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Thu Oct 26, 2017 10:01 am

they can easily be modified to bolt in without to much trouble so if you sell van you can easily remove them or gain access underneath a lot easier

Sat Dec 30, 2017 12:25 am

Any chance someone has photos of the bolted install that tencent describes? The photobucket links broke :cry:
Thanks!

Sat Dec 30, 2017 1:26 am

parteephoto wrote: Any chance someone has photos of the bolted install that tencent describes? The photobucket links broke :cry:
Thanks!

Pics will show with this -

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobuc...aedg?hl=en

Sat Dec 30, 2017 9:35 am

tencentlife wrote: Quote: but am concerned about the possibility of the bolts shearing in an accident and throwing myself and passenger through the windshield.

You should get in the habit of using seatbelts.

(That's not snark; it contains a specific answer to your question if you think about it for a moment)

I see this is an old post (7 years)....
Seatbelt won't work when rear ended at high speeds. The bolts need to be strong enough to hold your weight being pushed against the seat back.

Saturn had a seat design failure where when the car was rear ended at speed the seatbacks failed and the passenger and driver would be thrown unsecured into the back seat of the car.

The same issue would happen if the bolt heads failed using this installation method.

Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:24 pm

another vote for Tencent method...I installed my swivel seats today and decide to bolt them instead of welding. I want to be able to go back under the seat later and add some soundproofing material, and perhaps install a drawer from RMW.

Once I realized that the swivel seat itself is hold on by 4 bolts, putting 6 bolts for the base did not seem like a problem...

Tencent was correct, you have to be very precise with the location of the holes.

I'll try to add a couple pictures tomorrow.

Fri May 17, 2019 5:36 pm

What years had the swivel seats? Just Westys?

Fri May 17, 2019 7:10 pm

^^^ From the factory it was all "full campers", all years...not "Weekenders"...not tintops. (Samba terminology, NOT OG VW)...

:oops: :roll: :wink:

- Dave

Fri May 17, 2019 7:17 pm

Well... Thanks Dave!

Sun Dec 15, 2019 6:30 pm

I have a set of seat rotaters and am wondering if the new Nylon Bushing from FLAPS are worth changing in or just re use mine as they all seem to be there and fine.
I had them installed and was happy with how simple the install was. If you have a van without them they are worth every penny, and great when parked.

Stacy

Fri May 22, 2020 9:33 pm

TopBud wrote: I made a bottom with just stock steel I bought at the local metal shop/welder. It is thick enough that it doesn't flex and it works fine. Another way to do it is just use 2 pieces of metal about 2" wide and weld them to the rails and make sure they line up with the mounting holes. That will still allow the top to spin. I played with the different ways to mount it. Do you have someone in your area that has a swivel seat to look at and see how it works. Once you see it, you will be able to make something work. I am not a professional on these, but have been driving them and working on my own vehicles.
but, the main idea here is to make sure the "base" is thick enough to support the seat and the passenger and also allow it to swivel.
I don't have pictures but can draw something up if you need it

Anyone here that has modified a swivel to fit without the base in this fashion? I got a set that, for the price, could not pass up, but I've got to figure out how to mount without the bases.

Fri May 22, 2020 10:44 pm

I used 1/4" aluminum drilled and mounted through existing holes in track, nuts captured in track. I also chose teflon furniture feet slides to rotate on. check page 2 of my build thread. search in title only, cost of my 87 Vanagon. Hope that helps.

Sat May 23, 2020 7:15 am

vino de vano wrote: I used 1/4" aluminum drilled and mounted through existing holes in track, nuts captured in track. I also chose teflon furniture feet slides to rotate on. check page 2 of my build thread. search in title only, cost of my 87 Vanagon. Hope that helps.
Went for page 2, and stayed for the whole thing! I've bookmarked your build post, and will be following. Thank you for your solution, that looks to be my best bet. Here's the link for members with the same predicament:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=20

Sat May 23, 2020 8:17 am

Gruppe B wrote:
Seatbelt won't work when rear ended at high speeds.

Actually, at any speed. Barely needs to be said.

Quote: The bolts need to be strong enough to hold your weight being pushed against the seat back.

Yes, they do, so how do you decide what's strong enough? Well, the seat tracks are fastened to the seat bases with only four M6's, two per side, 10.9 grade. We can safely infer that that was sufficient to pass the pertinent USDOT rear-end collision tests, since the vans were sold in the US with this assembly.

I used the same size bolts to fasten the swivel base to the seat pedestals. My pictures showed 8.8 hex screws, I later changed them to 10.9 socket head screws. So in case anyone's wondering, if grade 10.9 or 12.9 M6 bolts are used the bolt-down method is as strong as what was already holding the seat base down. And if you want to overkill it, go to 6 or 8 bolts for the swivel base and you'll be assured the seat base will pop its track bolts well before the swivel base comes up.

Sat May 23, 2020 9:29 am

I suspect that the deeply recessed factory track might play a much larger beneficial role in a crash than is realized.

Mark

Sat May 23, 2020 11:21 am

Is it possible to route seat heater wires up through T3 sliders?