what seats?

[fairwynds]

what's the definative answer please....as to what seats (Saab?) will fit and be a straight swap into my '85 T25 Transporter?

I have tried Wiki, but not clear, sorry...

[shepster]

Simple answer to this one.......NONE!!! only type 25 seats fit straight in.

[dalmationman]

I have fitted Saab seats in my van.
It was not a straight swap, I followed the directions on wiki.
This took longer than expected and the seats now sit higher than the original vw ones although I find them much more comfortable.
To do the job you need the following.
Saab seats
Angle grinder
Drill
Some spacers
A few spanners
Loads of patience.
Best of luck

[fairwynds]

Cheers Dalmationman
so if Saab seats, which ones are the best? I have a Saab gargage who say they can get whatever ones I ask for (given time) as they break em.

Any particular model?

[GavinSmith]

I fitted some Ford Scorpio Ultima ones with relative ease.

Needed to cut the old sliders of and make some holes in the bottom of the new seats for them to fit.

Also bodged the spring that allows you to slide them a little.

Just need ot figure the wiring for the electric bit as at the moment one of them doesn't reclince.

Looks cool though and that's what matters.

[dalmationman]

Mine where from an old saab 9 3 I think.
Cost me fifty quid off ebay. Leather and heated and black, lumbar support etc. Matches well with the rest of the black cab plastic and door cards.
In addition to the list I posted you also need a selection of M8 nuts and bolts. It's fiddly to position them in the seat runners so make sure you get good ones that spin on the thread nie and easy, lubricate them as well maybe. Go to a fixings supplier for them.
I found that some were better than others, and the ones from a certain well known car and cycle shop were particularly cr*p and expensive, ended up chucking them in the bin.
Fitting the seats is easy once you have done it The first one took me about 4 hours, and the second one took about 30 minutes .

[Fritz]

On our 1st Camper I decided to change the pi$$ poor origional seats ,so I set about fitting ones sourced from a Mk4 escort.

Belive it or not the origional VW sliders can be bolted straight on to the Escort seat bases as the width is identical to the VW seat mountings........Only the plastic wrap round pieces off the escort seats needed to be re-worked to clear parts of the runners, also the seat slider adjusted needed a small modification to the return spring.

Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,,PS, it took me about 1 1/2 hours to do each one.

[dridgy]

Hi ive just fitted a set of seats from a rover 800 series car.

these seats had the seat belt clip fitted onto them so i used the complete rover seat belts as well.
what i did was take out the old vw runners off the metal seat bases by drilling out the spot welds.
than i welded the new rover seat runners to the top of the seat bases.
it took a bit of time but the do look great and now i have some nice inertia seat belts as my old belts were those crappy static ones.
i have kept all my original seats and runners just in case i want to put them back one day.
whats ever seats you decide on are going to take some time to fit nicely.

to be honest i was fairly happy with my original seats although on a long run they got a bit uncomfortable.
but my friend was scrapping the rover and asked me if i wanted them for my van.

hope this helps
john

[trundletruc]

There is nothing wrong with the standard seats for long distance driving. You will save yourself a lot of effort if you just get them reupholstered. Then you can have them in any colour you want!

Trundletruc.

[sevy]

Saab 9000 seats fitted in my van , and a few at bustypes saw them and one even bought a set there for 90 quid leather heated and fully adjustable . Fit them by drilling two holes on inside mount runner then two on the wheel arch , i ground down the expansion tank mount and drilled through used m8 bolts and lock nuts , there solid , got a spare pair of plastic sides and a stanley did some fettling and bingo both sides look dogs nob, wider comfy and look "pooh" hot in leather . if you want them i paid 48 on ebay for front and rears the rears will fit in a full width bed space but to big for 3/4 bed . if you wNT TO LOOK ILL BE AT VAN WEST OR IM IN NOTTS i can send pics if required ok good luck . Ive seen mk 3 4 gti seats fitted , at the end of the day use your imagination and a bit of welding and patience and it will fit .

[futurecut]

i fitted saab seats from a 93 but they all have the same runners. The wiki link (horace i think) is a good guide amd worksd a treat. I am a bodger through and through but this was an easy job with no bodging required. I didn't bother to reshape the seat adjuster as on the wiki, i just bent the bar with my hands and it works fine. I would however strongly consider not drilling through and using bolts under the arches as in the last post for the simple reason that it's dead easy to slide the nuts required down inside the runners from the back and grind your bolts down so that they fit well and don't protrude into the wheel arch underside as surely this is an unseen corrosion safety nightmare waiting to happen?

I would also recommend that the bolts and nuts use conform to the right tensile stanmdards for seat mountings (ie the gold ones) but i haven't uised them, but will swap them if i see them sometime.

Seats were 25 quid for the pair from the scrapper, haven't wired in the heating as me bus is quite toasty enough already and the mountings were about 8 quid. Very comfy but check that you don't have massive thighs and can't get in our out easily.

Saying all this i saw some rober leather seats that looked like they would mod in well. Rover though.....