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(For those who don't read the daily Corvette thread)
There have been a handful of threads lately with folks who have don't this mod before me and based on their results, I knew I had to get me a set.
I went from these re-skinned stock sport seats
Passenger side completed.
Driver side is in
The driver seat just barely clears the lower seat belt housing
The passenger side seat is a tighter fit in my car and is pressing against the lower seat belt housing but I unbolted the torx screw on the seat so the seat plastic could move slightly inboard for more clearance.
The stock C5 seat bracket track covers won't fit on the new seats (I ordered new c7 covers) but I was able to reuse them for now with a zip tie mod to the rails.
As for wiring, the passenger factory power is 3 wires
But you only need two, the thick orange power and the thick black ground
Same thing for driver side, you just need the thick orange power and thick black ground
The connection is as below, driver needs the thick black in bottom left and thick orange in bottom right. The driver side also borrows power and ties into the 3rd from right in the lower-upper row (not my pics)
Passenger side is same as driver but ties power into farthest pin on upper-lower row (not my pics)
Big thanks to @Z06ster for his help with some questions I had, along with the other C7 seat pioneers who figured out how to put them into a C5
The seats feel amazing and it's like driving a different car now. They are very firm and grippy at my waist.
The seats are pretty much plug and play with 4 bolts + the 3 wires mentioned above which are all that's needed to get them going. I did lose the power telescoping steering column, but I am thinking I can just pull the module from my stock seats and stash it back under my new seats to get that feature back again. There is also a C5 to C7 seat harness that will make them truly plug-and-play but the manufacturer is having supplier constraints due to coronavirus so had to do the wiring manually.
I did keep the c7 seat belt receivers, as I found that the seat belt indicator light on the instrument cluster did *not* turn on and the car doesn't warn in any way that the belts are not secured. Basically, no nagging nannies with these seats installed as-is.
All in all, while there were some minor things had to be rigged, putting the seats in was much easier than I expected.
For around the price of leather re-skinning & re-foaming stock C5 seats, you can likely get a set of C7 seats which are MUCH better.
My seats also came from a wrecked donor car so they're not entirely pristine perfect, but they're not bad at all. The salvage yard packed them incredibly well and shipped them "free" which I know cost them a pretty penny.
Anyone who is looking for a serious C5 seat upgrade should consider getting a set of these
Pretty sure plugging it back in will restore the telescoping steering wheel but havent tried it yet.
It's a no-go on the telescopic after plugging back in. It must require more to be connected than just the two plugs that come out of the floor. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No unfortunately not. I am sure it can be figured out but it would take a much smarter man than I to get it there.
The seats are heavenly though and completely worth the compromise. I wonder if folks who put in corbeaus and the like also lose their telescopic or if they've figured it out 🤔
you ever figure out the telescoping issue? that would be a non-starter for me, and push me into a c6 seat. Thanks for the write up!
The telescopic wheel can be made to work. It requires a separate module added to the car. The switch on the column is still used however it does not work with memory. We added the telescopic wheel along with the C7 seats to my car.
I have had a request for info on how to make the telescopic column work. There are 2 ways, one using the existing seat harness from the old C5 seat and the other with a couple of relays.
I don't have time at the moment to write this up but will over the next day or so.
Here is a PDF with two ways to accomplish this and instructions on doing it.
Gary
Awesome! Thanks, Gary!
That was the missing piece for which I've been waiting. And with perfect timing, today I found the holy grail: a pair of black w/suede 3LT C7 Competition Sport seats. I can't believe my C5 will finally have great seats with power and memory fully functional.
@OP, do you have the part numbers for the C7 track covers?
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
Lot of work, hope it was worth it!
C7 seats installed {Tips, Pics}
Basically, no nagging nannies with these seats installed as-is.
