Fitting bench Seats to T3

Post by **Zimbok** » 13 Mar 2007, 17:36

Hi, looking to fit bench seat (double seat) to the front of T3 to accommodate wife and small son. Aware that I need a bar behind to keep it up. Know of one for sale. Just a couple of questions though:-

1) My bus is manual therefore will double seat have any effect on gear change i.e. will the person sitting in the middle be in the way of the gear change / gear lever.

2) Will I still be able to get to hand brake - is there still enough of a gap between the bench seat and the drivers seat to operate?

3) Is it difficult to fit?

I haven't seen a bench seat fitted in the flesh so to speak, so difficult to visualise.

many thanks.

Post by **billymaya** » 13 Mar 2007, 18:24

hi mthere mate i have a a 88 panel van it currently has 2 double seat in front and drivers seat, i have my girlfriend and our 7 year old daughter in front, daughter sits in the middle seat near the hand brake and gear stick, i havent found any probs operating the hand brake and only on the odd ocassion have a knocked me daughters knees a couple of times with gear stick lol, but if she sits normaly theres no probs we just tend to have a wondering leg syndrome every now and again where she puts her leg between my seat and hers, on fitting i wouldnt have a clue but im sure some one on here can tell u

hope this helps

Post by **bigbluebus** » 13 Mar 2007, 19:56

1) My bus is manual therefore will double seat have any effect on gear change i.e. will the person sitting in the middle be in the way of the gear change / gear lever.

nope

2) Will I still be able to get to hand brake - is there still enough of a gap between the bench seat and the drivers seat to operate?

yes & yes

3) Is it difficult to fit?

ideally they should be supported by a factory fitted bulkhead

so I imagine the hardest bit will be fabricating / installing a suitable support

if it's a factory bench seat, the side nearest the door has standard seat slider rails on the bottom which will slide straight onto existing rails.

have recently taken mine out give us a minute, I'll try n take some pics . .

Post by **bigbluebus** » 13 Mar 2007, 20:04

righto . .this is from a LHD so

in this pic, can see the runners underneath, slide straight into existing runners etc etc

Post by **bigbluebus** » 13 Mar 2007, 20:07

the bolt (below the rip) is where you fasten the bracket that's attached to your support bar (theres one on other end same)

Post by **bigbluebus** » 13 Mar 2007, 20:10

you'll also need all these. The 2 shorties bolt to where your normal passenger seat belt stalk is now, and poke up through the middle of the bench seat.

the long one, on my van anyway, was bolted to the drivers seat stalk and came up through the gap between driver & passenger seats

Post by **bigbluebus** » 13 Mar 2007, 20:18

that's them installed in a LHD

Post by **Zimbok** » 14 Mar 2007, 07:00

"Bigbluebus",

Great, thanks for that. You're a star.

Couldn't have been more descriptive... has helped no end,

Cheers.