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Thu Nov 13, 2014 8:24 am

Don't forget to do the safety mod that I posted above or you will unexpectedly slide your co-pilot (or yourself) right into the windshield on a sudden stop. This is a necessary mod on these seats, and if you don't do it you're putting yourself and your passengers in danger.

Sun Apr 26, 2015 12:06 pm

I have read through the entire thread and it seems that 93-96 are the EASIEST years to use but I could not find anything referring to 2001 seats. Has anyone used 2001 seats and, if so, how much modification work is needed to make the seats fit a 1986 west

thanks

Sun Apr 26, 2015 8:45 pm

Just did the safety mod. A huge benefit and a must.

Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:18 am

Awesome. Now Eurovan seats are added to my long, long list.

Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:37 am

Eventually, if you want euro van seats u will do this:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=624840&highlight=

Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:43 am

kjono09 wrote: Eventually, if you want euro van seats u will do this:

Why? I have had EV seats in vanagons for a many years.
If I wanted them reupholstered they take care of that at the upholstry shop.

Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:54 am

thanks for the input but I am still curious to know about 2001 seats ... if I understand that EV seats correctly, in 97 the seat rails changed (eliminating the need to cut the down turn in the rails BUT requiring drilling) ... can anyone confirm that information.

Mon Apr 27, 2015 3:28 pm

Go back a page, someone gives a play by play on how to install a set of '99 EV seats but no pix. Feel free to add some pix for the next member to use as a tutorial.
Both sets that I have in my vans are from earlier models so I have no useful insight.
Good luck.

Thu May 07, 2015 3:26 pm

Greetings,
does anyone here know what year eurovan seats will fit vanagon,or will any year fit with modifications?
Ben

Thu May 07, 2015 8:19 pm

Ohh, hey you're new
so Hi..
and you might want to read thru this thread here: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=338291
I know theres 4 pages to it but the answer is in there. :wink:
bentetzner wrote: Greetings,
does anyone here know what year eurovan seats will fit vanagon,or will any year fit with modifications?
Ben

Fri May 08, 2015 8:17 am

bentetzner wrote: Greetings,
does anyone here know what year eurovan seats will fit vanagon,or will any year fit with modifications?
Ben
The easy answer is: None will slip in without modification. '93-'97 with light mods. Later seats require even more work.

Thu May 28, 2015 10:43 pm

Greetings all,

I've just put 1993 Eurovan seats in my 1991 Vanagon Westy.

Some notes:

-the 93 Eurovan seats were old, but I found the van the day after it arrived in the junkyard. Nobody had touched it and nothing was exposed to weather. The fabric is gray with tiny multicolored dots--this fabric seems to weather the years very well.

-originally I bought just the two front seats. While in the junkyard I swapped in the best headrests from all the others in the van.

-I took the front seats apart and the bottom seat cushions were very worn and stained. The bolsters were intact but not really supportive.

-I looked online and new seat cushions can be bought for $130 each.

-I went back to the junkyard the next day and bought the two folding jump seats out of the same Eurovan.

-the metal seat pan and the main seat frame are different, but all the other jump seat parts (cushion, fabric covers, armrests, headrests, spring subframe) are interchangeable with the front seats. This gave me two relatively unused sets of donor cushions, covers, armrests, and other goodies.

-I used an angle grinder and ground off the extra frame angles on the tracks, plus the ends of the wire springs noted in the safety bulletin. I painted the ground parts black to inhibit rust.

-I removed the seat covers, cleaned them in multiple washings of hot water, cold water, OxiClean, drip dry, and line dry in the sun. The bottom cushion bindings are cardboard and you need to be careful with those parts, but they stand up to repeated washings.

-I added two sets of springs to the seat back subframe to increase lumbar support. There are ears in the frame provided for these extra springs.

-I sprayed 3M 77 adhesive in the valleys of the bottom seat cushion where the bolsters were deteriorating, to hold the foam together.

-I added low density foam foundation pads between the bottom seat cushion and the seat pan to give more lift to the bolsters. These pads are rectangular in shape and are about 12" x 3" x 1" and placed under the bolsters.

