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Focus ST Leather Recaro install with POWER Base

Messages
470
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148
Location
Mount Dora
#1
Figured I'd make my own thread and stop bogging down the other similar how-to thread. In short, I didn't want to simply swap the FiST and FoST bases, I wanted to retain the power movement on the driver side. On the passenger side I will, however, just be swapping the bases.

Off the bat, the base from the FoST wouldn't even fit in the FiST with the wonky way the one seat rail mounts. To get around this, and the other mounts not being correct, I had to do some modifications. First step was trying to see if I could easily remove the stock FoST mounts without destroying the rails, which is actually pretty easy. I used an air cut-off wheel with multiple 36grit cutting wheels and ground off the rivots of the existing mounts.

From here a slight whack with a hammer has them off. I had to move the rails forward to get to the back mount for the lead screw to be able to further grind off the rivots. Once these were all ground off, I slight enlarged the front holes so that the new bolts would fit. I went with all Grade 8 hardware, including the nuts and washers. I will attach a parts list when I get a chance.

From here, I ground off the rivots that held the stock FiST mounts for the front, and left the back ones attached (can't use em!) With them bolted to the FoST rails, I was able to set the seat bottom in the car. From here I was able to fabricate the rear mounts. I have the basic fitment for it, I need to grind them and round them some to be finished...

Back to the FoST rails. There are two problems with the back of the rails, 1. they're too long, 2. one side is longer than the other. They have a dimple on both sides at the same point which falls almost perfectly inline where they need cut off. This will not interfere with the mounting. The back mount that I fabricated is basically some steel stock with a hole to mount to the FiST seat mount hole in the floor, then two holes about an inch or so behind it to mount the FoST frame. I doubled up the back portion to be able to embed and weld the one nut in since it would be blocked by the floors sheetmetal.

I will be updating this thread as I move along, at this point, I need to cut the rails and finish up the back mounts before I can fully mount it, at which point I will swap over the FiST air bag and fully install the seat. Wiring up the seat motors should be simple, just need some power run to the side switch. As for the heated part, I need to do some more digging in the FoST service manual to figure out how easy it would be to get working since it's more advanced than the FiST. Am I crazy? Probably. Do I think it's worth a few days and $25 in parts to have a power base? Totally!

Base of Stock FoST Seat
IMG_20170328_172057.jpg

Base of FoST Seat with mounts ground off
IMG_20170328_174722.jpg

Base of Stock FiST Seat
IMG_20170329_161419.jpg

FiST front mount on FoST seat rail with Grade 8 Bolt
IMG_20170329_170406.jpg

FoST Seat base in FiST with Front Mounts in stock FiST mount location
IMG_20170329_170823.jpg

Back mounts of FoST frame that need cut and my custom back mounts
IMG_20170329_170830.jpg
 


OP
N
Messages
470
Likes
148
Location
Mount Dora
Thread Starter #3
Got the seat the rest of the way installed today. Cut down the back of the rails on both sides so that it comes out about the stock FiST length, got the brackets fabbed and painted, re-wired the seat and most important, the actual installation.

For the rewiring of the seat, I went ahead and grabbed the FiST harness from the seat, unplugged from the airbag, seat belt and seat location indicator. Since I swapped over the air bag, it was plug and play along with the seat location indicator (same plug as the FoST, so I didn't have to swap it!) as for the seat belt, I had to retain the FoST, which meant splicing into to the FiST seat harness I swapped over. I had some weatherpack plugs I used, which worked out great. Two problems with trying to use the FiST belt (the side part, not the one that comes out of the pillar in the car) 1st was that the bolt wouldn't seat right in the seat, and 2nd, because of the design having a think shroud, it would interfer with the FoST shroud on the seat itself. It was as simple as cutting off the original belt connectors and installing a weatherpack (though you could use any connector, I just happened to have these on hand).

For the seat motors, I also went ahead and installed a weatherpack connector on the input side, just have to supply it positive and negative and it looks like it's on a 25a fuse in the FoST (Still need to run the actual power in the cabin for it, currently using a PC power supply...) also went ahead and installed a weatherpack connect for the heated portion on the seat, think I have an idea on how to wire it up to be functional, but need to mess with it down the road. Pretty sure that you feed the black wire ground, yellow wire 12v, and the brown wire is the signal to select one of 5 heat settings, which is done by a potentiometer. Looks like each seat gets a 15a fuse for the heaters

I'll be getting some pictures of it from the front hopefully tomorrow, need more light and need to clean up the seat some [cool]

Pic of rear mount adapter I fabbed
IMG_20170401_202501.jpg

Weatherpack on Seat Motor wiring
IMG_20170401_205357.jpg

Weatherpack on Seat Heater
IMG_20170401_211112.jpg

1: Seat Motor, 2: Heater, 3: Stock FiST harness (only modified for the seat belt)
IMG_20170401_211322.jpg

