Mid row seat of Tin Top

[narendra.vw]

After long break I’m posting a New Thread. My Van is still running strong with 1.9 eTDI engine with a 5 speed Gearbox. My Van Interiors have changed. Namely, Donor Sunroof & Donor seats.

Donor Sunrooff:- Sunroof was an abstraction for ac air flow duct towards front seat. Proper roof lining could not be done. I also realized I was hardly using it. I decided to remove it & seal the hole which I did. Now my roof looks clean also had ‘oe’ ac duct fitted. I will come up with a different Thread for Roof lining & ac Ducting.

Donor bucket seat:- These seats were taking too much space in the mid row also rear self made ‘rock & roll’ seat using ‘oe’ seat were hardly used. I decided to replace all mid as well as rear seat with ‘oe’ seats. Luckily I had kept them in safe place.

Tin Top ‘oe’ mid row seat is a single seat which can accommodate three adults. The seat rest is split into two & one configuration. The single rest can bend forward to give access to rear seat.
The Mid row seat fixture is on the railing which I used for my dream project. First I separated the seat into two One combination. Now I could focus on single seat.
First I converted the seat into reclining adding required mechanism. The seat bottom was hinged at the front bottom to fold forward. Cabled locking unit was provided at the back.

1) Hinges were welded to the sliding plate. If seat was unlocked & lifted the whole seat can slide off from the hinges.

2) Locking unit.

3) OE lever which was provided to bend the rest was used with a cable to unlock the latch.

4) Reclining mechanism.

Side cover will be fitted later.

This seat has to have reclining & folding mechanism to my Actual project.

[narendra.vw]

scaled model Video.


Link

[4Gears4Tires]

That flip forward seat is pretty clever and so is the sliding bench seat. Nice job!
_________________
'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[narendra.vw]

Thanks 4Gears4Tires


Main Project :- Sliding, Reclining & Rotating Twin Seat.

A formal design sketch for the seat height, angle & leg space was done. Actual measurement was taken in the van to check if is it possible to rotate the seat.
Made a scaled model of the seat dimension to see how much it needs space while rotating. Rear seat leg space for the third person with the mid row seat rotated was checked.
Work started off on rotating mechanism in the machine shop. Later moved on to fit recline unit on to the seat, lastly added the sliding unit. The outcome was impressive. Alignment of seat angle & seat direction faces while fitted was the key. I thank my machine shop owner. He did a perfect Job.

Seat development pictures.

Rotating plate fabrication. Two 3 mm thickness plate was used. Removed extra material to reduce weight.

High tensile pivot bush was used for rotating the plates.

One rotating plate was welded to the seat mounting Box.

The ‘oe’ railing was welded to the Bottom rotating plate.

Viewed from the mounting Box.

M8 holes can be seen. It gives the option to secure the rotating plate unit permanently.

Seat reclining & railing unit.

All the parts were fitted to check the unit height & is in line with the box

Later cantilever support was added. I used the Donor seat recline & slider mechanism to the rotating seat.
You would have noticed the seat is sitting offset to it's left. it has to get the right dimension.

next post will of its working & locking system.
Hope my work was interesting.

[DuncanS]

Very nice work. How did you get the tracks to be exactly parallel and the right spacing? In reworking my front seats i discovered the spacing is +- .6mm. Very tight tolerancersd to get the seat to slide easily.

I had the same feeling about the middle seat as you do. Lots of times in the way, but still occasionally needed. I usually either threw them away immediately after purchase or they became shop seats.

Removed the rear seat altogether for more floor and cargo space, but wanted something in case. So I modified the middle seat to have four legs--the back two fold up when mounted against the firewall. Seat belt mounts still in place--at least for the back mounting. Clips in with a super heavy hinge pin on the left side and the supporting pipe goes into a reinforced hole on the right. I later replaced the arms with spare front adjustable ones. Bolt spacing is the same so an easy mod.

Because of the four legs it can also be put outside at the site for more floor space and comfortable sitting or diningg around the campfire.

But..........I can't have it in it's original position like you can. Congrats on a nice clever and well made mod.

Duncan

[dobryan]

I always enjoy your modifications. Very clever.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[GreggK]

That's a great modification you came up with Narendra.VW.
_________________
'86 2wd Poptop transplant
FAS TDi engine swap. Peloquin LSD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=692188&highlight=slow+but+steady

[narendra.vw]

[narendra.vw]

dobryan, GreggK
Thank you for your +ve responce.

