sidewayz2013

Hello everyone, this will be my first write up here on H-T, and hopefully not my last. This is certainly not going to make your Civic faster, it's just a simple convenience I wanted to try for fun.

I was at work one day, and a 2011 V6 Accord came in. It needed a new tire, and I had to put the spare away. I opened the trunk to see that it had a little latch connected to a cable to release the rear fold-down seats.

So I thought (as I tend to do)...



I've also not seen it done anywhere else. I figured I'd try it out, and share it with you all. Here's my stab at it.

Materials needed:
-Rear seat release cable(s), part number: 82621-TA0-013. I got two, but you can do just one if you want. They cost about $35 each, which I think isn't bad for OEM.
-A drill with phillips head bit
-A dremel with a small metal cutting wheel
-A sharpie, or something to mark your cuts beforehand (I didn't put much effort into that, so trust me here...)
-Phillips head self-tapping screws, about a half inch long.
-Cable clamps (what you use to secure wire harnesses, subwoofer wire, etc. to the chassis)

Time: About an hour, including setup. Then again, I didn't have the cleanest install ever. My cuts were sloppy, and I messed up once.

Cost: Pretty much the cost of parts. The rest of the stuff I just had laying around.

The cables will come like this, in bubble wrap. I had a good 30 minutes of fun with that.

Potato pic:



Important note: I found it's easiest to focus on one side at a time.

Step 1:
Remove your trunk floor and spare tire, or whatever is in your trunk. I had subs and tools. Put a pillow or something towards the rear, as this is where your head will be. If you have water or something in there, drain it out and put down a towel or plastic or whatever. You wanna be sitting on where the spare normally is, and you'll be there a lot during install, so make it comfy.

Step 2:
Fold the rear seats down and maneuver your way into the trunk, feet first. Your lower body should be in the cabin, and your upper in the trunk area.

Step 3:
Remove the rod from the clip on the rear seat latch. Do this for both sides. Install the mechanical linkage (the end of the cable) into where the rod normally goes, and test fit the cable to make sure it gets around everything. I wasn't sure how I would do this part at first, but I found that Honda tends to use the same size of these types of clips on most of their cars, so I wasn't too surprised that these fit and clipped right in.





Step 4:
Plan out where you're going to cut. I put them in a spot where the latch would sit flush against the upper side of the trunk, but where it wouldn't get in the way of the trunk tensioner rods (I think that's what they're called). The right side also had to get around the speaker. Make a rough template, however you choose to do so, and mark where you're going to cut.

Important note: The place you mount the latch (and subsequently cut) must be flat. The first spot I chose, I thought was pretty good at first, but I ended up cutting too much out. So, learn from me, and cut small at first. You only get one shot for a clean install!

Step 5:
Here we go, time to cut. You should get something like this when you're finished:





My cuts really suck, but that's because I had just gotten off work, and I was tired. Sue me.

When you finish cutting, make sure to file down the edges to the point where you can slide your finger across it without fear of hurting yourself.

Step 6:
Test fit your cable latch. The base of the latch body should sit flush with the surface you cut.





Step 7:
Route your cable, and clamp it down using your cable clamps and self tapping screws. Make sure to put some tension on it, so that when you pull the cable's latch, the cable pulls the clip, to turn the turny thing and release the seat latch. I routed mine along the back, next to the harness.





Here you see it going around the speaker:









Step 8:
Once you're confident that you clamped them down properly, you can now test the mod. Fold your seats backup, pull to make sure they're secure, go to your trunk, pull the cable's latch, and push your seat forward. Other than the weight of the seat itself, it should go forward with no resistance. (Unless there's **** in your seat lol)

And you're done! Admire your handiwork, and have a cold drink for your efforts.

EDIT: The pink things toward the ends of the cables could probably use a bracket, for a better install, but I'll get to it later. I didn't have anything to make a bracket at the time, but it's doing fine without them.

Pics of final install:





And my hellamessy trunk:



I didn't get a pic of this, but similarly to the 2011 Accord, if you're looking down into the trunk at anything more than a 45 degree angle, the latch releases are hidden. ******' proud of myself for that one.

Alrighty, that concludes my first write-up. I tried to format as best I could, but if anyone has any suggestions on better organization, let me know.

Bye guise~

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

That's actually pretty damn cool. I like it

sidewayz2013

Thanks! I'm sure it could probably work on other Hondas, but I didn't wanna overstep my knowledge.

burnoutboy

iTrader: (22)

I had to get about half way down before I was like... okay... that's a lot cooler than I imagined. Good job man. Nice write up too.

sidewayz2013

Thank you! The "OEM look vs. time invested" was about even in my mind. I didn't wanna put too much time in because I won't use it often, but I still wanted it to look decent.

tony_2018

So what about the interior? When you gonna do a write up on that?

sidewayz2013

the whole thing? or the wrapping of the A- B- and C-pillars? cuz the wrapping the pillars is pretty much like any other car. I just had to cut two parts in half to wrap them easier (one for each side). It's pretty generic, and the other write ups ive found are probably better than i could do anyway lol

tony_2018

I didn't notice the pillars until you mention, nice work.

sidewayz2013

Thanks! Everything I done on it is on my build thread lol. Next project is heated power mirrors.

tony_2018

Thats interesting, because I have the switch and the heated mirrors, just never got around to installing it.

sidewayz2013

lol sheitt, you good. you probably got the right switch, cuz i didnt
Mine is for a 3.0CL