Remove chrome seat adjuster?

[russelltatedotcom]

Apologies if this has been covered before (I could not find anything?)

I am trying to take of my seat adjust lever to get it re-chromed but it looks like it's not easy to remove from the seat!
Anybody else tackled this, It looks like a retaining pin might have to be bent back? Appreciate any help before I dive in and start damaging things

[tri356]

Hi Russell,

I had done this job this past winter. Take a look here:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=775151&highlight=

Dealing with those dowel pins is a pain.

Let me know any specific questions you may have.

Mike

[russelltatedotcom]

tri365! this info looks great, I never noticed the pin ... glad I asked first.
Thanks for the offer of answering questions, I'll see how things go from here
Cheers

RT

[russelltatedotcom]

Hi Mike, with a couple of carefully aimed blows I did manage to get the pins out! My question now is did you have any problem getting tension on the spring section when re-assembling it all again?

[tri356]

Nice, and congrats Russell!

No, there wasn't an issue with tension on that spring. I had a TON of problems with peening new dowel pins back in though. Take a close look at the re-assembled seat bottom that I show in my post. You can see that the dowel pins are nowhere near as smooth and nice as what came from the factory. I just couldn't do it, and neither could a body guy I took the seat to. You're trying to hold the lever in place, perhaps put a dolly in the back, not scratch your new paint, etc.., all while not getting poked and shredded by those very sharp tabs. I experimented with a variety of stainless steel pins (mcmaster-carr was great at sending small samples), but they were all really hard. Aluminum or some other softer metal should work better, IMO. Maybe experiment before repainting/rechroming, so you know what works?

Mike

[russelltatedotcom]

Good call on dry fitting the pins Mike, I may opt for a slightly undersized pin that fits well ( but hopefully with no play) The seat lever and plate with the teeth are a super tight fit already so hopefully they help to hold all together as one slid unit)