G8 rear seat

Discussion on body issues/mods, appearance, interior/trim, and detailing (i.e. how to keep your car looking showroom new, or a reasonable facsimile thereof...).
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elc32955
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G8 rear seat

Post by elc32955 »

I did the G8 GT leather rear seat swap today courtesy of Neil in Orlando's donor G8 car for his Commodore wagon conversion in-progress. Seat went in no problem, everything bolted up, I like the cup holders and the pass through capability. Match is fine with the interior.

Now I need to decide what to do with my old rear seat set. Store it or move it.... :)
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
Gerome
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by Gerome »

Sounds great , but you know the rules pics or it never happened lol . Looking forward to seeing it .
Rjimpala
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by Rjimpala »

Would rather see it in person! :D
2011 Karma 9c3 never in service, Setina trunk tray, trunk floor mat, H&R springs, skid plate, leather shifter, g8 rear seats, tint, rear spoiler, side markers, Holden badges, shark fin antennae, capriceV trunk emblem, series ll & afm emblems, red tail tips, lighted vanity mirrors, black headliner & pillars, G8 light switch, red light window switches, g8 gas pedals, powdered coated colored hubs, g8 matching color steering wheel & color interior strips & center ring.
1996 DGGM Impala SS
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elc32955
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by elc32955 »

I'm sure we can arrange that. Gerome, I'll take a few pics tomorrow & put them up.
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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elc32955
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by elc32955 »

OK, here's the pics. This was a good trade-up IMHO, reasoning being is that you add flexibility of increasing your long-item hauling capability (anyone going fishing?), plus the added cup holders/convienence desk and additional rear seat bottom extended cushon for your passengers.

R&R was simple. First remove the old rear seat, the bottom cushion front pulls straight up to release the two catches, then forward and out one of the doors. Rear seatback removes in one piece, takes four #12 nuts to release the bottom hold downs. Just watch the belts when you take it out to keep them from snagging. On the new seat, install the center section first, then the outer sides (yes, three separate pieces). You'll find it's much easier to handle then the one piece rear the Caprice came with. The new latchpiece for the center fold-down installs with two #12 bolts. All the cut-outs and studs for the new seat are already in the body tub (Thank you Holden!) so it really is a straight bolt-in. Bottom cushion goes in and clips down exactly like the original, just push down to latch once it's positioned. The trim panel covering the center latch is held in with two carplugs that just push in to existing holes.

Here's the pics from a few different perspectives. Last pic is the original seat. Pic prior shows the bare rear seat area with the additional studs and mounting holes. Grabbing the hardware from the donor car is essential as you'll need it for the re-install.
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Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
Rjimpala
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by Rjimpala »

Looks awesome! All I've done for mods is the shifter to leather! :lol:
2011 Karma 9c3 never in service, Setina trunk tray, trunk floor mat, H&R springs, skid plate, leather shifter, g8 rear seats, tint, rear spoiler, side markers, Holden badges, shark fin antennae, capriceV trunk emblem, series ll & afm emblems, red tail tips, lighted vanity mirrors, black headliner & pillars, G8 light switch, red light window switches, g8 gas pedals, powdered coated colored hubs, g8 matching color steering wheel & color interior strips & center ring.
1996 DGGM Impala SS
gregc
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by gregc »

I did the same swap, except mine is cloth and it doesn't have the center arm rest.
Gerome
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by Gerome »

Now thats what I'm talking about ! That looks great , that armrest/crawl through is a cool mod .
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bkwagonss
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by bkwagonss »

That looks really nice.
I'd like to be able to fold down all or part of the back seat.

On another note, can you tell us more about the Commodore wagon conversion?
If there was a Caprice wagon available I would have bought that instead.
There's a place out in Denver that is doing some conversions to the Ute.
They said they could do the wagon also.
2011 Caprice PPV 9C3 "karma"
2003 Silverado
1950 Chevy Fleetline
2016 Ford Fusion Hybrid (wife's car)
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elc32955
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Re: G8 rear seat

Post by elc32955 »

You're talking about Randy's operation....

http://lefthandutes.com/

He's the same one that Neil is using for his Commodore SS wagon. The wagon is going to actually have the G8 header on the front as Neil felt it looks better. That project is currently in-work. Randy takes a donor Caprice or G8, strips all the parts from it that are needed, punches new holes in the firewall of the Oz vehicle to fit the US needs, re-installs parts (both used and new where absolutely necessary). has the vehicle inspected and approved for US roads, titled, and WHAM! One US legal Ute or wagon or whatever. I didn't ask on price. BUT.... since he deals with a lot of donor cars, it's not outside the realm of possibility that he may have plenty of spare parts laying around the shop.

I did get a chance to inspect the Ute that Neil's holding first-hand (I should have shot pictures darn it!) and can tell you it's quality work that would be extremely difficult to tell from an OEM job. There were a few quirks particular to the conversion, for instance the power/volume for the radio (the black face HSV model WITH the Holden statistics in the radio) is on the right hand side. Barring those little things to get used to, it's a bang-up conversion!

Randy's on my list to call this week to get acquainted with, if I can shanghai him to participating in the forum I will. I think he'd be an excellent technical resource for everyone here as he's probably the closest thing short of the Holden plant that takes 'em all apart and puts 'em back together again.
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
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