Rear mounted down
IMG_20170402_103328.jpg

Side view of rear mount with adapter
IMG_20170402_103334.jpg
 


Last edited:
OP
N
Messages
470
Likes
148
Location
Mount Dora
Thread Starter #4
Here's a couple pics of the seat installed. Sorry for the shotty pics. Once I get power from the car to the base I'll take a quick video of it in action

Power base controls
IMG_20170402_214315.jpg

Seat
IMG_20170402_214327.jpg

IMG_20170402_214341.jpg
 


Messages
55
Likes
10
Location
Jacksonville
#8
I do not, with it being an important part in the event of an accident, I didn't want to be liable for anyone. If you have access to a welder it should be fairly easy to fab up though
i can respect that. I will be picking up leather seats up ST3s soon and thought it would be cool to keep them electric and hook up the heaters which I never had but looks like ill just convert them to the FiST base and try and hook up the heaters some time down the road. Thanks for the reply and sharing all this good information in your post.
 


Messages
64
Likes
26
Location
Fairfield County
#9
I do not, with it being an important part in the event of an accident, I didn't want to be liable for anyone. If you have access to a welder it should be fairly easy to fab up though
I can also respect this, though I dont know how you would be any more liable than someone like Sparco or even Recaro who make their own seat mounts for mounting seats into cars, race or otherwise. Do you have any more pics you could provide to give me an idea of what im looking to do? If you follow the Recaro swap thread at all, I seem to have a set of unswappable Focus Recaros, so being able to do this would make them easier to sell IMO. If not I understand, but thanks for this info here!!!
 


OP
N
Messages
470
Likes
148
Location
Mount Dora
Thread Starter #10
I can also respect this, though I dont know how you would be any more liable than someone like Sparco or even Recaro who make their own seat mounts for mounting seats into cars, race or otherwise. Do you have any more pics you could provide to give me an idea of what im looking to do? If you follow the Recaro swap thread at all, I seem to have a set of unswappable Focus Recaros, so being able to do this would make them easier to sell IMO. If not I understand, but thanks for this info here!!!
I did see you're swap issues ( I even commented on it!) Unfortunately I seem to have lost the pics, and short of me removing the seat again I can't really get any. Basically what I did was grind the two rivots that hold the screw drive on both rails, and fabbed up a small bracket that would mount using the stock seat bolt into the floor, then go back enough to hit the two rivot holes. The issue with this was trying to mount them together, as the seat rail sits on top the original bolt. I will try to get some pics the best I can after work though
 


Messages
64
Likes
26
Location
Fairfield County
#11
I did see you're swap issues ( I even commented on it!) Unfortunately I seem to have lost the pics, and short of me removing the seat again I can't really get any. Basically what I did was grind the two rivots that hold the screw drive on both rails, and fabbed up a small bracket that would mount using the stock seat bolt into the floor, then go back enough to hit the two rivot holes. The issue with this was trying to mount them together, as the seat rail sits on top the original bolt. I will try to get some pics the best I can after work though
Cool man. I appreciate it!

Yeah my swap has gone a bit sideways. I was able to locate some FiST Recaros that I picked up but now Im sitting on these very clean FoST Recaros that wont swap over to a FiST base of any kind. I even tried my Recaro FiST base today as I like the FoST color way better, but the seat backs are 100% not the same, so Im thinking I have like ST1 Recaros are something. Either way, they are definetly not going to swap to any FiST base, Recaro or standard seat.

I was half way through the entire swap, basically done with the passenger seat when I hit the big unclearable snag, so I can either put the FoST passenger seat back to stock, reattach the wires to the base that I stripped and put the FoST airbag back, then sell it to a Focus guy. Or I can try this trick, get them to work, and then sell the FoST for a FiST Recaro for $$$ and stock Fiesta seats to replace my stockers that Id have to canibalize for parts. I think people would like to have some drop in FiST Recaros, plug and play though. That seems more valuable to me as it seems many people did not get the Recaro option in the FiST, so thats why im interested.

Anything you can get me is appreciated. Thanks again!!!
 


OP
N
Messages
470
Likes
148
Location
Mount Dora
Thread Starter #12
Cool man. I appreciate it!

Yeah my swap has gone a bit sideways. I was able to locate some FiST Recaros that I picked up but now Im sitting on these very clean FoST Recaros that wont swap over to a FiST base of any kind. I even tried my Recaro FiST base today as I like the FoST color way better, but the seat backs are 100% not the same, so Im thinking I have like ST1 Recaros are something. Either way, they are definetly not going to swap to any FiST base, Recaro or standard seat.

I was half way through the entire swap, basically done with the passenger seat when I hit the big unclearable snag, so I can either put the FoST passenger seat back to stock, reattach the wires to the base that I stripped and put the FoST airbag back, then sell it to a Focus guy. Or I can try this trick, get them to work, and then sell the FoST for a FiST Recaro for $$$ and stock Fiesta seats to replace my stockers that Id have to canibalize for parts. I think people would like to have some drop in FiST Recaros, plug and play though. That seems more valuable to me as it seems many people did not get the Recaro option in the FiST, so thats why im interested.

