3 across the front?!?

Thin bits of metal and bright blue light. Including glass & trim.

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Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

Good thinking. I could pick up on existing bolt holes in the seat box and bolt to the roof strengthener rib at the top. The inertia reel could go down low and the belt guide up high to stick with the factory dimensions.

Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

ImageImage

Seems the original roof strengthening rib is still in there and it has another plate welded to it, I’m confident that will be plenty strong enough to bolt to for the seat belt mounting post.

davidoft1
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by davidoft1 »

Forden341 wrote: 17 Jul 2020, 10:36 ImageImage

Seems the original roof strengthening rib is still in there and it has another plate welded to it, I’m confident that will be plenty strong enough to bolt to for the seat belt mounting post.



Perfect :D

TeflonTim
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by TeflonTim »

Hi Forden. Did you manage to get your 3-point belt fitted?
I’m hoping to fit one in my van.
It does seem to be mentioned in lots of posts but I haven’t seen one actually installed.
Cheers


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Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

I haven’t yet. My seat is off being trimmed at the moment and that’s my next bit. I ended up removing 128mm from a Caravelle rear twin seat and fitting it to a slider from a single seat with the tilt mechanism.

keynsham1
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by keynsham1 »

Ive seen a single seat adjuster mechanism added to a double seat to make it self supporting , you’re going to block the walk way either way, the double slides onto the single seat runner with no mods

I have been playing with the idea of a double front passenger seat and have even gone to the length of buying one! I found the pictures below of a conversion which uses a special frame made up to support the rear of the seat but using the mechanism from a single front seat (I have a spare for sacrifice!!) would be a brilliant idea. But I can imagine that may involve a lot of cutting and welding? Anyone ever tried it?
ImageImage

Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

My method was a lot of work but I wanted to keep the arm rests for support and match the captains seat.
ImageImage
This is where I chose to lose the width. ImageImageImage
And that’s where it sits in the van with the tilt mechanism, base and slider from the single seat that I cut up.

keynsham1
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by keynsham1 »

Forden341, How wide is the double seat you have used? I am guessing it is wider than the standard front twin seat from a van? I actually really like the idea of what you have done as you end up with three proper seats across the front!

Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

From memory I think the Caravelle double rear seat is just over 1m once the outer arm rests are removed. I’m sure the factory twin front seat is around 850 wide but I recall thinking that 900 could work without the captains drivers seat arm rest, I wanted to retain this so I removed 128mm from the width of it overall but I did this in 2 64mm bits (one each side of the central arm rests. The upholstery will have 4 32mm pieces removed to make it all look factory hopefully.
Hope this makes some sense😜

Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

ImageImage

Here’s the finished seat set up. Very pleased with it and gives a plush factory feel that was never offered as far as I’m aware.

TeflonTim
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by TeflonTim »

This looks really nice. Great job! Can you show some detail of the fixing positions for the centre 3 point belts.


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Forden341
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Forden341 »

ImageImage

At the top I have passed a threaded plate through the strengthening rib on the original roof (this has an extra 3mm panel too on a Gipsy) and also used a spreader plate inside the seat box to tie into the original reciever mounting. The upright bar is 25x50 box 3mm wall thickness and I have used harness mounting captive plates inside to allow me to use the original 7/16 unf (I think 🤔) bolts on the inertia reels and other mountings.

TeflonTim
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by TeflonTim »

Looks really good. Thanks for sharing.


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ash1293
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by ash1293 »

I’m clearing out some bits and noticed two 3rd row 307sw seats I have are relatively slim, low and once simple brackets are removed, flat based.
Image


Could be mounted on a box steel frame to give an alternative to the bench.

Self supporting backs which fold down, and integral seat belt clips.

Anyway, just thinking out loud, if anyone is interested they are advertised on FB as didn’t think they were appropriate on here.
1990 1.9DG 34DAT carb Leisuredrive hightop

Iwallace
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Re: 3 across the front?!?

Post by Iwallace »

Forden341 wrote: 15 Jul 2020, 07:57
Thanks all
Bert.

Hi, do you still have the seats? I’m looking for two single front seats

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