Lightweight seats conversion for V12VS
Discussion
After nearly a year of ownership of my V12 Vantage S Manual I am seriously contemplating changing to the lightweight seats. Mine came from the factory with the standard seats, which I always slightly regretted, and after having a go in a mates vantage with the lightweight seats a few weekends ago, they absolutely transform the car.
The car is a keeper for me, so anything I do needs to be fully factory. (pics or it didn't happen):
I have spoken to AM works who can supply the seats without too much problem, but the question of the wiring (airbags) and the seat tilt switch has come up. Did cars with the lightweight seats use a different wiring loom?
Here you can see on my car there is nothing on this panel:
But on cars with the lightweight seats they have the extra button:
Where can I find these replacement panels? Works suggested that they are an integral part of the whole dashboard structure:
But surely they didn't have a different dashboard for each model?
The car is a keeper for me, so anything I do needs to be fully factory. (pics or it didn't happen):
I have spoken to AM works who can supply the seats without too much problem, but the question of the wiring (airbags) and the seat tilt switch has come up. Did cars with the lightweight seats use a different wiring loom?
Here you can see on my car there is nothing on this panel:
But on cars with the lightweight seats they have the extra button:
Where can I find these replacement panels? Works suggested that they are an integral part of the whole dashboard structure:
But surely they didn't have a different dashboard for each model?
Edited by Henry8601 on Friday 26th April 14:15
Mine has lightweights (2018 V12VSM).
That panel looks like an individual piece and they should be able to order you a replacement one.
The wiring may be more of an issue if those switches are located elsewhere on your car....
But everything is solvable; would guess you are paying £10k approx for the seats so a couple of 000 more to sort out the rest is not that bad? (I realise it is a lot of money I mean proportionally).
That panel looks like an individual piece and they should be able to order you a replacement one.
The wiring may be more of an issue if those switches are located elsewhere on your car....
But everything is solvable; would guess you are paying £10k approx for the seats so a couple of 000 more to sort out the rest is not that bad? (I realise it is a lot of money I mean proportionally).
Hi Henry,
The extra button on the side panel is to allow the seat to be motored all the way forward for easy access to the rear cabin and then press once forward and returns the seat. I suggest you remove the side panel and see if the is a spare plug tied back or tucked to one side as this may be spare and makes the main harness common for sports seats and light weight which means there is a hole to be cut in the panel or a new panel bought to fit the switch in. I would guess this would mean that the main seat connector will also be common too and the light weights will fit straight in. There may be a spare plug under the seat or may be a spare plug after the light weights are fitted.
If your mate with the light weights is a good friend I'd suggest remove both dash side panels and cross compare and see if the harnesses look the same and the spare plug is waiting behind the panel as I doubt there would be two harness as one to do all would be cheaper than having two as this would also mean four specs for both LHD and RHD then light weights and sports sense would be common harness.
Also compare wiring under both his and your seats whether there are spare plugs and such. Could buy light weight seats and put on manual runners and save a fortune there as some had said before on here.
Sorry for the rambling note but hope it helps just to add I ordered mind with light weights and yes best choice I made.
The extra button on the side panel is to allow the seat to be motored all the way forward for easy access to the rear cabin and then press once forward and returns the seat. I suggest you remove the side panel and see if the is a spare plug tied back or tucked to one side as this may be spare and makes the main harness common for sports seats and light weight which means there is a hole to be cut in the panel or a new panel bought to fit the switch in. I would guess this would mean that the main seat connector will also be common too and the light weights will fit straight in. There may be a spare plug under the seat or may be a spare plug after the light weights are fitted.
If your mate with the light weights is a good friend I'd suggest remove both dash side panels and cross compare and see if the harnesses look the same and the spare plug is waiting behind the panel as I doubt there would be two harness as one to do all would be cheaper than having two as this would also mean four specs for both LHD and RHD then light weights and sports sense would be common harness.
Also compare wiring under both his and your seats whether there are spare plugs and such. Could buy light weight seats and put on manual runners and save a fortune there as some had said before on here.
Sorry for the rambling note but hope it helps just to add I ordered mind with light weights and yes best choice I made.
Thanks for the input all!
Does anyone know how you remove the side panel, and what the part numbers for it are? When I asked the guys at AM works, this was their response:
"It looks as though the panels come as part of the complete substrate behind the dashboard (see diagram). Part No. GG33-C04304-BAW - Instrument Panel - RHD"
madcal - love your interior, and looks like the same trim spec as mine (although your is better!):
Does anyone know how you remove the side panel, and what the part numbers for it are? When I asked the guys at AM works, this was their response:
"It looks as though the panels come as part of the complete substrate behind the dashboard (see diagram). Part No. GG33-C04304-BAW - Instrument Panel - RHD"
madcal - love your interior, and looks like the same trim spec as mine (although your is better!):
Thanks. I also invested in some extra CF; makes a big difference from the easily scrunchable piano black...
You make the right decision on the bucket seats; they are massively more comfortable on long journeys (it is usually the other way round) and also hug you much better when you are driving "spiritedly"
Edit: our cars look almost identical on the inside!
You make the right decision on the bucket seats; they are massively more comfortable on long journeys (it is usually the other way round) and also hug you much better when you are driving "spiritedly"
Edit: our cars look almost identical on the inside!