Anything you can get me is appreciated. Thanks again!!!
Here's what I've got, managed to find an old pic of the plate even

IMG_20170402_103334.jpg
IMG_20170401_202501.jpg
IMG-2833.JPG
IMG-2836.JPG
 


mereco

New Member
Messages
2
Likes
1
Location
Casselberry
#13
Got the seat the rest of the way installed today. Cut down the back of the rails on both sides so that it comes out about the stock FiST length, got the brackets fabbed and painted, re-wired the seat and most important, the actual installation.

For the rewiring of the seat, I went ahead and grabbed the FiST harness from the seat, unplugged from the airbag, seat belt and seat location indicator. Since I swapped over the air bag, it was plug and play along with the seat location indicator (same plug as the FoST, so I didn't have to swap it!) as for the seat belt, I had to retain the FoST, which meant splicing into to the FiST seat harness I swapped over. I had some weatherpack plugs I used, which worked out great. Two problems with trying to use the FiST belt (the side part, not the one that comes out of the pillar in the car) 1st was that the bolt wouldn't seat right in the seat, and 2nd, because of the design having a think shroud, it would interfer with the FoST shroud on the seat itself. It was as simple as cutting off the original belt connectors and installing a weatherpack (though you could use any connector, I just happened to have these on hand).

For the seat motors, I also went ahead and installed a weatherpack connector on the input side, just have to supply it positive and negative and it looks like it's on a 25a fuse in the FoST (Still need to run the actual power in the cabin for it, currently using a PC power supply...) also went ahead and installed a weatherpack connect for the heated portion on the seat, think I have an idea on how to wire it up to be functional, but need to mess with it down the road. Pretty sure that you feed the black wire ground, yellow wire 12v, and the brown wire is the signal to select one of 5 heat settings, which is done by a potentiometer. Looks like each seat gets a 15a fuse for the heaters

I'll be getting some pictures of it from the front hopefully tomorrow, need more light and need to clean up the seat some [cool]

Pic of rear mount adapter I fabbed
View attachment 13859

Weatherpack on Seat Motor wiring
View attachment 13860

Weatherpack on Seat Heater
View attachment 13861

1: Seat Motor, 2: Heater, 3: Stock FiST harness (only modified for the seat belt)
View attachment 13862

Rear mounted down
View attachment 13863

Side view of rear mount with adapter
View attachment 13864
what color is the input power and ground wire for the seat motors switch ?

thanks
 


fatarayyy

New Member
Messages
2
Likes
2
Location
nj
#15
I also did this swap now for passanger side but will copy this over to drivers side. I grinded the support bracket rivets off of stock fiesta seat base and then used those mounts for the focus st seat bases. I covered first four locking holes of the focus st base and welded the front brackets from fiesta to it. There are many holes which you can feed thru bolts and nuts where the rivets used to go to see which positions you can use and align the tabs before welding- that's what I did for mock up and once everything aligned, welded the brackets in place.
For airbag I kept the focus airbags and used fiesta airbag connection - this is obtained by removing fiesta black box airbag and pry opening it, which unveils the cable and the actual folded airbag. For passanger side I used fiesta pressure pad - using focus one triggers the airbag light. For seatbelt retainer also fiesta one is used, focus seatbelt retainer won't work, and for the rectangular magnetic thingy, I used the fiesta one as well.

Now comes to the part in my opinion doing this retrofit.
- If you absolutely looking for Recaros, i'd suggest finding stock fiesta st recaros. This retrofitting involves so much time tinkering on how to mount, welding, painting, grinding...
- Finger cuts removing the focus st recaro cover to unveil airbag cable to swap- you need to remove so many tabs, velcros and clips, that your fingers absolutely sore and you end up with many deep cuts and itchiness afterwards. This alone made me rethink the whole swap.
- Now if you got super duper deal, I will not oppose as I am one stubborn idiot who got a set for cheap, and decided " mhmm let's tackle this no matter what", and also the wide bolstering is much more apparent.
Tips:
- You do not need to remove full seat cover to unveil airbag connection, just enough to swap the connection.
- Use existing focus st clips, ties and etc to retrofit to fiesta st seat harness to tidy up things.
- I cut the focus base brackets, then grinded them flush. These don't have rivets, so it's tricky and time consuming.
- You might need to move one side of the rail once everything welded to bolt all four bolts.
When putting the long plastic rod to the orange retainer clips, feel the tabs from back of the foam, and push in the plastic rod from outside, kind of trying to mate them and push towards each other. They eventually will clip in.
- Go over the velcro part from outside with a rounded edge plastic trim removal tool
- Bakc pocket area has two separated tabs that are in the same row. I used flat head to push the plastic tan tonthe metal part so that it sits properly. This by far the hardest part and painful as there is not much area to maneuver.

Good luck - 1cholic
 


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