Mounting Hyundai Excel seats in beetle?

57 posts · joined Feb 2003 · 21 Jul 2004, 7:31 pm

#205798

I now can't find the post to ask the member who posted BUT when researching seats a while back found a post that mentioned Hyundai seats in a beetle.

I now have said Hyundai seats along with belts and would like to mount them. The mounting points are about 40mm wider than a standard beetle (74 not L or super) seat frame and line up nicely with front and back of frame. Tried a piece of angle across either end of beetle frame and bolted seat into position. All goes very well except for the fact that my head now touches the hood lining. (I'm only 5'6" in the old money).

Has anyone mounted these seats before? If so a photo, diagram or at least a description would be great.

BTW when I first sat everything in place before construction began, it all looked like it lined up almost perfectly. The big difference turns out to be that a beetle seat compresses about 4 - 5 cm when you sit on it. A Hyundai seat compresses about half a centimetre when you sit on it. Missed that minor point in the planning stage.

Any help would be great. I'll see if I can get a pick to make sense of my description above if that helps.

barls Administrator Causer of Chaos and Mayhem

9,474 posts · joined Jun 2004 · 21 Jul 2004, 8:05 pm

#205830

yeah my old man has done it very recently. he used the beetle bases and mounted the seats minus the rails on the bases by the way of brackets. im about 5'9" and my head doesnt touch the roof in the 1500. u2u me for more details if you want

“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me

ratty 63 Custom Title Time!

1,083 posts · joined Oct 2003 · 22 Jul 2004, 10:25 am

#206084

Yep, I have done a seat conversion (not sure what the seats are from) in my '63 bug and the head touching the roof thing is an issue:thumb

I ended up using a set of standard VW seat rails, cut down so that only the part that comes in contact with the floor is used, then I used box section and a couple of flat pieces of steel to make the mounting points for the aftermarket seats - doing it this way means that I have two adjustments for the seat (the VW adjustment and the one that comes with the aftermarket seat)! I will take pics for you and post them here....

Oh yeah, and before anyone starts with the 'is it legal' questions - they have been approved.

R

40hp, 6V and ...er... slowly making improvements 😂

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!

Founding member of the Gold Coast Dub Club Inc. 🙂

barls Administrator Causer of Chaos and Mayhem

9,474 posts · joined Jun 2004 · 22 Jul 2004, 10:36 am

#206088

yeah it not worth not getting the approved cause your insurance company would just wipe you if you ever had a claim and as some one who has walked away from what should have been something i got injured in, if you are going to do the seats why not the seat belts as well its not going to cost any more on the engineers. as a testimate to inertia belts
http://www.aussieveedubbers.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=21712
p.s i walked away with 2 bruises

“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me

LittleRalph Commited Dubber

57 posts · joined Feb 2003 · 23 Jul 2004, 6:07 pm

#206856

Thanks for the help guys. It's great to have such quick responses.

ratty 63 has just described what I was thinking I'd have to do after the whole head / roof thingy. I'd love some pics if at all possible or even measurements of the steel sections. I'm in Brisvegas so could possibly swing down your way some time if no other alternative way to get some guidance.

barls, I had a look at the seats and can't see how the Hyundai rails can be removed from the seat without removing the pivot point for the back section.

Lastly, the inner front mount on both driver and passenger seats is about 20mm higher (raised above the floor) than all other three mount points. Is that the same on the seats you have?

barls Administrator Causer of Chaos and Mayhem

9,474 posts · joined Jun 2004 · 24 Jul 2004, 2:10 pm

#207129

ill try to get some photos of them when im in taree on my way to valla, i may even drive the car if its registered.

“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me

ratty 63 Custom Title Time!

1,083 posts · joined Oct 2003 · 25 Jul 2004, 9:02 pm

#207847

yeah, the uneven mounts on the jap seats is not unusual, but with a bit of creative engineering this too can be fixed - I will take some pics and put them up ASAP

R

40hp, 6V and ...er... slowly making improvements 😂

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!

Founding member of the Gold Coast Dub Club Inc. 🙂

barls Administrator Causer of Chaos and Mayhem

9,474 posts · joined Jun 2004 · 3 Aug 2004, 4:54 pm

#211004

heres some pics i took. my old man said that he had to drill out the spotwelds on the rails to remove them. i sat in these and i dont touch the roof. im 178cm tall

[Edited on 5-8-2004 by barls]

“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me

barls Administrator Causer of Chaos and Mayhem

9,474 posts · joined Jun 2004 · 5 Aug 2004, 3:39 pm

#212274

did these help mate cause if not ill put you in touch with the guy who did it

“We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” Bill Hicks
the chaos project - click me

LittleRalph Commited Dubber

57 posts · joined Feb 2003 · 5 Aug 2004, 8:16 pm

#212465

Thanks barls.

Great pics. I'll have to get a chance to look closely at them and my seats so that it will all make sense. I do get the general idea about drilling out the spot welds cause when I looked the back rest pivot point was part of the whole rail assembly that is bolted to the seat.

If I need any more detail I'll shoot you a u2u. This post could now be really helpful to anyone else considering these seats. They seem to be pretty good seats and there were a *&%^! load of Hyundais sold so they could be a good source of supply.

Thanks again.