Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 12:14:01 -0500
Reply-To: EMZ <vw4x4@FYI.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: EMZ <vw4x4@FYI.NET>
Subject: Front seat padding
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Well sometime ago I asked the list about the confort of
the seats in the Vanagons. I concluded that the back rest
needs work, so I padded mine. Here what I did.
PADDING YOUR VANAGON SEAT BACK:
1 - REMOVE SEAT BACK: This is the hardest part.
Remove the arm rest by removing the black
center plug, pull the armrest off, and remove
its mounting bracket. Turn the seat over and
remove the small socket head screws that hold
the seat track to the base of the seat. These
bolts are small and go in front the bottom.
Note the springs under the seat track etc.
Remove the 2 larger bolts that the seat piviet
on the the seat should fail apart, except for
the spring (wire) in the tube. Yes it has to
be removed.
2 - REMOVE COVERING: on the bottom of the back you
will find small metal tabs bent over. Straighten
them, and remove the metal rod they hold in place.
Pull the head rest out and pull out the plastic
mounts that are pushed into the top of the seat.
As you start to remove the covering you will
find inside a final wire holding the covering
in place. Note the palce that it is tied into.
3 - INSERT PADDING: Using a 2" thick piece of foam
rubber carefully cut and install the foam to fill
the hollow back of the seat. It requires that two
pieces be used because of the strange frame work.
The top piece being 4 1/4" x the seat width. In
addition I install another 1" thick piece in the
lower back area, and the same in the upper center
between the head rest support.
4 - PADDING SUPPORT: Cover the new foamed area of the
seat with a thin piece of sheet metal. I used two
pieces of .04" thick aluminum. I pop riveted one
piece from the bottom edge to the 4" wide cross
support and a top piece from this 4" support to
the top. Insert the edges under the existing fram
at the top and bottom. At this stage there is
only 1 small problem. You have to clear
a path in the foam for the plastic head rest mounts.
I simply turned the seat cover inside out and
install the head reset and padded around it.
6 - RE-ASSEMBLE: This should be straight forward.
Don't forget to tie down the two wires that keep the
cover fabric tight to the seat. I had to drill
extra holes thru the base of sheet metal cover.
Comments can be directed to:
Eric 86-VW4x4
vw4x4@fyi.net 72-240z
Pittsburgh, PA USA 1936-Chrysler