Middle seats

[EverettB]

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[Colm5928]

Hi all, Got myself sorted with rear seats for my microbus, the only problem is, they are for a bay window. So I’m going about making a few changes to the metal framework of the middle seat so as to get it looking like a split seat. If somebody has carried out this modification I would live to hear.
I have a couple of questions and I would be grateful if I could find some answers here.

The first thing I would like to clarify is the difference between both frames. I'm guessing the differences is as shown below,

Split Bus Frame with 90 degree corners that allow grab handles to be installed

Bay Window frame with rounded corners. No grab handle mount

The other thing I would like to clarify is the release mechanism for the folding 1/3, my bay seat has a lever mechanism on the side but I’m pretty sure going by the photos on this thread that the split bus does not have a release mechanism here. Is it located somewhere else or does it exist at all?

Thanks in anticipation
Regards
COLM

[BarryL]

Enjoyable graphics you did. I can't speak for the corners as I never had mine opened up. The split bus seat tilted without a release. You can kick the person in front of the rear seat forward if they are being obnoxious.

[Lind]

[OG Velvet]

Just realized as I was installing my Wolfsburg West seat covers for my 67 short middle seat that (of course) the seat cover is 67 only too... I bought the cover 3 or 4 years ago and they didn't have a 67 only option then. The middle vertical bar is a few inches to the left (driver's side) than earlier seats.

Any ideas on salvaging my earlier seat cover and making it work? FML

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'67 13 Window
'77 Westy
'69 Sunroof Beetle
'65 Honda Dream

[Z]

Stanagon had that (I think) happen way back in this thread, just a few posts down this page. IIRC, he had an upholsterer make a new, reinforced slit to fit the leg.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...;start=780

[OG Velvet]

[gunbab]

[Peter - Belgium]

[Colm5928]

Hi all,
I'm doing a modification on a bay middle seat to try and get it as close as possible to the mid 60's split seat. I understand no matter what I do to it, it will never be original so I have to live with it.
I am hoping that some of you might have the framwork of your split seats exposed and be able to post photos of the 1/3 fold down section. I have gone through this thread a few times but don't see enough detail on this section.
Here's my bay seat....
Thank you in anticipation..Colm

[Colm5928]

Anyone know what the internal bore and the external dimension is of of the pipe on the split bus seat is (where the grab rails go down into the backrest)

Here is the external dimension (mm) on the bay seat

Thank you. Colm

[ozzmosis]

Calling on all type 2 Fanatics

I have a 1964 VW split window bus in need of a middle seat I would like to find a split middle seat, I'm just unclear what other year seat can be used.
This way I know what to search for.

Lost Type 2
Ozzmosis

[EverettB]

Full length: 1964-66 is the same seat frame.
Earlier seats will bolt in but are not technically correct.

Short middle seat: 59-66 are the same.
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[ozzmosis]

I know this may sound dumb but do these years work if I want to put a split fold down 1/3 seat

Thanks for your response
Ozzmosis

[BarryL]

All the full width middle seats have 1/3 fold down if that's what you mean.

[EverettB]

[BulliBill]

A long, long time ago in a Missouri county far, far away I drove by some rural property and spotted a 21 window deluxe in a backyard being used as a dog shelter. Long story short, I talked with the owner and was able to take whatever I wanted (or take the whole Bus) for an absurdly cheap price! I elected way back then to spend a few hours and take all the quick to remove bobbles and widgets as back-ups to my then under construction '67 Camper. It was a long time ago, but I think that the owner said it was a 1967 Deluxe, and the electrical related goodies that I stripped were all 12 volt items.

Anyway, to relate to this topic, I somehow remembered to get both the middle and rear seats too. They were promptly stored away for the past 34 or so years in a nice dry corner of my basement and buried in other VW parts, so I kind of forgot about them. When I grabbed them that day, I thought if I ever bought any future Bus I might need the seats for it.

Anyway, I was pretty sure they were from a 1967, but on checking out the first page data and then digging out the seats, they look to be maybe 1966 seats? Anyone know if these seats were used for a few months into the 1967 model year?

I'm not particularly a "Deluxe Bus" kinda guy, but yeah, after all these years I'm kicking myself in the ass a little for not buying that whole Bus for what was then the cost of a couple of nice dinners out on the town! Overall the whole 21 window Bus was complete and in nice shape, especially buy todays's standards. With a long weekend's effort, it could have been back on the road. Oh well. I wish I owned a crystal ball.

Thanks for any info on the 1966 or 1967 question and any comments in general about the seat set. No comments are really necessary about my past short-sightedness, I already know about that!

Bill
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I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[EverettB]

Definitely not 1967 since it doesn't have the cross-bars on the seat legs.

It's sort of hard to tell in that lighting but the last photo looks like it's a Como Green seat to me.

Since it's heat-pleated, that would mean it was a 1964 21-Window.
Como Green ended in 1964 and heat seams were introduced in 1964, making that seat correct only for 1964 models.

'63 seat in Como Green color but with sewn seams

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[d-rick]

Bill..only you would have something like that forgotten about stashed in the parts room basement..

my guess is they came out of a '64 Turkis 21 window?
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1959 mango-trailerbus
1962 single cab *1/2
1966 13 window
1967 panel/camper
1968 cig-panel *1/2
1968 passenger bus *1/2
1969 beetle
1969 dormobile
1978 sage green Westy
1990 DoKa
2002 Golf TDI

[BulliBill]

Great info on the seat, although the mystery now deepens!

Being curious, I re-discovered the box that I stored some of the electrical widgets that I removed from that 21 window Deluxe Microbus back in 1985 or so. I bagged and ID tagged all of those removed parts and placed them together in a box in the Bus parts aisle in the basement. So today I opened the box and the original Hella headlight assemblies (date-coded D4 and D2 - 1967) have old 12 volt sealed beams in them. There were also a pair of Hella Transporter reverse light assemblies that I removed in there with 12 volt bulbs. Also removed and in there was a 111 941 583A 12 volt headlight flasher relay, as well as a headlight switch and a emergency warning light switch assembly, both with their original 1967-only soft rubber knobs. So despite fading memory of that day, I'm pretty certain that the Bus was a 1967 model.

The mystery is how those two bench seats made their way into that Bus so long ago (1985). Go figure! Anyway, thanks Ev for the seat breakdown, so we now believe that they are originally from a 1964 Bus... A nice matched pair that I pulled out of that old Deluxe on a warm Spring day south of St. Louis.

Bill
_________________
I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!