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Date:         5 Feb 1996 09:28:35 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Harvey Chao" <Harvey_Chao@smtp.svl.trw.com>
Subject:      Re: None  (adding seats)

RE>None (adding seats) 2/5/96

========================================================================= Date: Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com> From: dbr@bullhead.adp.unc.edu Subject:

Is there a way to install temporary seats in the open space between the = driver's/passenger's front seats and the bench seats in the back of the = 80 Vanagon. There is a *lot* of space there and when not camping, it = would be nice to use it for seating. What say ye? ======================

Coupla thoughts:

Any seat you install and use while moving, for safety's sake ( as well as sleeping soundly a night and meeting various assundry state and fed. rules), needs to be properly anchored and provided with effective seat belts.

The best way to do that is use factory seats, belts, and anchor points for both.

I would guess that the basic chassis for the standard Vanagon and for the Westi is the same - that anchor points for seating are standard in all chassis, and probably across a reasonable range of years.

If you remove the carpeting in the area exposed when you open the sliding door, I would expect you to find a couple of rows of threaded holes in the floor that run from the dor to the far side of the floor pan. These holes should be plugged with black plastic caps to seal them, as I believe that they go streight through the floor to the outside.

These threaded holes come in two sizes, larger ones to anchor "rails" whose end view looks something like this -__- if I remember. The factory middle bench seat slides over/engages this rail, and there are small "locking" clips that bolt in place to anchor the seat to prevent side to side movement. (I'm not real sure about the smaller bolts and clips - if they go through the floor pan or just clamp against the mounting rails - but there should be at least two rows of 4{?} threaded holes to mount the anchor rails.)

I'd suggest you go to a wrecking yard and find a donor van that can contribute a seat (with belts attached), rails, bolts, and clips. I have a general visulation of a Westi interior, and would estimate that you may be able to install a 2 postion bench seat between the sliding door (hard up against it) and the cabinet/sink/stove??? that mount against the driver's side of the van interior wall.

I was able to convert a standard 7 passenger vanagon to seat 8 by adding an additional seat between the end of the existing middle bench seat and the door. To do this I --

o cut off the handle on the end of the middle bench seat as close to the seat frame as possible to get clearance room.

o obtained a middle bench seat from a newer van that had the "fold forward" seat backs and essentially cut the double seat in half and re-assembled it into a single wide seat with a folding back and swing up armrest. Seat belts were reinstalled using existing mounting threaded holes in the seat frame and stock hardware and seatbelts salvaged from the donor seat (which was new and unused, stored indoors etc. so that the belt integrity was not compromised by weathering or solar exposure).

o went to a wrecking yard and got bolts, clips, and rails from a donor van. Cut the rails to length and redrilled the mounting holes in the rails so that the donor rails extended the existing rails to the edge of the floor pan by the sliding door and matched the threaded mounting holes in the floor pan. Bolted in place with bolts obtained with the rails, used clips and smaller bolts similarly obtained to anchor the additional seat in place.

The result is an additional seat that mounts, anchors, and has seat belts that re all "factory" stock in design and implementation.

If you need details feel free to contact me and I'll see what I can remember - it's been a few years since I did this. Harvey


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