Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:34:03 -0700
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Let's Talk About Seats
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTil58ECmi1Le4P5xRanxPsrWWJ12XMH8ar6OsRJV@mail.gmail.com>
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Hey, my EV seat swap is gaining notoriety! It really is pretty easy to do, and keep in mind that the oldest EV seat is newer than the newest Vanagon seat. The ones I found were from a '93 EV with twice the mileage of my '87 Westy and the seats were still vastly more comfortable and they only cost me $100. I'd love to have Recaros but not for what they'd cost.
I did discover after the swap that the EV seats are positioned slightly forward on the mounting rails relative to the stock seats, so the seating position winds up being slight closer to the wheel at full slideback, resulting in less legroom. Second page of this thread has notes and pix of my followup trimming of the EV seat rails to permit more rearward travel and increased legroom.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416093&start=0
Seriously, for the money and effort involved this swap is hard to beat. EV seats have folding adjustable armrests but for the purists a drawback might be that the EV fabrics don't match the Vanagon fabrics. Believe me, after the first drive you won't care if they look different. One other point, the vast improvement I mentioned is compared to the stock Westy seat on a swivel base. If you have a non-Westy then your seats are already larger and better bolstered than Westy seats, so the step up to the EV seats won't give as big a difference as if you are coming from a Westy.
Stephen
--- On Sat, 6/26/10, neil n <musomuso@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
From: neil n <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Let's Talk About Seats
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Saturday, June 26, 2010, 2:45 PM
On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 4:03 PM, Al Knoll <anasasi@gmail.com> wrote:
> A slight modifickation to the seat and EuroVan seats with all their features
> slip right on.
I had read of this.
Loren. Here's some pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/bike2vcu/_seatTransplant?authkey=0inUs01c7cI#
from thesamba. Sheds some light on size differences etc.
Neil.
--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
