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Wed May 18, 2022 11:36 pm

Hello all,

I just bought a 1984 Vanagon Tin Top in need of restoration. I plan to make it into a camper like the Westfalia without the pop top.

I have decided to do the cab in black, door cards, dash, driver and passenger seats, carpet and visors. New gauges with LED lighting for extra bling. The rest of the van interior will be traditional hues of beige with dark brown trim and some custom wood.

Which brings me to my next question about the folding bed. I don't have one :cry: What I have is a beautiful couch with a folding back but it is not a couch which folds out like the ones designed for a bed. What can I do? Does someone make a kit with the proper hinges to allow my couch to be a bed? Any ideas?

Thanks
Randy in Seattle

Thu May 19, 2022 2:46 am

Here ya go.....
Though Vanagons aren't listed as a fit........ I do think people have used these to create a proper camper bed using plywood and foam.

https://www.busdepot.com/zbed

Dave

Thu May 19, 2022 6:10 am

This is not as easy as it might appear with the BD hinge. The question is what do you plan on using for mattress cushioning and how high do you want the bed to be?

I'm not totally up on this so listen to others who may chime in.

My '91GL came with the seat which extended and the backrest went to flat. for the sake of argument, I'm calling it a Z bed, but it may not be. Where in that position, the tops of the seat parts were about 3 ½" above the engine deck. There was a mattress which filled that space and made the surface more or less level. there were two problems. One the mattress was too firm and not comfortable and the cushions for the seat are designed for sitting on and so were lumpy and too firm for sleeping. A topper was required. And since I didn't want to put lumber and so on over the mattress when I wasn't camping, it had to come out.

So I abandoned the whole shebang and did something different. There are a ton of guys who have build their own beds and achieved the mattresses and sitting they want.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=603238 Here's one where he needed to overcome a raised engine bed because of an engine transplant. However, If you wanted to have a higher bed for storage, this would work fine.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8593693 Another

Thu May 19, 2022 6:19 am

Oops, wrong button.

And this, which looks really good. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9727580
There are others as well, but this is what turned up quickly.

Duncan

Thu May 19, 2022 7:05 am

You can put softer foam in the rear cushion and also the seat back. BTDT.

I leave the seat bottom stock foam in place since it needs to be firm enough to sit on. And since I sleep head to the rear that area is only holding my feet and calves... YMMV.

Thu May 19, 2022 9:10 am

If you can find a set of factory hinges, you can make your own. I actually bought Duncan's old "Z-bed" hinges to build my rear seat/ bed since my van had the same non-bed seat as yours. I used 3/4" birch faced plywood and had to fiddle with the dimensions of the bottom vertical piece while adding some small spacers on the underside of the seat base to make the whole thing comfortable to sit on and flat when folded out. My cushions are (still) in the process of being sown up since the foam my upholsterer wanted to use is on back order, but here's where mine sits as of now:

Thu May 19, 2022 9:19 am

Easiest path is finding a stock rear seat from a later van - quote from another thread

syncrodoka wrote: '86 and later vans have the z-bed rear seats. Yours are too early.

Thu May 19, 2022 11:17 am

Shipping?? Driving to East Overshoe to pick it up??? Tom has mad good progress. I'm glad to hear the hinges worked out OK. Will be really interested to see how the whole thing comes out. Foam? I'm surprised with all the boats in your neck of the woods there isn't a guy who has bedding foam on hand. And when you're done it will be far better than the original or anything you could find.

Duncan

Thu May 19, 2022 11:24 am

Most pictures of other people's early Vanagon solutions look like mine, seen in my 'ZoomBus' .. You just live with it like all the other bizarro and broken stuff in an old bus, really.

Thu May 19, 2022 11:25 am

A more accurate way to put it is to say 85+ vans commonly have the rear bed/bench. Not all later than 84 vans do, but most.

Mark

vanagonjr wrote: Easiest path is finding a stock rear seat from a later van - quote from another thread

syncrodoka wrote: '86 and later vans have the z-bed rear seats. Yours are too early.

Thu May 19, 2022 11:58 am

By the way, the hinges shown in Dave's post aren't anything like the Z hinges I shipped to Tom. ($20 for the hinges $50 for shipping and I made the package really small.)

Duncan