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Sun Dec 19, 2010 12:54 pm

Hey all,
The front seats in my base-model 1990 vanagon are pretty shot. Will the seats from any other VW - Golf, Jetta, etc - fit in there without any major retrofitting?

thanks,

Sun Dec 19, 2010 12:56 pm

Earlier eurovans have the armrests. Anything else gives them up.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=338291&highlight=eurovan+seats

Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:50 am

See the seat section the Best Threads sticky (FAQ.) See link in my signature below:

Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:00 pm

Short answer is no. There is no other seat that will just go in. Eurovan seats need a little work even before they can go in. I modified a set of '89 Jetta Recaros to fit in my van, but I had to cannibalize my stock seats to do so, and I think a non-Recaro Golf/Jetta/Rabbit seat would be even harder. VW passenger cars utilize a completely different seat track concept which is not remotely adaptable to use in a Vanagon.

-Rob

Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:39 pm

Recaros are sort of standard when it comes to those that have a bolt on guides system. There is a frame you can buy from Recaro. Look for the part number in the threads. You can also modify your old tracks. This is discussed in the threads.

Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:34 pm

I just did this today. Many thanks to whoever discovered that they can fit fairly easily.

It took maybe an hour to cut the extra lip off the eurovan tracks. Just aim the grinder (with a thin metal cutting wheel) in the corner where the extra lip sticks down. It takes about 10-15 min each track x 4 tracks. The seats look awesome. After doing it, they slide in perfectly and it now seems silly that I spent any time at all trying to clean up the old original 87 seats I had in there. It makes sense to buy a very good set of Eurovan seats if you are going to do this.

Mon Dec 20, 2010 4:22 pm

What he said. I did this, too, and it's more trouble finding the seats and fetching them home than it is modifying them to fit. Honest. Cost/ease/benefit ratio can't be beat unless someone gives you Recaros and installs them for you.

Mon Dec 20, 2010 6:47 pm

Please lead us to the land of magical wrecked Eurovans so I can vulture some seats! :wink: Here in the land of the sierra ram tundra half ton, finding a euro-seat is impossible. I have been trying for a couple of years now. Were eurovans just not that popular here in Canada or did they all just spontaneously combust (not a reference to fuel lines)?

Mon Dec 20, 2010 8:36 pm

davevickery wrote: I just did this today.
Pictures or it ain't true! :) :)

Mon Dec 20, 2010 9:29 pm

CREGAN wrote: Please lead us to the land of magical wrecked Eurovans so I can vulture some seats! :wink: Here in the land of the sierra ram tundra half ton, finding a euro-seat is impossible. I have been trying for a couple of years now. Were eurovans just not that popular here in Canada or did they all just spontaneously combust (not a reference to fuel lines)?

Canada got Eurovan versions never seen in the States. They are out there. Probably more common in the East and B.C.

Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:45 am

My first try at posting a link to photos. I see other people posted photos in the gallery section of eurovan seats in a vanagon, so no new ground here, just my 2 cents.

I am happy with them, you do sit up higher but that is going from a Westy that has shorter seats to Eurovan passenger seats. The Vanagon passenger seats are also taller than a vanagon westy. Anyway, you notice it and the wheel is closer to your legs, but they work fine for me. The larger seat base is a huge improvement in leg support and comfort.
The last photos is what you cut off the eurovan tracks.

Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:45 pm

I can't say if this will be a good mod or a blunder, but I'd heard that you could cut the seat foam down (from the bottom) to bring the seat height back down when using eurovan seats in a vanagon. They stick up about an inch more than a vanagon passenger van seat and about 2" more than a stock westy seat. That is the only thing I didn't like about them. So I finally decided to try cutting down the foam. I was surprised to see the contoured base and not as much foam to work with as I thought.

Has anyone else done this? It seems to have come out o.k. but I am cautiously looking forward to a test drive. I only cut off about 1 inch of foam in those 3 slivers. The cover goes back wth no modifications.

Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:35 pm

davevickery wrote: I can't say if this will be a good mod or a blunder, but I'd heard that you could cut the seat foam down (from the bottom) to bring the seat height back down when using eurovan seats in a vanagon. They stick up about an inch more than a vanagon passenger van seat and about 2" more than a stock westy seat. That is the only thing I didn't like about them. So I finally decided to try cutting down the foam. I was surprised to see the contoured base and not as much foam to work with as I thought.

Has anyone else done this? It seems to have come out o.k. but I am cautiously looking forward to a test drive. I only cut off about 1 inch of foam in those 3 slivers. The cover goes back wth no modifications.

How hard was it to remove the base/seat cover and cut the foam out? What is the verdict on comfort and height with some of the foam missing?

I'm thinking about doing this, but I have no power steering and thus a big steering wheel, so its important for me not to raise the seat !!!

Wed Jan 16, 2013 7:44 am

For those who have not had the chance to compare, here’s a look at the difference between an '86 GL Vanagon seat (the brown one) and a '93 Eurovan seat (the blue one). Both of these are shown in my '87 Westy and are in place of the stock Westy seats. I had already installed the EV seats in my van because I could never find regular GL seats. The stock Westy seats were in great original condition but were extremely uncomfortable. I later found these GL seats and grabbed them for resale. If they’d been grey I’d have sold the EV seats instead, but that’s life. Here you can see that both have good bolsters for good support and they appear similar. Both are vastly more comfy than Westy seats, and both are shown as installed on the stock seat swivels. The EV seat did require minor surgery to the rails in order to fit and that is well documented elsewhere, but the GL seat simply slid into place.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:02 am

campism wrote: For those who have not had the chance to compare, here’s a look at the difference between an '86 GL Vanagon seat (the brown one) and a '93 Eurovan seat (the blue one).
Is the eurovan seat higher than the stock non westy vanagon seat? It doesn't look like it in your photo, but my initial impression without measuring them, was that the non westy seat is higher than the westy seat and the eurovan seat is higher still. Since you had them side by side, maybe you can settle that.

I ams still working on modifications to the eurovan seat foam. That first bit of trimming above did not get good results. It feels like I created a hole in the middle of the seat and the edges all are too high now, especially the front from the seam forward. I may have ruined the seat, but I'll trim some more and see it I can improve it. I should have practiced on the passenger seat.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:36 am

I think I will embark on my foam cutting this weekend .. Davevickery, any tips you have would be great!

Can you upload higher res versions of your pics?

Did you just make a straight cut across the bottom, or did you cut on each face of the foam?

Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:32 am

davevickery wrote: Is the eurovan seat higher than the stock non westy vanagon seat? It doesn't look like it in your photo, but my initial impression without measuring them, was that the non westy seat is higher than the westy seat and the eurovan seat is higher still. Since you had them side by side, maybe you can settle that.
The EV seat is 1/2" taller than a non westy seat from what i measured long ago.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:53 pm

What he said. I would add that the EV seat feels a little firmer so would probably not "settle" as much as the GL seat that is a little taller. In use they would wind up being about the same with a person seated in either one. Keep in mind that I only had the brown seats for a short time a couple years ago and did not use them since I was selling them.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:14 pm

Uhm, actually, he said that the EV seats are taller than the GL seats, not the other way around...

Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:03 pm

Okay, so I was wrong.