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Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:26 am

I am prepping a pan and I am wondering, Do most aftermarket seats come ready to mount to the stock seat rails or am I better off cutting the stock ones out of the way to make room for some after market seat mounts?

TIA.
-Dave

Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:49 am

Some people weld the stock runners from VW seats onto the seat base for the type of seat they are using, so that they can use the stock rails. Others claim that the stock seat rails are insubstantial and shouldn't be used, especially in an off-road application. I kinda go down the middle on this one.
I'm also in the middle of shopping for seats for my buggy. I've discovered a few things; Some come with optional rails, for a price of course. One other issue seems to be seat width...make sure that if you have a cage that has a bar running down the side that there is room for your seats. Beard make some skinny ones that I think will work with my manx clone.
If you do use the stock rails, take a good look at how they are attached. If you have replaced the pans, the new rails are rather shitty and need reinforcement. You can braze on extra supports, or do it with hardware. I replaced the pans on a convertible a few years back, and used some heavily modified hardware and machine screws and nuts to gusset mine.

Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:01 am

Well I am using the original pans so I have to assume that the seat rails that are there are sturdy enough. They seem pretty stout to me. It also sounds as if I need to pick a seat before I decide what to do. It would make cleaning the pan the rest of the way a little easier with the rails out of the way though.
Thanks for the input.

Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:46 am

Pick your exact seats first...

Whatever you do ssave your tracks right now... the brazillian stuff is tin foil.

T.

Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:55 pm

Thanks Tim. I decided that I am just going to leave the seat rails in place until I buy some seats and if I need to make some modifications I'll go from there.

Fri Nov 25, 2005 5:58 pm

DSC,

I think that your plan is best...leave the original rails in place until you know which seats you will use. I highly recommend sandblasting or otherwise stripping all the paint. I just had my pan sandblasted ($110) and it literally shed light on a few things that I would have left untended if I had not had that work done. Sandblasting might give you a better idea of how good your rails are, and help you discover a few other things to fix, such as:

Check where those little "feet" on the outer ends of the rear torsion tube attach to the rear of the pan...mine had broken the welds and come completely loose, and would have sounded like a ballpeen hammer on metal when I was on doubletrack. Some folks add a brace between the tube and the pan. I will probably do that too.

Good luck with your project.

Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:21 pm

wythac wrote: DSC,

I think that your plan is best...leave the original rails in place until you know which seats you will use. I highly recommend sandblasting or otherwise stripping all the paint. I just had my pan sandblasted ($110) and it literally shed light on a few things that I would have left untended if I had not had that work done. Sandblasting might give you a better idea of how good your rails are, and help you discover a few other things to fix, such as:

Check where those little "feet" on the outer ends of the rear torsion tube attach to the rear of the pan...mine had broken the welds and come completely loose, and would have sounded like a ballpeen hammer on metal when I was on doubletrack. Some folks add a brace between the tube and the pan. I will probably do that too.

Good luck with your project.

Yea I already stripped all the paint and rubber insulation all off with chemical stripper. Other than some minor pitting mostly on the drivers side the pan is in great shape.