Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 22:09:42 EST
Reply-To: JordanVw@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: JordanVw@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Question about Westy middle seats and tracks
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In a message dated 1/23/05 9:42:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,
felder@knology.net writes:
> > it actually looks pretty nice... its got the floor tracks for the
> > middle
> > seats (as all 85's do) and a/c.
>
> What's the deal with seats and tracks? I know all vanagons have the
> fittings, but what about the floor? Do you have to take up the old and
> cut it to fit the tracks? What kind of seat can you fit back there?
>
>
'84 wolfsburg edition westfalia GL's, All '85 Westfalia GL's, and some '86
Westfalia GL's had the floor tracks for the optional middle seat. Also there
were some Westfalia GL's sold in canada 87 up that had the floor tracks as
well, but not in the US.
the floor tracks are the same tracks as the 2 person middle seat tracks/rails
in a vanagon passenger van. you can fit ANY vanagon passenger van 2 person
middle seat in a Westy full camper. they will fit in there with both armrests
on. there was also the ultra-rare single captains chair on swival seat
lockbox that was an option but very hard to find, and usually fetch big $.
you can install these floor tracks/rails into ANY full westy. every
westfalia comes from the factory with the same threaded bolt holes in the floor as
the passenger vans... its just that the westy has plastic bolts filling these
holes, if they didnt have the middle seat tracks. quite a few listers have
installed floor tracks into their non-floor track westys. basically you have to
look underneath your westy, locate these dummy plastic bolts filling the
threaded holes, and your tracks will get mounted above them inside on your metal
floor. you will have to take a radial arm saw, and set the blade to cut thru
your westy's plywood subfloor, do you can recess these rails down in the floor.
you do not need to remove your whole plywood subfloor. ive seen some people
just mount the rails on top of the plywood floor - this is fine if you dont
mind stubbing your toes and dont care about a clean install, but if it were me,
id do it the right way. once rails/tracks are mounted, you can just cut some
strips of wood to fill in the slots when the middle seat is not being used,
and then throw your floormat back over them and it will be flush with the
floor. nice thing about these seats, is that they are freestanding when not
mounted so u can use them as campground (or living room) furniture.. they also have
seatbelts, and the seat can be mounted either facing forward , or rearwards.
"required shameless plug inserted here"
incodentially, i have 3 of these 2 person middle seats for sale, they have
seatbelts, and come w/ floortracks/rails and bolts. have tan, grey, or blue.
i cant ship them so they must be picked up in cold, snowy s.e. Penna.
chris
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