Easy Aspire front seat swap

[TominMO]

Make a new thread with pictures. More options is always fun. The writeup Tom did hear is super simple and straight forward for doing the Aspire swap though.

Agree; Scitzz, if you can find a simple way for many more seats to be available, more power to you!

[scitzz]

Well, it was really simple up to reassembly! Then getting that little plastic slide back in(there are two) became too much for me, one broke

Guess what I am fixing to do? As soon as I can get that little screw on the inboard side of the seat back off? Wants to strip out...

[silverknight]

Yes, really great write up!

What are you guys doing for the rear seats of a 1993 Festiva?
Thanks
Silver

[TominMO]

Yes, really great write up!

What are you guys doing for the rear seats of a 1993 Festiva?
Thanks
Silver

Festiva rear seats seem to be unique in size and mounting.

[scitzz]

Ian did an aspire swap rear seat...sort of.

[TominMO]

Aspire seats are nicer & more comfortable than Festy seats. But... Escort seats are that much more comfortable than Aspire seats!

My experience was just the opposite. Had Escort seats in my Festy for several years. Just switched to Aspire seats and greatly prefer them! This could be an individual choice tho; I am 5'11" and find that even with the Escort seat all the way back, all the weight is on my butt and none on the thighs. The Aspire seat supports my thighs noticeably more. A shorter person might not have this experience. Maybe the Escort seat was better in the Escort itself, due to a higher seat frame? It did seem kinda hard tho; the Aspire seat seemed better that way too.

BTW, one small change to my seat swap post: I now remove the seatback while the seat is still in the car (and install the new seatback the same way, onto the seat frame with the new cushion). In other words, I have flipped Step 1 and Step 2. Just seems a little easier with the seat stabilized. But not crucial obviously.

[silverknight]

Ian did an aspire swap rear seat...sort of.

Hey thanks to you all for your responses... was just wondering what scitzz meant by ... 'sort of'?

I was hopin to do a cover swap from an Aspire > Festy..

[scitzz]

Hey thanks to you all for your responses... was just wondering what scitzz meant by ... 'sort of'?

I was hopin to do a cover swap from an Aspire > Festy..

I don't recall the details, but I remember that he had to sort of hybridize the Festy and Aspire seats to make it work.

Running around outside the asylum again with my tappy talky appy

[TominMO]

Aspire and Festy rear seats are completely different in all dimensions. It might be easier to just have an upholstery shop install some nice fabric over the Festy frame and cushioning.

[scitzz]

I want to say he used the Aspire rear with the Festy back seats, but there was a lot of modding going on at that time!

[silverknight]

Hey thanks again to you all.
y'all have been very helpful..
I did find Aspire front covers that i transplanted onto Festy front seat frames and that
worked so well i was hopin to maybe find the same luck for the back... but it doesnt look that way...:nightmare:

[mikeyjd]

Does anyone have Aspire seat covers that they would recommend? I'm thinking some black faux leather maybe, but I don't want the fit to be awkward.

[Bert]

Does anyone have Aspire seat covers that they would recommend? I'm thinking some black faux leather maybe, but I don't want the fit to be awkward.

This thread is all about swapping OEM front seat covers from Aspire/323/Escort over to Festy seat frames. You're thinking aftermarket stuff. I do not think that Kia ever marketed nor sold faux leather.

[TominMO]

Bump.

[Stevin1888]

Yeah great info I have been contemplating this for sometime and could not figure it out. It would be nice to have some pics of this as well.