reversing front seats and replaceing the seat itself

[Tom_B]

I was driving up the M1 yesterday and musing on reversing the front seats -I have not had a close look yet but I'm wondering if there is a reason why I can't just slide the front seats fully out turn them around and slide them back in so the ay face rearwards?

I imagine I would have to remove stops on the rails - are the rails different on each side?

Also is it straightforward to swap the seat itself? My missus would like seats with arms on and I'm wondering how complex it is to buy seats out of a VW or something and swap them over.

Ta v. much!

[g8dhe]

If you mean the driver and passenger seat then you can arrange to rotate them. See this link;

If you mean the middle bench then yes that can also be turned, there are Factsheets here http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/member ... factsheets

[Tom_B]

thanks for your reply - I meant the front seats. I've been living in Yorkshire for 23 years so I'm always looking for the low cost option first - the swivel seats are a lovely bit of engineering and very elegant but out of my budget at the moment. I guess I am curious about if it is physically possible to slide the seat of its runners and slide it back on the other wa.

[g8dhe]

I think its been done a while back now, but the seats are quite heavy to lift out to turn around.

[cmm303]

thanks for your reply - I meant the front seats. I've been living in Yorkshire for 23 years so I'm always looking for the low cost option first - the swivel seats are a lovely bit of engineering and very elegant but out of my budget at the moment. I guess I am curious about if it is physically possible to slide the seat of its runners and slide it back on the other wa.

To access the drivers side of the engine when the seat can't be tipped back because of a conversion, the advice is commonly to unbolt the seat, suggesting that simply sliding the seat out from its runners is not an (easy) option.

[dave_aber]

To access the drivers side of the engine when the seat can't be tipped back because of a conversion, the advice is commonly to unbolt the seat, suggesting that simply sliding the seat out from its runners is not an (easy) option.

It's not an option at all with a side conversion, as there's no space to slide the seat back into.

The stops on the rails you would have to remove are not the easiest to remove - various pressed lumps on the top rail bump into the top of the hot 'rivets' that hold the end feet onto the lower rail (can be seen on Geoff's photo above).

Between the top and bottom rails are ball bearings in a frame which the seat slides on - these would need to be inserted at just the right point, or the seat wouldn't slide forward far enough smoothly, causing the balls bearings to skid / drag.

In short - yes, you could slide them out, turn, and re-inset but it would be a real fiddle.

The way the swivel seat above and my own similar design work, you could ditch the swivel altogether, and just use the locking-down mechanism to un-mount the seat, spin it round in your hands, then re-fix it on the rails the other way round. The swivel bit just makes this easier.