I will hopefully be getting my first 5 this weekend, a lovely looking 1996 Mk1 in Green. As long as it is in the condition the seller says it is, i will be buying it.
I already know that it has a tear on the drivers seat, i have my eye on a Mk1 interior currently for sale on ebay, from a 1990 car. What i would like to know is if there are any electrical gubbins attached to the front seats? Or is it just a in and out job? The car im looking to buy has airbags and i was worried there may be sensors or something under the seats.
Those 1990 seats might not be any good for your car.
Although they will bolt in, they don’t have seatbelt receivers attached. On early cars, the seatbelt receiver was directly attached to the transmission tunnel. After 1993, this was changed to a receiver attached to the seat runners and a welded point on the seat base pan, coupled to a slide that bolted to the transmission tunnel (at a different place from the early receivers). Although you can fit later seats in early cars, not entirely straightforward the other way. The early mount points are still present on the later model; but you need to cut through the carpet. So if you get these seats, you will need the seatbelt receivers (buckles).
As for wiring; your present seats will certainly have a plug for the seatbelt; reach under the seat to disengage it. Disconnecting it only extinguishes a light on the dashboard. The seatbelt plug on early talks won’t fit. If its a Roadster, it might have a plug for the headrest speakers. However, a lot of later Roadsters don’t have these. If the early seats are from an import, you can wire up the speakers through the redundant rear speaker connectors on the radio, if the car is a UK model.