Fitting rear bench seat

[outhausollie]

Hi, I'm trying to fit a rear bench into my microbus. It's a 1970 bus but the seat is from a late bay. Should it still fit?
The holes on the brackets on the wheel arches don't seem to line up and after some adjustment with a file I can get the bolts through but now can't get the back of the seat vertical.

Does anyone know if early and late microbus seats are the same or am I fighting a losing battle??

Thanks,
Ollie

 

[mattyd72]

The seats are mainly the same throughout the years. They did change the mount by the top corners from the bolted on early style to a more common latch as seen on most modern cars.
The mounts at the bottom corners have a reasonable amount of adjustment built in but should really fit relatively easily.
Have your rear arches been welded?
Is it a window bus or converted panel. If its the latter they have been retro fitted and are possibly in the wrong place.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[outhausollie]

OK thanks for your reply.

As far as I'm aware it's always been a microbus. It has the slots for the clamps for both seats in the floor and has a proper mount for the seatbelt under the windows.

I finally got the brackets fixed to the arches after enlarging the holes on them but now the seat back won't return to upright as the bottom of the seat back hits the slope above the fuel tank and can't get past. I've given up and have left the brackets unfixed with the seat base sitting on them. The weight of the base clamped to the floor keeps it in place.

The seat does have the later car type latch on the top and what you say makes sense as the pin that came with the seats won't fit in the hole but a thin bolt will. So they changed the thread size at some point too.

Cheers,
Ollie