Rotating seat, it’s locking & working system

The rotating seat slide on to the floor ‘oe’ channel. Due to this seat can’t move forward or backward. The only movement for the seat is side to side. This made my work much easier.
My focus was to have a simple locking design to stop seat sliding side to side. Secondly, usage of single tool to lock on one side & other side self lock where it can’t be reached. I wanted all operation to be user friendly.
Seat locking system when it’s facing front,
1) Right side self stopper locking unit.
Materials used: - 8mm ms steel rod of mounting box length, four 8mm hole bushes, 6mm thick 25mm wide ‘L’ angle & 6mm thick 25mm wide two flats. Most of the work was done in machine shop.
First the bushes were welded equidistance to the bottom of the seat mounting Box where the rotating plate is welded. Care was taken that all the 8mm Holes were in line. Now the rod was inserted into the bushes from end to end of the Box.
Now the flats were welded on to the both bottom floor channel at pre-marked place. These will act as stopper as well as self locking hook. Now the ‘L’ angle was welded to the 8mm rod making sure it holds tightly to the welded flat of the floor channel. Later the rod was spring loaded to quick release of ‘L’ angle when the mounting Box was moved.

Seat while in locked position,

Seat in released position

Spring loaded rod for self lock opening

Left side locking plate.

Here I designed the locking unit where I need to use a single & simple tool also make sure mounting box is firmly held. End result no shaking or rattling. If you notice, I have used some cut pieces from the old bottom floor channel to clamp & lock the left side. The highlight of the ‘locking system’ on both sides is, they hold the top rotating plate which is welded to the box. This design makes the both the rotating plate held firmly to the bottom floor. While seating you feel firm & secured.

Seat when clamped

Loosing the clamp with single tool

Seat locking system when rotated & pushed to the side end,

The seat sliding channel of bottom plate was welded with a 10mm hole bush. The matching 10mm thick rod was bolted at the end of floor channel. When the seat was rotated & pushed the bush locks into the end rod making sure it hold the plate on one end.
On the front side, same cut piece which locked to the seat plate while facing front were used. For bolting the clamp same tool used.

Side locking system

I like you take a note, the Seat bottom frame inside has been strengthen to take load on cantilever side.

Cantilever support

My explanation may have made your brain work harder. Sorry about that.

Locking & release Video,

Link


Next post, working details.

Thank you all for your time

[DuncanS]

Very nice imagineering!! Yes, my brain work......well not harder, just not work at all. I think it's one of those mechanisms where you actually need to see the 3D working version to truly "get" it. Unclear what locks to what. In the pic just before the video, what are the channel mounted rods and what do they do?

Truly impressive. I love that you had an idea and then resolved to make it work and work well to serve your purpose. One of characteristics of my CMD disease--Complusive Modification Disorder is I love to solve problems that for 99% of the world are not problems at all. Our obsession about making the middle seat useable and yet have more useable floor space may be one of those situations, but I love how you went about it and hope others can use your ideas and get the advantages your seat has. Always bugged me about the poor engineering creativity of the Wolfsburg crowd in regards to the middle seat. Removing the carpeting, the aluminum threshold, undoing bolts to slide it out??? Even while this was happening, 'Merican car makers had user friendly seat removal options. What about just some clips which could be released with a spring loaded lever like yours and just lift the seat out or put it back??? What were they thinking of?

Anyhoo, Congrats and look forward to the next post.

I have a bunch of rear seat mods which I will share on another topic so I don't hijack yours in case others might like some options to the rather PERMANANT OG systems. Permanent--read super difficult to take out on a temporarily basis for some occasional need.

Duncan

[narendra.vw]

Rotating seat working procedure,

To start off, the single seat was reclined back & flipped forward. By doing so, we get access to the rotating seat clamped bolts. Using the Allen key tool bolts (M were unscrewed from the clamps. The clamps were slid backward to unlock the seat box. Next step, pull the Box till the spring loaded lock was released from the other side(check the previous video).
Now the seat is free to move sideways also rotate. Here, I was bit greedy in adding a Hand rest. This made the seat rotating bit tighter with the third seat in place.
By sliding the ‘rotating seat’ back a bit I get the space to rotate the seat(on my free time I plan to do some contour with the side window panal to make space for the hand rest movement).

Once the seat rotated facing sideways seat was pushed towards the side wall till both the bushes get locked(Thread first Video). The Clamps were slid back to the box & firmly bolted with the same M8 bolts. This summaries my project.

You would have also noticed,
-When seat position is front facing, everything looks factory setup.
-Design of Seat mounting box lock are more like pinning the box to the floor. More secured.

Picture Demo,

seat lock bolts removed,

Clamp moved back. now lock is realized,

Seat rotating gap checked,

Now the seat can rotate,

Rotating almost done,

Seat rotation finished & pushed back,

Seat slide into the lock at the back,

Same clamps were moved towards the seat & bolted,

Finial outcome of my project,

The Thread deserve four digit views.
I guess not many use mid row seat.

Thank you all for your time.

[4Gears4Tires]

Very cool. I hope your van's name is Tetris!
_________________
'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition