My Ginster Mk3

[GingerBeef]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

So the lack of bolstering in OEM mk3 seats is midly concerning. I pretty much fall out of the window when I air out.

I absolutely love the seats in my Evo IV and since they have a weird 90s public transit seat pattern lots of Evo IV guys swap theyre seats out for the better looking Evo V/VI seats. So, I found a set for dirt cheap in Red Deer!

Unfortunately, on the way there my mom's Touareg's headlight just kinda fell out....



On the bright side though, got the seats home in one piece! These are Recaro SR3s out of a 1997 Evo, same year as my GTI. Im thinking these should look right at home in my interior. The same seats can be found in 90s MR2s and Honda Civic/Integra Type Rs.



Now, the centers of these seats just pop out! So I got some OEM mk3 seat patterns to keep things as OEM+ as possible. But now I have a difficult descision to make...

The "cooler" driver's edition "tire pattern" fabric?



Or the 90s af GTI "Sport Plaid" fabric?



Personally, im leaning towards the sport plaids, but either way Im excited to take on my first DIY upholstery project! I figure making 2 rectangle covers per seat shouldnt be too hard... :P

Lemme know what you guys think..!

[skhan91]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

So the lack of bolstering in OEM mk3 seats is midly concerning. I pretty much fall out of the window when I air out.

I absolutely love the seats in my Evo IV and since they have a weird 90s public transit seat pattern lots of Evo IV guys swap theyre seats out for the better looking Evo V/VI seats. So, I found a set for dirt cheap in Red Deer!

Unfortunately, on the way there my mom's Touareg's headlight just kinda fell out....



On the bright side though, got the seats!



Now, the centers of these seats just pop out! So I got some OEM mk3 seat patterns. But now I have a difficult descision to make...

The "cooler" driver's edition "tire pattern" fabric?



Or the 90s af GTI "Sport Plaid" fabric?



Personally, im leaning towards the sport plaids, but either way Im excited to take on my first DIY upholstery project! I figure making 2 rectangle covers per seat shouldnt be too hard... [emoji14]

Lemme know what you guys think..!

+1 on the plaid! very cool man

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[Ur0Drivr]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

Plaid all the way!

[witchcraftz]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

I feel like the tire tread ones are more unique, but both are nice!

[syncrovan]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

Like them both, hard to say.
Did you think about yellow suede....you know, ginger all the way.....

[MechEngg]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

I think the brighter colors in the plaid are what's doing it for me on a bright yellow car. If the other pattern had brighter reds in it then it may be a contender but in my mind it's plaid all the way.

It will also add to the top end speed of your vehicle according to Mel Brooks

[Danaldson]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

plus one on getting some yellow on the seats if possible, either suede or black insert with yellow stitching.

If not, Plaid.

[GingerBeef]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

Well, all the fabrics here are 20+ years old haha.. and covered in ass juice. Ill throw em all in the wash and see from there (I believe the red tire marks are reaaaally dirty)

I know that red tire pattern does also come in yellow... maybe if i can find a set of those in the future?

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[Mcrow]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

That Zack guy with the ginster in Edmonton ripped out his DE yellow seats and was selling them, I believe.

[sabbySC]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

Sport plaid +1

[GingerBeef]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

That Zack guy with the ginster in Edmonton ripped out his DE yellow seats and was selling them, I believe.

he also wants more than I paid for the Recaros for them LOL

[Mcrow]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

he also wants more than I paid for the Recaros for them LOL

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[GingerBeef]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

Man, guess I havnt updated this thread in like a year. Well not much has happened, I took the ESMs off for now because I want to change up the colour. They also need new tires so I figured Id throw my old TT 6 spokes back on for the time being.

Now, onto Recaro stuff!
I ended up going with the Sport Plaid fabric over the red "tire tread" centers, I think I made the right choice on that one.

So originally I was going to try to adapt the Evo IV rails to my Mk3's floor pan, but welding to the thin sheet metal seemed a little sketchy to me. In the end I opted to canibalize the Mk3 seat for its rails.





Next I unbolted the Evo rails from the Recaros



Using what I had laying around I cut and welded up some 90° angle iron to some 1" square stock, drilled holes to line it up with the Recaros.






Got 8 little adapter brackets made up and bolted to the bottom of the seats. I made sure tgese were strong, its welded in all planes so no matter the forces atleast one weld will always be in tension, and another in compression. I also plug welded tge angle iron to the square stock... just in case



Then, it was as simple as lining up the mk3 rail, making sure its squared up and flat, and laying down some weld!





These new seats sit about 2" lower than the stock Mk3 seats, which I love. Its a much more agressive driving position, and more importantly i now have headroom for a helmet!





Overall super happy with how these turned out. I havnt had too much driving time with them yet but from the first test drive Ive gotta say that Ive fallen in love with this car even more now!

[GingerBeef]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

So, Bob is bae and gave me a new lens to play around with sometime during the summer. I finally got around to taking some photos with it last night (or... attempted to I should say). So far so good, I quite like the range of this new lens, Its a 12-50mm vs my old 14-42mm but im no photographer so im pretty much talking out of my ass right now... Point is, thanks Bob!

Also, Yellow car + Fall = dank memes.

[witchcraftz]

Re: My Ginster Mk3

the recaros look awesome.