Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 17:32:23 +1200
Reply-To: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject: Re: fitting other seats from different makes into the Vanagon
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.20020312162657.007d77e0@hotel.uws.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>Something else to consider when looking for other seats to fit in your
>van is that a lot of other seats have nice looking comfy high sides on
>the base part of the seat to keep you snugly seated without sliding
>about.
>An excellent idea for your van except that you have to haul yourself up
>and over the higher seat lip now to seat yourself in the van.
>This can be problematic especially if you're a little on the short side
>and the fabric on the seat lip will now wear at an accelerated rate.
>
>Also be careful of seats where the base is significantly thicker than
>the original VW seat.These seats will have you sitting way too high
>in the van reducing head room and can make it difficult to reach the
>pedals...again especially if you (or your SO) is a little vertically
>challenged.
>
>I've seen these things happen on many occasions in attempted seat upgrades
>in bay window vans when the original seats wore out...
I fitted a fiberglass rally bucket to my 75 T2 Kombi. It was a copy
of a commercial seta shell and I had it upholstered with thin but
dense foam. It sure did require some climbing into & out of, what
with the big nontilt wheel! It allowed me (reasonably tall, with
l-o-n-g arms) to just reach the passenger door lock-knob. In a T3
Vanagon this would be impossible, necsessitating either climbing out
of the seat to unlock the door or central locking. I couldn't unlock
the T2's slider from a sitting position. It did raise my seating
height, but I had no problems. someone short in the legs would
however be unable to drive it. But it was comfortable on a 4-hour
trip.
I intend to fit the seat to my Caravelle eventually, once I work out
how. It has 8 10mm bolts run through holes in 2 strips of 7mm steel
plate, heads welded to the plate. These are glassed into the seat,
with the bolts protruding through the seatbase. I made some alloy
plates up and bolted the seat rails to this, then the seat to the
plates. Heavy overkill, and this raised the seat too... haven't
looked at the T3 seat rails yet to see how I'd go about it with this
van.
Upholstering with some highly wear-resistant product on the
cushion-side bolsters would help the upholstery last; mine was
supposed to be fabric, but the crappy upholsterer put very soft vinyl
on the bolsters, and this was worn through while the van's V8
conversion was being done!
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
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