Original front seat installation

[TheHewsonFamily]

I have some non-standard seats in the front of my camper that I want to replace with original seats. I have bought some 1970 dormobile seats (we have a 1970s dormobile) and I have found that although the drivers seat fits onto runners that I need to get welded back in, the passenger seat is a folding seat that hooks onto the bulkhead behind the seat.

The problem I have is that the bulkhead was removed by the previous owner to fit a KI Westy interior. Can this section be re-welded back in or do I need to ditch the idea of putting these seats back in?

 

[TheHewsonFamily]

Anyone? The bus is due to get the whole interior refurbished shortly and I need the front seats installed. Another option would be to install a LHD drivers seat next to the right hand drivers seat, can this be done?

 

[Dickie524]

I don't know what purpose the bulkhead serves really - might be for strengthening or increased rigidity or something. If you're going for originality it might be possible to find one and put it back... Depends if you want to retain the tip-forward-ability of the Dormobile seat too...?

 

[Clem]

Short answer, yes, if you can get a 'cut' then it can be welded back into place giving you the orginality (looks and strength) as well as being able to fit the og seat.

 

[TheHewsonFamily]

Thanks Clem. However, I am probably going down the route of trying to find a LHD drivers seat to match the RHD drivers seat I already have. They will be getting recovered anyway.

 

[slow-lane-Matt]

That's probably the best idea - the seat doesn't actually rest directly against the bulkhead, it rests against the oven frame then the bulkhead.

So even with the bulkhead you would have to "fill" the gap between seat and bulkhead - or install oven....(OG Dormobile passenger seat would have hollow back
to accomodate oven)

(I think mine is stock - though the small white bracket on floor with two holes in it does not do anything with seat up or down, seat has rubber feet
which rest on floor when down. If passenger not belted in and bus stopped suddenly, passenger would be ejected through windscreen by seat, James Bond style)

 

[Dickie524]

There 'should' be a simple hook to prevent this Matt - though not sure how effective it would be in an impact :| . A hook at the upper rear face of the cutout in the seat back engaged with a flattened 'eye' fitted to the front face of the 'wardrobe' piece - it would appear despite the shallow angle of the photograph that your wardrobe bit has been removed? And the eye thing with it. But as far as I can tell that's what the OG setup was like...

I won't be near my bus for a few days but if I remember I will grab a snapshot next time.

 

[Happystamps]

You do need the bulkhead to hook the squab to, but since yours is missing already I suggest welding a frame up just to hold the hook, something like a 1" tube bent with a 90 degree bend, flattened at both ends with bolt holes and nuts welded onto the tub and a-pillar... And the hook bolted or welded to that. Or two drivers seats, but then you have to deal with fitting runners to the passenger side... If you don't want to wreck the paintwork or make a frame and are happy with a fixed seat, just weld the hinge so it's solid before recovering the passenger seat.

 

[hobbo]

Hi I have a crossover with original seats. They have no rubber feet on them ,the crossbar at the back of the seats is designed to fit into the brackets with two holes in them for seat adjustment, a bracket on either side. They are a bit fiddly at first to get the seat in, and locating the back hook on the bulkhead. Found it easy to do with the seat virtually folded locating cross bar first then dropping front slowly watching back hook on bulkhead is located. The seat cannot now possibly move out of place, very safe. Hope this is helpful Mike.