Front Seat Swap (Town & Country 2nd Row)

[superpink]

Just installed my Stow and Go's this weekend. As much as I love to keep my van original, I didn't want to spend 1K plus re-covering my original seats in the boogie woogie material. Plus, I needed armrests........

Thanks to dlb154, i followed his instructions and used his templates to get me where I needed to go.

About $300 is my total vested cost. Thanks to the scrap yard discoloring the leather cleaning the seats and me ordering the incorrect dye color, I feel these seats compliment the van nicely.

[campism]

Welcome! Impressive first post.
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'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[vwwestyman]

Has anyone figured out how to make the heated ones heat?

I thought I did, but they don't work the way I tried.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Eric_Taylor]

Another satisfied customer of this upgrade. I've wanted to do this for about a year and other projects just kept taking priority. I finally got it done and i'm really happy with the result. They look sharp and feel good. I didn't find th stock seats to be real uncomfortable in town, so the true test comes in a long drive. Initial impressions suggest it's going to be a great change. Highly recommended.

I used the Small Car brackets and wanted to say a little about them since I haven't heard much, if anything written about them.

These brackets are really nice. High quality and durable. The way they work makes great sense to me and I don't think the lack of adjustment is much an issue in my opinion. There are bolts that lock them down, and once you find a position, you should have more than enough adjustment, in my opinion. When they arrived, I felt like they were really worth the money. It makes so straightforward to do this upgrade with no real modifications any of the VW stuff. Any questions about these? Happy to answer since I saw no real info about them when I was trying to decide.

[vwwestyman]

[candyman]

[bobbyblack]

[campism]

That's a really good price. Our Pick-a-Part places don't have vehicles newer than about '06 and the places that do have newer ones are not Pick-a-part places so the prices are much higher, $150 a pair for the the sets I've found so far.
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'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[dlb154]

[bobbyblack]

[vwwestyman]

[superpink]

[superpink]

Before and after:

[superpink]

[dlb154]

Thanks for the dye info and your recommendation to not dye mine gray. Yours look great with just the center panels altered.

[82westyrabbit]

One more time.

I think I am going to make my Owen brackets. I have three sets of vanagon seats and I think I will sacrifice one set for the seat tracks. with all the information On this thread I don’t think it will be a big deal.
I might die the center’s dark brown like Superpink. I really like the way that looks. A very custom Look. John

[t3 kopf]

Very happy with the swap i just did. I got mine from an 09 Grand Caravan at the pick n pull in VA Beach for 20 bucks each. A lot of the ones there had the front seat too far back to lift the cover in the floor up but then i found the one i needed. I read that you can get the front seats to move manually with a torx bit but i didn't have any in my bag. I also noticed that, out of 4 2005 models, 2 had stow n go seats and 2 didn't. The 05 model ones looked just like the ones from the 09 i got but were leather. After these pics were taken, i went at them a second time with a drill brush attachment and carpet cleaner and got them looking just about brand new. I also ended up taking the seat belt receivers off, which left a visible hole in that part of the seat. Any advice on what to do about the hole there? It's not bad looking but its just not perfect. The seats themselves are definitely a vast improvement and so much easier to adjust. I used the smallcar brackets. I had to take the cover off my driver side battery compartment because my battery is a group 78 and just slightly too tall to close the cover and put the seat all the way back. Next up is to replace my seat belts as they rusted considerably while i was overseas.

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'90 Carat w/ '95 phase 1 EJ22 OBD2 conversion

[BCgee]

Stow n Go black w red trim seat set in our 87 Syncro hightop with swivel base for passenger. We really enjoy the compact nature and increased recline range, and I feel the seats are more comfortable over long hauls than my abused OEM Weekender seats, YMMV. The stow function is very helpful in utilizing the front during base camp mode with kids. Two thumbs up, would recommend.

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1987 SVX Syncro Hightop

[82westyrabbit]

One more take on putting Town and Country seats in the front of a Vanagon. I started out - taking the tracks off of my old seats and following the directions of FRX on page 5. There is no question in my mind that if you are driving a tin top this is the easiest and best way to do it, and that sets your seats at exactly the same height as the newer tin top seats. Unfortunately, part of the reason I did the swap is because I had the later model tin top seats on the swivel bases on my Westy, and it just plain puts the seats too high up. So with my van being an 82 with manual steering, it is just too difficult to get in and out of the vehicle with the seat at that height. From there, I mounted the Town and Country seat right to the swivel base like C2MRDALE did, but I can never do things the easy way.

In my case, I just made two brackets out of 1 1/2 inch steel. I made them long enough so that I could put the back two bolts right through the swivel base and the front two bolts bolt to the front of the swivel base. Like C2MRDALE, I had to narrow my swivel base.

I didn't cut mine back as far as C2MRDALE. I cut it back just to the point where I can still use the stock seat, but I narrowed it up.

There is only a little more than 1/8th an inch clearance between the inside of the upholstery on the seat and the swivel base.

As you an see, the seat is sitting right on the carpet. It is as low as it can possibly go. I may go ahead and put some small 1/8 or 1/4 inch spacers just to give me a bit more room between the seat and the carpet.

Picture of the seat installed. Although the cloth seat may not go perfectly with the dark brown carpets and the door panels, it completely matches the Westy cabinets. So I feel like it is a really good match to the van.

I now feel like I have more space between the seat and the steering wheel than I did with the original Westy seats, and it would be very easy for me to adjust it higher if I felt that was necessary. Now getting in and out of the van is not a problem. John

[campism]

If you have not yet installed a driver's side grab handle, like the one on the passenger's side, you won't believe the improvement in entry assist.
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'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic