2006 WRX limited Leather in a BE

[MoclovFlop]

**EDIT: SCROLL DOWN FOR PICS OF EVERYTHING INSTALLED**

A while back I remember seeing a car on here that had a full STI swap (interior, Brembos, engine...etc) on their BE. I have the chance to Pick up a interior set up from an 06 STI and was wondering how it looked. It's going to go in a Limited so I have the black leather and am unsure how it'll look with the leather door cards.

However....

I also have a lead on 06 leather limited interior from a WRX, I like that idea a little better because the door cards would still match, however the STi interior is kind of at my disposal while the limited interior would require a bit more leg work to get.

So... in my White BE with black leather.....

06 STi interior (front/rear seats, and blue carpet/floormats)

OR

Black leather interior from a 06 WRX (front/rear seats, and black carpet/floormats)

What do you guys think

Price is not a factor

[WinterKnoll]

I've never really been one for leather, but I would choose to WRX interior. I think that it mostly comes down to personal preference, but the STi interior is a little bit "loud" for me with the bright blue.

[MoclovFlop]

That's how I'm feeling, the blue is loud, but am I bored of leather?

Still have no idea.

[dodik]

you could try locating some jdm seats nicely bolstered and not too "loud", for example JDM BH seats fit nicely and you get a full folding rear seat for more trunk space.

[MoclovFlop]

I thought about that, however the main reason for my decision is because these two seat options are available to me pretty easily and cheaply. I would love JDM seats, but right now I think I'm just going to focus on spicing up my interior a bit with the options I have.


I know it's hard to give opinions on someone else's interior, but all opinions are helpful!

[dodik]

i dont know what your price range is thats why i said that and just to give an idea i got my front and back seats off ebay for about 450 shipped about a year and a half ago.

[xXGTBspecXx]

just saw a full STi interior for $1100

[MoclovFlop]

$450's not bad, I can get either one for about $350 (plus a buyer for mine for 275) For it'll really only be about 75 out of pocket which is a hell of a deal.

Eh, I don't know, I'll be on the fence for a while

Thanks for the input guys

[MoclovFlop]

**UPDATE**

So, I decided to just take the plunge and just go for the WRX Limited Leather. I got a wicked deal on them and decided that with my OEM leather door cards, it would just blend better than the STI interior. However, the STI seat went to my friend's swapped OBS, his Bugeye seats are going into someone else's BK Legacy, and my BE leathers will probably go up for sale soon.

For now I left the OEM Legacy rear leather seat because it matches pretty well with the fronts. I'll probably take some time to get the WRX rear to fit in a few weeks when I have more time ( I got all of the brackets/mounts/hardware from the donor car too!). Also, I took all of the wiring for the heating feature on the seats as well. (including plugs, switches, relays...etc)

As for fitment, the fronts were a direct bolt in. And for anyone curious, I have confirmed that 06-07 side airbags plug right in to my 2000 side airbags plug. I was worried that Subaru may have changed something along the years, but my car is just as safe now as it was with the factory seats.

One issue is the height of course. Both seats are a couple inches higher than the OEM. No big deal since I'm 5'11", but it may be an issue for taller passengers.

And a final issue is that I had to swap seatbelt latches, and because of that, I had to cut part of the mounting point on mine to get them to bolt on. This was because the WRX ones look like this ---> |o| while mine look like this ---> /o\. No big deal, and not something a Dremmel could take care of in a few minutes.

Overall they are awesome! and I feel like they are a little more unique in terms of seat swaps.

Here are a few pics:

The collection (don't mind the dust on the seats, they have been cleaned and conditioned and are like new)
Also: The STI seats is a full set (front and rear) But I only took pics of one because we were working on the other one and the rears were inside):











Swapping the STI seats in my friends GF (don't mind the door panel, that was getting replaced at the same time):



My OEM Seats:



The NEW Hotness:







Also, I am currently switching my interior to all black, I'll get a thread up for that soon. (Black suede headliner anyone )

[Benfolio]

Those look amazing! Good choice!

I dunno about going all black in there though. Might make it a little boring and.... dark.

[MoclovFlop]

Yea, I was thinking that too. I think it's just going to be the upper half black, and i'll leave the lower gray panels alone.

[2.5GT]

Man, that looks real good

[JBCLEGACY]

Let me get this straight, you put an interior from an 06 impreza into a BE gen Leggy; and it fit?
Was is as easy as you're letting on, or did you have any fitment issues with the carpet and rear seat?

By the way, nice job! Looks sshhweet!

