Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 12:40:55 EDT
Reply-To: JKrevnov@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rico Sapolich <JKrevnov@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Help! ... middle seat removal...'85 Vanagon & then some
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In a message dated 5/25/00 10:12:54 AM, jneal@netcom.com writes:
<< > Since the utility of a Vanagon is increased manifold with an easily
removable
> middle seat, I have placed risers beneath the floor mounted tracks to
elevate
> them above the level of the floor covering materials so that the seat can be
> slid out painlessly. I used 2" T6061 AL bar stock to make the spacers but,
> only because I had it on hand and I have an engine lathe which made quick
> work of it.
>
Hi, Rich. Very interesting. Is that 2" vertical? Did you run the spacer
the whole length? Cheers, Tom Neal
>>
Hi Tom,
I didn't want to be too tedious with the description of how I did it; I guess
I sacrificed clarity for brevity. Since you asked, I'll test everyone's
patience with the details.
1) I should have said I used 2" ROUND bar stock.
2) I believe (I'm working from a quickly fading memory here) they had to be
about 1" in length. Check this to make sure and, of course, the shorter the
better.
3) I chucked the stock in the lathe, drilled a through hole on center sized
to clear an 8 mm fastener, then parted off the required length.
4) I know I took some material off the OD but I cannot recall if this was
necessary to make the spacers fit the convolutions of the van's floor or,
since it was already chucked up, I just wanted to make it look nice and
purty. Also, I MAY have chamfered the bottom corner on the OD to make them
fit closer to the floor ribbing.
5) I made one for every track attachment location; I think there are a total
of 10.
6) I used Baltic birch plywood of the appropriate thickness as infill between
the spacers in order to bring up the floor level to that of the surrounding
floor insulation.
7) As I mentioned previously, I replaced the carpeting with rubber matting
and I was lucky enough to have a gasket punch large enough to punch closely
fitting holes in it at each spacer location. To tell you the truth, the size
of that punch may have ultimately determined the exact OD of the spacers.
I have come this far; I might as well go the rest of the way.
8) The track attachment fasteners penetrate the floor. They are most likely
rusted and definitely capped off with what appears to be a tough butyl
sealant. In other words, they do not come out easily. But, we are all real
men here and about the time you think you are going to wring off a fastener,
God will smile upon you and they will give up their purchase. Being a
masochist, I applied butyl sealant to the fasteners.
9) Of course, the new attachment fasteners have to be longer by the
thickness of the spacer.
10) To install the tracks with some certainty, the seat has to be used to
align them. It's what pipefitters refer to as "two-holing it " when they
have to make up flange fittings. With the tracks on the seat rails, first
snug up the inner most fastener on each track then slide the seat out enough
to tighten one near the middle of each. The others will fall into place and
the seat will slide freely.
While I considered using rectangular tube stock or bar stock as a full length
spacer, this way seemed to provide a more secure make-up than the tube
without being as wasteful of material as using solid bar stock.
For those of you who are lathe-impaired, I would be able to arrange a
production run of these spacers if there is a demand for them but the
economics must have enough numbers behind it to justify approaching a jobber.
Whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words knew their stuff.
Rich
