Seatframe Fabrication

[super vw]

Originally Posted by thomas_niji

Hey super vw is your beetle a standard or a super?

I am working on my standard and trying to put some new seats in there. I am fabricating my seat bracket, and would appreciate some input on that.

Thanks X 1000

Thomas

It's a 74 super... exactly what would you like to know?

Jonathan

[thomas_niji]

mine is a standard.since i don't have a welder, i will have to build a frame (with steel angles and bolts....) then bolt it down. but now the problem is where should i bolt it to? the stock tracks? i have seen in some posts that say i shouldn't bolt or weld to the floor pan.

[boygenius]

I was thinking of using the bottom of my stock seats for the tracks and welding up some tabs on to them to bolt my nissan 240 seats on. That way I wouldn't have to cut any holes in my floor that I just repainted.

[super vw]

Originally Posted by thomas_niji

mine is a standard.since i don't have a welder, i will have to build a frame (with steel angles and bolts....) then bolt it down. but now the problem is where should i bolt it to? the stock tracks? i have seen in some posts that say i shouldn't bolt or weld to the floor pan.

Here is what i did.

since you dont have a welder... im not to sure on how you would do this. only thing i can think of if you have no accces to welding is to use the stock seat frames, them modify them to allow seats to bolt on top. but doing so might be the tricky part. maybe add some steel plate that you bolt on that the seats would bolt to... iffy, but might work.

Bolting ONLY to the floor pan is no good, you run the risk of your seats pulling out, and your seats will move due to the flex in the floor pans. so you will need to use the stock tracks some how, or beef up the mounting points on the pan so they dont flex or pull out if you dont use the stock tracks.

there are many ways to do different seats, but a welder or access to one has more options than not... do any friends weld? maybe you can have a local welding/ fab shop do it for you (shouldent cost more than 50 bucks to do JUST the welding)

[thomas_niji]

man your brackets look sturdy!
i am trying to leave my stock seats untouched.....
so that i can sell them if i can put my new seats...

i think what i am gonna do is to cut 2 sections of steel square tubes, and then mount them with bolts perpendicular to the stock tracks
then fab a bracket under the new seats, and mount those brackets onto the steel square tubes......
so it would look like this from the side:
/______\ <- bracket for new seats
D____D <- square tubes
--------- <- stock tracks

sorry for the crappy illustration....
the brackets would be made from 1" square tubes and 1.25" angle and the "sandwich" square tubes would be 1" too. do you think they would be sturdy enough?

thanx thanx

[super vw]

Originally Posted by thomas_niji

man your brackets look sturdy!
i am trying to leave my stock seats untouched.....
so that i can sell them if i can put my new seats...

i think what i am gonna do is to cut 2 sections of steel square tubes, and then mount them with bolts perpendicular to the stock tracks
then fab a bracket under the new seats, and mount those brackets onto the steel square tubes......
so it would look like this from the side:
/______\ <- bracket for new seats
D____D <- square tubes
--------- <- stock tracks

sorry for the crappy illustration....
the brackets would be made from 1" square tubes and 1.25" angle and the "sandwich" square tubes would be 1" too. do you think they would be sturdy enough?

thanx thanx

Hmmm, not sure... You know they do make universal seat tracks for VW's, look in hot VW's or VW trends mag's they are around 60-80 bucks a pop. im not to sure on how they work. all i know is i have seen them and the drivers side has sliders... and the passenger side tilts forward only.
Might be worth investigating.

Jonathan

[Rob]

I've been thinking alog the same lines.
Since the floor where the original seatframes are mounted is already
reinforced, this should be ok.
Although I 'm still contemplating a crossbar and bolt/weld it to the
heaterchannel and tunnel.

Rob.

Originally Posted by thomas_niji

man your brackets look sturdy!
i am trying to leave my stock seats untouched.....
so that i can sell them if i can put my new seats...

i think what i am gonna do is to cut 2 sections of steel square tubes, and then mount them with bolts perpendicular to the stock tracks
then fab a bracket under the new seats, and mount those brackets onto the steel square tubes......
so it would look like this from the side:
/______\ <- bracket for new seats
D____D <- square tubes
--------- <- stock tracks

sorry for the crappy illustration....
the brackets would be made from 1" square tubes and 1.25" angle and the "sandwich" square tubes would be 1" too. do you think they would be sturdy enough?

thanx thanx

[thomas_niji]

rob,
i have seen posts that talked about that. honestly, if i have a welder, i would no doubt do that. that way i can set the height of my seats at will, and it would be so much easier....

but since i don't have a welder, and i don't want to drill holes into both the heat channel and the tunnel, i think i am stuck with bolting the seats down to the stock tracks.

if you do opt for the crossbar method, please inform us on the difficulty and maybe more importantly the sturdiness of this set-up.

[boygenius]

You should look into getting a welder if you are going to make parts for your car. You can pick up a SEARS mig welder for $300. That will take care of most of your welding needs. That's what I have and it is an invaluable tool.