-the seatback frames have mount points for the Eurovan seat grab handle, so you can always snatch one of those from the junkyard and add it later.

-I carefully refit the fabric covers on the cushions. The most useful tool for this work was a hooked pick from an inexpensive pick set bought at the auto parts store.

-steaming the cushions with a cheap fabric steamer helps give them volume and spring for refurbishing--this is an old upholsterer's trick. This effort, plus washing and drying, gave new life to the seat fabric and the refurbished seats don't have any droopy fabric--everything is nice and smooth/tight.

-I greased the seat tracks with a stick-based heavy lubricant that is fairly clean (usually used for zippers, but it works well in this application and doesn't attract dirt).

-I've got extra matching headrests for the back seat (I've ordered a headrest kit for the backseat from vwbusshop.de).

The "new" seats are wonderful. They do sit higher than my original Westy seats, but that's fine by me. Recline in the passenger seat is very welcome, though the armrest hits the seatbelt spool at a certain point. The softer headrests are also wonderful. The Eurovan armrests are narrower than the Vanagon armrests, but it's not that noticeable.

In the end I was able to upgrade to "self-refurbished" Eurovan seats with a little bit of effort, but the sale of the leftover parts and the old Vanagon seats will let me break even on this. Upholstery work takes a gentle touch, patience, and attention to detail. This was a fun project.

kourt

Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:01 pm

How about the rear bench seat? Has anyone fit one of these into a Vanagon? Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thu Oct 22, 2015 10:21 am

Does anybody have pics of a eurovan Jumpseat install in a vanagon.

Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:13 am

Does anyone know if the front seats from a '95 Winnebago camper will fit? Didn't know if they were any different due to the swivel mechanism.

Sat Mar 26, 2016 9:56 pm

I bought a pair of seats (unfortunately they cost me quite a bit more than most of you are saying due to a dearth of Eurovans in salvage yards around me).

I'm actually going to install them in my '78 Bus but since I referenced this thread, I figured I'd throw this into here.

I cut the bottom of the foam bottoms to lower the seating position. With the passenger swivel, my head was hitting the headliner, and on the driver side I always sat a little too high with the old Vanagon seats I had in there.

I used a ruler that is 1.25 wide to mark my reference lines, then I got to work with the electric knife. It took a lot of test fitting to the pan to get the contours close enough to get the foam to sit down in the pan.

The seats aren't installed because I'm waiting for the paint to dry on my cut rails. But before I cut the foam on the second cushion, I brought both bottoms out to the bus and set them on the swivel seat. It did significantly change the seating position so that I didn't come close to hitting my head so I'm pretty optimistic that this will work well.

I'm not real great at taking lots of pics while working on a project, but here are the pics I do have.

Both seats cut up. If you look at the one in the background, you can see lines where I cut too much off the sides, and glued it back.

Sun Mar 27, 2016 4:50 pm

And here are the seats in my Bus!

Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:30 am

Looks great. I am going to have to modify the height of mine as well. My wife says that she can't touch the pedals anymore so she makes my drive.

Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:50 am

Thanks! I like them, especially with the heaters!

One guy in this thread said he cut the foam and it worked out. Another guy told me he had as well and didn't like it. Because he said it was like sitting in a pit, I wonder if maybe he didn't really contour it to the frame well.

I do not think my alterations made the seat less comfortable at all.

I do wish the heating pads were wider. My Golf's heater goes to the thigh supports.

Wed Jan 25, 2017 2:54 am

campism wrote: My weekend project:

I still need to do the driver’s side but I’m really excited about this mod.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bike2vcu/_seatTransplant?authkey=0inUs01c7cI#

"just curious why you didnt just bolt the rails from the stock seats on the new seats?"

The rails appear to be integral with the hinge, and that appears to be different on the Westy from the one on the Eurovan. That's what it looked like yesterday when I was doing my install.
With the demise of Picasa my link died so try this new one to the same series of photos with text documentation.

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/11272941425529...-q0lvWU0gE

Thanks for reading this far into the thread; I tried to edit my old post but could not do so years after the original post.