Previously I was using stock EG6 94 spec seats. Also known as seat batik. God only knows why they call it batik when the design doesn’t even come close to a batik. People really need to figure out better names for these things… like the rear compartment in the boot is usually referred to as “tong ikan” (fish barrel if translated to English directly)… seriously…..WTF? Where in God’s name did they come up with these names?? Sheesh.
Anyway, pix of my previous seats
And my new current bucket seats.. tadaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Yes, I finally decided to get meself a pair of Recaro SR3 despite me being concerned about the weight of 15kg per seat. I figured they were the best all rounder as they are very comfortable, the bolsters hold you in your seat very well and it has the quick tilt feature to make it easier to get in and out of the back seat. They are also very easily available and prices don’t differ much from one seller to another. I got mine from a friend we call Bob.
Bob gave me a good price which I don’t want to mention here but the seats are from a 2000 spec Civic Type R EK9 and best of all it comes with 2 sets of rails. The original EK9 rails as well as wat Bob told me was the Spoon low down rails (for EK9). Seat condition was almost perfect except for a barely noticeable flaw on the passenger side.
If you look at the picture of the seat pair above closely you will notice that the seatbelt buckle and the rotating adjuster is on the same side. The rails were fitted wrongly in it’s previous car in Japan. This caused some confusion when Bob and his assistant tried to fit it the other way round and make it proper.
Picture of the rails after we removed it to fix it proper. There were no visible markings that I could find on them to say that they’re actually Spoon rails. And the rails look brand new. The black paint on the rails were also top notch as I took a self-tapping screw and tried to scratch it but couldn’t.
Bob (right) and his assistant trying to figure out which rail goes where.
After awhile, it seems that the rails wouldn’t fit properly and must be fitted the wrong way around… I didn’t want this so we fitted the original EK9 rails and tried fitting them in the car. The EK9 rails and EG rails are ¾ the same. Only 1 screw will be out of place. More on this at the end of the post.
Here is Bob and his assistant fitting the passenger seat in the car. This was with the original EK9 rails.
Thankfully while Bob was fitting the EK9 rails onto the driver seat he noticed that he made a mistake earlier with the Spoon rails and realized that they actually can be fitted properly. So they removed the passenger seat and original EK9 rails and fitted the Spoon rails onto the seats. I’m thankful for this coz the EK9 rails were seriously high. It made the seating position so high that I was a lil uncomfortable with it. It was even higher than the stock EG6 seats!
So once the Spoon rails were fitted properly, Bob and his assistant continued to fit both seats in the car. YAY!
Here are pix of the seats in the car (with Spoon rails). Ignore the black-like patches on the seats… that’s just the suede material playing games on the camera lens
I mentioned earlier than the EK9 rails will have 1 bolt out of place. When most people install EK9 rails into an EG they will leave that 1 bolt unbolted. That 1 bolt is the rear inner side of the rail. The rail on the inner side is slightly longer on the EK as compared to the EG. I didn’t want to have any loose corners and Bob agreed with me. So what Bob did was he bolted the rear first which would leave the front hanging out with a gap between the rail and the hole for the bolt. And this is how Bob fixed this and bolted all 4 corners down.
Those golden round washer thingamajiggies are actually washer like stuff from the EK9 seatbelt assembly. With a slightly longer bolt (which I got from my spare rear ARB) Bob fitted 2 washers on each of the gaps and bolted everything down nice and tight. This is just a temporary solution mind you. Though I do believe those washers can take it as they are from a seatbelt assembly. I will be adjusting the rails later on to properly fit into the EG.
The Spoon rails sit lower than the EG6 stock seats. And are definitely MUCH lower than the stock EK9 rails (damn, those were high). I have to lower my steering column to be able to drive comfortably. But the seat position now is very comfortable.
As for the seat themselves, I love them. And so does my lovely wife. She really like those seats. I also have a pair of SSCUS NSI bucket seats which I will be fitting into my wife’s kenari.
I do plan on full bucket seats one day… but I doubt that’s gonna be anytime soon. I have other more important things to do with the car.
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