front seat selection

hi,

i am in sydney australia, and i have a 1968, 1500cc beetle.

i am currently looking at either retriming the original low back seats....or.....more inclined towards purchasing a pair of nice new style, high back seats....maybe recaros but not fussed.

my question is: has anyone been down this path and bought new front seats and succesfully installed them with a good result?

i know that one cant put any type on the front, due to lack of space and i was hoping that someone may have a type and model number and or manufacturers name of a seat or maybe a retail shop i can go to and find something that will bolt straight on the front, without inhibiting, space with also allowing all tilt and slide facilities of the seat to still work.....

cheers
met

Only one answer to this, "Recaros". You will never look back!

I installed these Autotechnica seats from Autobarn in my 75 L bug. It has a different style seat base, but you should be able to get your seat bases re-built enough to fit anything of the correct size.

OK Jeff's seats also look comfy. Recaro's are my personal choice, but a good set of bucket seats is the best mod you will ever do in my opinion.

yep - Recaros for me as well





Got mine out of a Proton Satria GTi
They appear on ebay regularly
Mine were $600 the set
You need to make up (or buy) a standard base and fit them to your VW runners

silva seats in mine.
dont forget to get your engineers certificate to make it all legal.

thanks all to the comments provided.....

i think in the end i will buy the recaros......

i am hoping to find something that will just fit
inside the relatively narrow space these bugs have,
hopefully with not too much welding, mods, etc.

maybe this is not realistic.....not sure.

maybe if anyone has achieved this with a minimum of fuss
they could offer some direction......cheers met

my 68 had a set of saas high back buckets mounted to the original runners that fitted good, but they were brown. i am now fitting mazda mx5 buckets on new runners so the saas are now looking for a new home if you are interested. thanx Gordon

thanks for replying.

im still looking for a couple of seats so
if you want to email me on met9@optusnet.com.au
we can organise an inspection.....

cheers
met

Dumarse question of the day... How do you slide the old seat bases off the runners on the floor? I know there must be a trck to it?

Thanks,

you should check out the procars by scat awersome seats!!!!!! got a pair in my bug awersome!!!

bnicho wrote:Dumarse question of the day... How do you slide the old seat bases off the runners on the floor? I know there must be a trck to it?

Thanks,

If you have the 3 point sliders, there is a small hook of metal on the top of the centre mount that catches on a small hook on the underside of the centre seat slider to stop the seat sliding off the back of the tracks.

If you hold down the hook on the centre mount, you can slide the seat back past it, and off the back of the tracks.

Post back if this doesn't help - I am pretty sure I have some photos I can post tonight.

hi jeff,

would love to see the photos as i too will need to take the old seats out....
please send to:

met9@optusnet.com.au

cheers
met

L dog.....the scat seats you have on your beetle, are they straight forward to fit,
or do you need to weld new bases to fit them.....

i would like to know a little more about these, maybe some pics if you could email them to me?

cheers
met

I have late model jap seats in my '67. Here are a few observations. They are certaily comfortable, but I dont like the end result. I see you are Sydney based, you are more than welcome to sit in my car as an example of "what not to do"

1. Make sure the seats arent too wide for the cabin and fit between the door & tunnel, otherwise they will rub and be hard to adjust back & forth.

2. Make sure you dont end up sitting too high up, measure your current sqab height, and try to replicate with the aftermarket seats.

Dont butcher your original seats to fit the aftermarket ones as they are near impossible to replace.

I would hapily swap my complete grey leather interior including late model seats & door cards for a well kept original "Low Back" 1500 beetle interior, If I could find one.

The ProCar seats seem like a nice solution using existing mounts, etc...... can somone post photos of how they mount using the existing VW sliders, etc....?

In my wifes 70 beetle the scat seat-mounts actually slide INSIDE the original floor mounts and rest on the pan.Then they bolt in, in 4 spots with bolts that run horizontally.They are a nice seat that can be bought untrimmed. I myself bought them for the wifes car trimmed in black. I am using the black trim as a pattern to re-trim them in red..cheers Jason

bnicho wrote:Dumarse question of the day... How do you slide the old seat bases off the runners on the floor? I know there must be a trck to it?

Thanks,

Yours has the T rail seats.
Slide them all the way forward till they stop then on the right hand rail at the front on both seats there is a leaf spring that needs pushing down so the locking tab can slide passed.

snitz ...................where can one purchase and or view these scat seats?
aim in sydney....met

met9 wrote:snitz ...................where can one purchase and or view these scat seats?
aim in sydney....met

Seats can be found at www.procarbyscat.com if you click on "anatomy" on the left hand column it brings up a picture which happens to be that of a 68-70 beetle style seat adaptor.

www.vollks.com.au stock these seats in pairs with runners..but they are only available in black (at the time I bought them) if they come in other colours now then you are lucky. Im re-trimming mine anyway. Wassim who runs vollks is in sydney..In Leppington?..i think.Drop him an email via his website..perhaps you can view the seats and runners at his warehouse or something?..cheers Jason.

Joel wrote:Yours has the T rail seats.
Slide them all the way forward till they stop then on the right hand rail at the front on both seats there is a leaf spring that needs pushing down so the locking tab can slide passed.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Sorry for the hijack.

I've got some narrow seats from a Jap import Corolla Levin 20v I want to fit. They even have lumbar and height adjust and they cost me nothing. 😀