TheSamba.com :: View topic - 75-79 WW Seat Bottom Pad fits one frame but not the other.

Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:21 am

I'm redoing the driver's side seat on my '75 Riviera. The problem is that Wolfsburg West Seat pad, the bottom part, that I bought won't fit at the narrow end. I have a spare seat frame bottom from a '76 Westy which would fit the pad perfectly. The problem is that this spare '76 frame has broken springs. I know that there were differences in the passenger seat frames between 75 and 76, but the WW website doesn't indicate there were differences with the pads. WW is not answering their technical phone line right now so I thought if anybody here would have some suggestions for me.

This is what I bought. And I double checked, I was shipped the correct part.
http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=211881375H

This is a comparison between the two seat frames.

This is the '75 frame. It's wider here...

This is the '76 frame. It fits fine.

What do you think?

Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:32 am

These frames are different. Check out the differences in the springs.

Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:33 am

Quote: What do you think?

IMHO you will need to make a decision. You can use it as it is, try to swap springs or look for another seat. WW only shows 68-74 and 75-79.

Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:39 pm

SGKent wrote: Quote: What do you think?

IMHO you will need to make a decision. You can use it as it is, try to swap springs or look for another seat. WW only shows 68-74 and 75-79.

The springs have broken in three places on the frame that works, so instead of swapping the springs, I think that I am going to try swapping just the upper part of the frame and bend the springs so it fits.

What tool would be best to remove and reinstall these clasps (see photo) so they go back on nice and tight? Would the careful use of piers and a screwdriver do the job?

Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:15 pm

I think it is 76-79 are the same seat rails. Not sure though on the pads.

Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:39 pm

it may crack when you try to remove it. You might heat it up with a torch first. Keep the heat away from the springs.

Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:14 pm

Chris,

I will be needing to buy pads for my seats soon. I don't know what year my seats are, but the springs look like your '75s. The distance across where you are having trouble is 15.5" on mine. How do your seats measure up?

If you can't get the pads to work, and your seat is wider than 15.5" I wouldn't mind buying the pads off you for what you paid.

-Brad

Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:55 am

Bradgt74 wrote: Chris,

I will be needing to buy pads for my seats soon. I don't know what year my seats are, but the springs look like your '75s. The distance across where you are having trouble is 15.5" on mine. How do your seats measure up?

If you can't get the pads to work, and your seat is wider than 15.5" I wouldn't mind buying the pads off you for what you paid.

-Brad

Thanks for the offer, Brad but I think that I've got this figured out. I'm in the process of swapping out the top rings. Here you can see the '76 ring laid on top of the '75 ring. You can really see how much more narrow the '76 ring is; I measured it at 14.0" at the narrower spot compared to 15.75" on the '75 seat frame.

You can see that I've already wire-wheeled the rust off and last night I painted the ring with primer and more gloss black. This after noon, I'll begin the swap. Here's a pic of the ring being removed.

But, Brad would you be interested in my '75 passenger seat which I repadded last year? It has the kind of frame that doesn't have rails. I was planning on taking this seat apart again to get at the WW pad to install them in the '76 passenger seat and a swivel. I run the risk of breaking the tabs since I'm sure that I've weakened them. I'll take your offer. Here's some pix, let me know if you want to take a closer look.

Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:22 pm

After a bunch of wire bending and repainting, I've finished repadding the driver's side seat. It turns out that I must have been lucky that I got an odd-ball sized 1975 bottom seat frame which was exactly like my 1976 bottom seat frame except that the '75 version is wider at the bottom, narrower end of the frame by about an 1.5 - 2 inches.

Since the proper sized frame (from the '76) had broken springs in three places I had to remove the upper ring, this guy...

... and wire wheel the rust off and paint the proper sized ring and swap them out.

In addition I had to hand-bend this spring because it was too wide. I used a block of wood and my brake line bending tool. This wire is very tough to change shape but I got it to fit by bending the ends up.

Finally, here's the cleaned and repadded driver's seat next to the original passenger seat. Sorry for the dark photo.

Thu Jan 28, 2010 1:06 pm

Awfully impressive. Well done.

Thu Jan 28, 2010 4:48 pm

I'll trade you my broke down seats for your recovered ones! joking. I must say yours came out looking GREAT!!!

Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:55 pm

I'm having tough luck with these dang seat frames!

Moving onto the next seat restoration and I busted the same spring that was giving me problems on the first seat. I did it with the brass wire wheel brush on my angle grinder. I'm out of spare seat parts so if anyone has a lead on a new frame bottom or at least a replacement spring, please PM me.

Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:28 pm

I'm in the middle of the same job. I bought a 74 parts bus and mice ate all of the padding out of them. The seats look good but deflated. The material I bought was from west coast metric and are shaped pads made of foam. I got both but and back seat foams + the sisal backer for 95+40 shipping. What made you go back with the coconut fiber stuff? I wanted foam because I know how badly that stuff sheds. I've cleaned the seat stands up once and don't want to do it again. My springs are equally crappy but I have 3 parts frames to make my two keepers whole.

Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:41 pm

chazz79 wrote: I'm in the middle of the same job. I bought a 74 parts bus and mice ate all of the padding out of them. The seats look good but deflated. The material I bought was from west coast metric and are shaped pads made of foam. I got both but and back seat foams + the sisal backer for 95+40 shipping. What made you go back with the coconut fiber stuff? I wanted foam because I know how badly that stuff sheds. I've cleaned the seat stands up once and don't want to do it again. My springs are equally crappy but I have 3 parts frames to make my two keepers whole.

I don't know, I guess Atwell sold me on the coconut fiber pads. Be careful with those springs.

Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:57 pm

we went with a nice quality tight burlap under the coconut fiber so that it catches the shedding.

Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:00 pm

We should go half-zies on this bus!

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/pts/1573219215.html

I don't have the space right now, but I may this summer.

Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:19 pm

Bradgt74 wrote: We should go half-zies on this bus!

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/pts/1573219215.html

I don't have the space right now, but I may this summer.

...perhaps... :D

Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:16 pm

SGKent wrote: we went with a nice quality tight burlap under the coconut fiber so that it catches the shedding.

I didn't read up on anything but I thought the same thing the other day when I was at the local army surplus store. I bought 4 large burlap coffee sacks for a buck apeice.

Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:25 pm

I am also in the middle of the job. The "burlap" I got from sewfine is a very heavy duty vinyl/cloth pretty easy to use and seems very effective. Chazz - did you have trouble getting the right pads for your '74? Sewfine sent me the wrong ones (really nice ones), they were convinced that they were for a '74 on. (They also made the covers for the wrong year- they said there is some confusion about the '74 - I bet if some one was looking for real nice covers for a '75+ they would give you a deal on them. Very well made, but they have yellow piping, which is nice if you have a yellow bus, othewise I am not too sure what they are going to do with them.

Mon Feb 22, 2010 11:37 pm

I'll attack those tommorrow. I have all my supplies so it's just a matter of hacking them together. I'll post some pics in here. It might help to have both the late and early styles of seat represented. I didn't realize there where so many variations of bay window seats.