[rougeben83]

Let me get this straight, you put an interior from an 06 impreza into a BE gen Leggy; and it fit?
Was is as easy as you're letting on, or did you have any fitment issues with the carpet and rear seat?

By the way, nice job! Looks sshhweet!

he only put the front seats in.

[MoclovFlop]

Actually, I'm putting the rear seat in at the moment as well. I'll get pics up soon. The only issues are that the bottom mounts are off by an inch or so (nothing a little bending couldn't fix) and the latch for the pass-through was not right, how ever I had the latch from the 06 luckily, so it is now as good as ever.

The bottom seat will require come trimming of the foam to fit right, and the mounts will need to be bent as well.

It's a decent fit for not being the right car. And like I said, I'll get some pics up probably tomorrow.

[MoclovFlop]

As promised, here is the install on the top half of the rears. I'll get some more pics up when I finish the bottom seat.

So. First things first, try to get the latch for the pass-through if it's a feature of your seats. For you people doing an STI interior swap, this is moot since there is no passthrough.

You can see the difference in latch styles here, WRX on the left, Legacy on the right:



Luckily, The mounting holes are *just* the perfect fit. But in sake of perfection, I went ahead and elongated the hole so that it could move up about an 1/8", this allows it to go into the latch just that much better.

Here it is mounted:



Now, as for the seat itself, the wire hooks on the rear top match the stock ones just fine so I didn't take pics. However, the bottom mounts were not so lucky. They were about an inch off from the stock mounting holes. So what you do is grab some nice adjustable pliers and start bending to get this:



And...... I forgot to take more pics, sit tight folks, tomorrow I'll get some more.

[Okin DaVanh]

.

Rubix Cube

Don't mind me<------(80's Baby)






Do the WRX seats have side impact bags? And your old stock 1's? If so, how did you hook them up?

[MoclovFlop]

Haha, yea it was an art project, good eye.

And yea, as I mentioned, the WRX seats airbag plug was a direct match for my stock airbag plug. Which is awesome because even a 6 year difference and a different car, they are still just like legos.

[scoobyLTD]

I am so jealous. those front seats are teh sex

[KAG]

How comfortable are those seats compared to the stock BE ones?

[MoclovFlop]

They are great, they are a bit firmer and obviously hold you better with the large bolsters, both of which were lacking in the stock seats. There is no competition between the two.

[KAG]

Good to know, thanks. There's a set for sale locally I'm tempted to pick up now...

[MoclovFlop]

OK, sorry for the delay, it's finals week so I hate life right now. But here are the rest of the install pics.

Ok, well here is what the upper half of the back seat looks like:



And here is the gap between the port-hole window and the top of the seat. Thanks to dark tint and dark fabric, this is not noticeable. If I were to never point it out to someone, no one would be able to tell that something's off.



Now, as for the bottom seat. This takes a little more work that the top. The seat pan in a WRX is lower so there is material on the seat to make up for this. And so you have to take away some of that material to get it to fit just right.

Here you can kind of tell the thickness difference between my stock seat (left) and the WRX seat (right). (look specifically at the "hump")





There are thick support wires running through those "humps" I took a big hammer and just gave them a few pounds to sink them in about .5" which was just enough.

Secondly, there are support wires in the rear of the seat (the part that fits under the side bolsters of the top half)

Those interfere with the plastic trim that the BE has in that area.

So what you need to do is expose the wire, and cut it out with a dremmel.





Now for the fun part... getting the seat in. This will take some adjusting, pushing, cursing and bending. It does fit, but it is tight. Make sure you get the rear attachment wire to latch into it's other half on the top half of the seats.

Second, you will need to bend the bracket that attach the seat to the front of the seat pan. This is similar to what was done for the top half of the seats (see previous pictures).

So it will look like this:



And make sure everything is centered compared to the top half and them stand back and Enjoy!


Note: This is obviously not meant for our cars. Because of this there are some exposed sections of urethane. This is ONLY noticeable if you bend down to eye level and take a look. Other wise it is not that bad. Also, the center area of the bottom seat is elevated from the seat pan. The WRX has a more curved surface there, and the BE does not. But again, it is not noticeable from the typical viewing angle of anybody who'll look at your car.

The Urethane issue will be fixed with some gray fabric.

You can see the issues here:





Here's what it looks like from the normal view!!!



And you're done. Sit back and admire your leather sport seats.

[Yamazaki]

Wow, that looks terrific! It's like the interior of the BL in a BE, really upscale.

[aznguy0087]

about how did this all take u? just asking cuz i mite being getting F/R seats some a sti soon. great write up

[MoclovFlop]

With good tools, you could knock this out in probably 4 hours. And that's including the front seats.