 rails.
Step 7) Now this is where some people will either stop or keep going. When you try and attach the G20 bottom pan to the B14 rails, the back 2 bolts will match up however the top 2 wont. One person has told me that using only the back 2 bolts is just fine, you won’t feel any shaking or rocking if they are tight enough but I just wasn’t comfortable with it. So what I did was measure the distance between the holes on the B14 pan and then mark that distance on the G20 pan. Luckily there are already holes near where you are going to drill. I drilled the holes then cut out the gap between the already existing hole so that it was now slotted. From there I used a washer and a nut, carefully put it in, the foam from the seat will keep the washer and nut in place. Now you just put the pan on the rail, put in the bottom 2 bolts that match up fine already , and then bolt in the top section that you just slotted and have now have a washer and nut.
Step 8) that’s it for the actual seat itself. At this point you now have G20 seats on your old B14 rails. Now you have to modify the plastic piece that faces the door so that it fits. I cut roughly along the lines as seen in the picture.
Step 9 ) now that the plastic piece is re-installed, if you haven’t already do so, you’re going to have to re-attach the leather where you took the metal clips off to get access to the bolts. I personally used zip ties, sorry if that seems cheap but I didn’t want to re-use the metal clips and it was easy. Once its all reattached, put the back cover back on. I found it was easier to take off the white clips and put in on the back itself then reinstall. After you have it modified everything so that it fits and you like it, you’re pretty much done. Just re-install the seat in the car and enjoy the manual sliding mechanism, something passengers will appreciate.
Step 9) Repeat for other side
If there are any recommendations, please let me know. I have heard that NX rails are also an option if you don’t like the height of the new seats. Being use to the height of the G20 seats just installed in my car, using the G20 rails, I can tell you that using the B14 rails are DEFINITELY lower in height, and I guess NX rails are even lower if you don’t like the height of the B14 rails.
A while ago I upgraded my B14 seats to G20t black leather seats with power and overall I was really happy with them. Noted they did sit noticeably higher, but they are way more comfortable and I love the look. Long story short, I didn’t do anything fancy the first time I installed them, minus adding a spacer so that the seats didn’t tilt because I was using the g20 rails. It became a pain though because despite my best efforts of not using the back seats other than for text books, I still have passengers here and there. So here is a write up, my first one so hopefully it is good, on how to install G20t seats using your existing B14 rails so you can utilize the nice sliding forward mechanism our seats came with, rather than the painfully slow power option you get when you just install the G20t seats with their own rails ( assuming they are the power seats ha)
First thing you are going to need is your new set of G20t seats and your old pair of B14 seats.
Step 1.) We are going to start with the G20 seats. What we are going to do is take off the entire G20 back and put it on the B14 rail. To start you have to take off the back section of the g20 seats. There are 4 white plastic pieces that keep the back in place.
Step 2) once you get the back off you will see that there are metal clips that are being used to keep the leather attached to the seat. Your going to have to take them off because eventually you are going to have to pull back the leather to get access to the bolts that attach the back to the frame
Step 3) Once the clips are off, pull back the leather and you can see the bolts keeping the back on. They require a metric 12 socket to take them off. There are 2 per side.
Step 4) Now that the back is off, switch focus to the B14 seat. From what I read, its best to do this job in parts because if you try to do it all at once, switching the bottom pan and the back section together, it’s a pain in the ass because the rail doesn’t keep its solid shape and what not. On the B14 seats its relatively easy to get to the bolts that keep the seat in. First un attach the plastic piece that keeps the front part of the fabric attached to the back. From there, pull up the fabric about half ways, then move the foam out of the way and now you have access to the bolts. The B14 bolts require a metric 14 socket to take off. There are 2 on each side. Once you have take all 4 bolts off, the back part of the seat comes off
Step 5 ) Attach the G20 back where you just took off the B14 back. Use the metric 12 bolts for the G20 back when re-installing to the B14 rails. Now you are about half way done
Step 6 ) Taking the pan off is actually really easy. There are 4 bolts on both the G20 bottom section as well as the B14. Take the G20 pan off. Next take off the pan from the B14 rails.
Step 7) Now this is where some people will either stop or keep going. When you try and attach the G20 bottom pan to the B14 rails, the back 2 bolts will match up however the top 2 wont. One person has told me that using only the back 2 bolts is just fine, you won’t feel any shaking or rocking if they are tight enough but I just wasn’t comfortable with it. So what I did was measure the distance between the holes on the B14 pan and then mark that distance on the G20 pan. Luckily there are already holes near where you are going to drill. I drilled the holes then cut out the gap between the already existing hole so that it was now slotted. From there I used a washer and a nut, carefully put it in, the foam from the seat will keep the washer and nut in place. Now you just put the pan on the rail, put in the bottom 2 bolts that match up fine already , and then bolt in the top section that you just slotted and have now have a washer and nut.
Step 8) that’s it for the actual seat itself. At this point you now have G20 seats on your old B14 rails. Now you have to modify the plastic piece that faces the door so that it fits. I cut roughly along the lines as seen in the picture.
Step 9 ) now that the plastic piece is re-installed, if you haven’t already do so, you’re going to have to re-attach the leather where you took the metal clips off to get access to the bolts. I personally used zip ties, sorry if that seems cheap but I didn’t want to re-use the metal clips and it was easy. Once its all reattached, put the back cover back on. I found it was easier to take off the white clips and put in on the back itself then reinstall. After you have it modified everything so that it fits and you like it, you’re pretty much done. Just re-install the seat in the car and enjoy the manual sliding mechanism, something passengers will appreciate.
Step 9) Repeat for other side
If there are any recommendations, please let me know. I have heard that NX rails are also an option if you don’t like the height of the new seats. Being use to the height of the G20 seats just installed in my car, using the G20 rails, I can tell you that using the B14 rails are DEFINITELY lower in height, and I guess NX rails are even lower if you don’t like the height of the B14 rails.