I did this conversion on my V12 Vantage S and can recommend it! You do not need the buttons on the end of the dashboard, just use one of the presets on the transmission tunnel as the most furthest forward and tilted in. Adding those buttons also adds to complexity as the wiring for them probably isn’t in your car. The biggest part of it is recoding the Restraints Control Module to tell it that there are no seat airbags anymore. Any questions drop me a message
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Edited by yellow_tang on Friday 26th April 15:04
Awesome, thank you! I'll drop you a message
yellow_tang said:
I did this conversion on my V12 Vantage S and can recommend it! You do not need the buttons on the end of the dashboard, just use one of the presets on the transmission tunnel as the most furthest forward and tilted in. Adding those buttons also adds to complexity as the wiring for them probably isn’t in your car. The biggest part of it is recoding the Restraints Control Module to tell it that there are no seat airbags anymore. Any questions drop me a message
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Edited by yellow_tang on Friday 26th April 13:53
Hi Henry - I recently went through this thought process. The main motivator is that the lightweights are more comfortable than the standard sports seats.
I also was looking to keep it “official” using original AM supplied seats and have it fitted by an AM MD.
I even found a perfect matching pair of lightweights on eBay (although with the help of the seller and AM Bristol, they seemed to be from a 2010 DBS - which must have been an extremely rare special order).
In the end I bailed out of the process because:
1) I’m finally finding a comfortable setting with the standard seats (only taken 2 years!)
2) It means the loss of heating (although this is of very little concern)
3) It means the loss of side airbags (much greater concern when I have my young kid next to me)
4) All-in, a new set of lightweight seat frames from AM is around £10k ... plus roughly another £10k to trim and fit them.
For £20k I could also buy a very fun car in its entirety. It would be cheaper to p/x to a Vantage with these seats by default. If you can find one!
But I fully understand the overwhelming urge to get it done and to heck with logic
I also was looking to keep it “official” using original AM supplied seats and have it fitted by an AM MD.
I even found a perfect matching pair of lightweights on eBay (although with the help of the seller and AM Bristol, they seemed to be from a 2010 DBS - which must have been an extremely rare special order).
In the end I bailed out of the process because:
1) I’m finally finding a comfortable setting with the standard seats (only taken 2 years!)
2) It means the loss of heating (although this is of very little concern)
3) It means the loss of side airbags (much greater concern when I have my young kid next to me)
4) All-in, a new set of lightweight seat frames from AM is around £10k ... plus roughly another £10k to trim and fit them.
For £20k I could also buy a very fun car in its entirety. It would be cheaper to p/x to a Vantage with these seats by default. If you can find one!
But I fully understand the overwhelming urge to get it done and to heck with logic
Do you have any additional pictures of the interior?
I'm super interested to see how they have trimmed your seats
I'm super interested to see how they have trimmed your seats
madcal said:
Thanks. I also invested in some extra CF; makes a big difference from the easily scrunchable piano black...
You make the right decision on the bucket seats; they are massively more comfortable on long journeys (it is usually the other way round) and also hug you much better when you are driving "spiritedly"
Edit: our cars look almost identical on the inside!
You make the right decision on the bucket seats; they are massively more comfortable on long journeys (it is usually the other way round) and also hug you much better when you are driving "spiritedly"
Edit: our cars look almost identical on the inside!
yellow_tang said:
I did this conversion on my V12 Vantage S and can recommend it! You do not need the buttons on the end of the dashboard, just use one of the presets on the transmission tunnel as the most furthest forward and tilted in. Adding those buttons also adds to complexity as the wiring for them probably isn’t in your car. The biggest part of it is recoding the Restraints Control Module to tell it that there are no seat airbags anymore. Any questions drop me a message
Before:
After:
Looks fantastic with Yellow Before:
After:
Edited by yellow_tang on Friday 26th April 15:04
You just need the carbon door strakes and waterfall to finish it off along with some yellow seatbelts via AM Cambridge
After getting home this evening I had a bit of a scrabble around underneath and found some interesting things:
The standard dash already has the holes in, just with little popped in plastic inserts to blank them off:
Also found this little wire tied up (with the red connector):
Which looks exactly right to add one of the seat tilt switches - looks like a pretty simple job!
And thanks for the photos madcal, looks awesome!
The standard dash already has the holes in, just with little popped in plastic inserts to blank them off:
Also found this little wire tied up (with the red connector):
Which looks exactly right to add one of the seat tilt switches - looks like a pretty simple job!
And thanks for the photos madcal, looks awesome!
Edited by Henry8601 on Friday 26th April 20:53
Henry8601 said:
After getting home this evening I had a bit of a scrabble around underneath and found some interesting things:
The standard dash already has the holes in, just with little popped in plastic inserts to blank them off:
Also found this little wire tied up (with the red connector):
Which looks exactly right to add one of the seat tilt switches - looks like a pretty simple job!
And thanks for the photos madcal, looks awesome!
Now that is interesting - how did I miss those?The standard dash already has the holes in, just with little popped in plastic inserts to blank them off:
Also found this little wire tied up (with the red connector):
Which looks exactly right to add one of the seat tilt switches - looks like a pretty simple job!
And thanks for the photos madcal, looks awesome!
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