Club 80-90 Forums

Hello there,

I wonder if somebody could point me in the right direction please, thank you. (And I'm new to this forum)

My partner and I have recently purchased a 1990 T25 Water-colled Big Bore 2.0Lt Petrol and are very happy with her. The van had come with a set of "proper" rear seats which the previous owner had got from eBay which allowed him to fit decent seatbelts for child-safety and so on.

We decided that we wanted to fit a Rock and Roll bed in the back but we didn't like the "bench" style for exactly the same reason, so we hunted around for a variant that was like the a real car seat. Eventually we found one on eBay being sold by a gentleman in Germany. I believe they came from a limited edition model (White Star or Blue-something?) which was only avaliable in Germany for one year...

Anyway, we got the seats shipped to the UK and then had them lying around for a few weeks until we could find a VW mechanic who could fit them (I'm not mechanically minded, sorry) - he fitted them up and said that they were a perfect fit for the van, no issues installing them at all - however there are apparently two "L-Shaped Brackets" that seemed to be missing from the kit which is now preventing the seats from being locked into position when in the normal seating position. In his opinion they should definitley have been supplied.

I've tried contacting the guy in Germany who sold us the bed but so far I haven't heard back from him in a week and it's been a while since the eBay purchase went through so I am not sure if I can do anything there.

I've uploaded two photographs showing the new seats as they are at the moment - they are both the right hand side as if looking towards the back of the vechicle.

The mechanic we're owking with has said that he can make up some brackets but it'll be a bit of a pain to do and will cost at least £75, plus he doesn't know exactly how they should look/operate.

Based on what I've described does anyone have any advice as to what the brackets should look like or where I can buy some or does anyone have any spares! We are a buit stuck at the moment as you could probably tell so any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

James Gillies

Do you have a pic of the whole seat not so close to try and figure out which one it is?

Maybe I'm being dumb but I'm struggling to figure out what I'm looking at in the pics.

Hello Gary,

Thanks for your time. I've been back out to the van just now and taken a few more pictures which should show you what type of seat we've had fitted, then moving closer to show where the seat bracket and existing bolt from the van frame don't quite meet.

As it happens I have just had a reply from the gentleman in Germany who has said the following (via a German - English translation tool to get it as accurate as possible) - I think it'll help:

"In the multi-van side a rail is welded firmly with thread. There, the bolt is then screwed into the cap and fit the seat back.
The angle from which said the VW specialist have been installed in older models.
In a locksmith you must ask to which you have screwed the bolts in the side wall about 2.5-3cm renew.
That should be no problem for a locksmith.

I hope that you can translate here, unfortunately I do not have such parts, which have most of the newer buses, however, the tracks already there."

Again, I am a newbie, so apologies for not knowing about any of this...

Kind regards,

James Gillies

Hi Gary,

I could only add three pictures - here's the seats in full glory.

Thanks a lot.

James

Right, so it's a multivan seat you've got hold of.

I take it you only got the seat base and back and not the entire seat frame too?

Like this.. (mine with the seat base and back removed)



If thats the case the easiest way is to pick up some rock n roll hinges and change them for your caravelle seat ones (I'm guessing this is what was fitted before) as I believe there is a conversion kit available (do a search on here) or get the whole multivan frame like in my pic and switch it for the caravelle one.
Also in this pic you'll notice the multivan side panels have protruding bits built into the panel, these are what your new seat sits against when it is up.


Someone might be along with a simpler solution but getting the proper frame for the RnR multivan seat would be what I would do.

I should have added that with mine the rock n roll hinges lock the seat in the upright position themselves, it doesn't need to lock into the pins you have on the side panels, as you'll have noticed my bus doesn't have the pins.

I'm unsure as to why your seat back has locking mechinisms on it... I've never noticed them before on other RnR seats.

Hopefully someone will come and shine a light on why they are there! My own bus is an 85 and my RnR is from an 88 maybe they changed them later on but either way I can't see why they can't be fitted to the correct hinges so the seat locks itself in the correct position.

there are various different multivan seats, all designed to fit with the plastic side panels but some years they had the locking pins just like the normal Caravelle seats then they went to the molded in seat support in the sides, or maybe the early ones were the molded ones and the very late ones had the locking pins, so either try and get hold of a set of side panels with the table and the molded seat supports or get some caravelle seat pins and make the necessary fittings to fit them to your shell - if it wasn't a minibus/velle it won't have the mounting points welded into it, and with it being an early van it probably hasn't got them for these later style seats