Hello there,
my Caravelle CL T3's seats and benches are a bit "used" and I am thinking of upgrading to the GL seats/benches with the arm rests. Where would be the best place to look? My local wreckers only can shake their heads. Is my idea that weird?

Regards

Mike

No it's a pretty reasonable idea.

The only problem is that the 1980s were VW's 'death period' in Australia, so there just aren't the old VWs on the second-hand market or in the wrecking yards for that time. You'll just have great difficulty in finding a donor vehicle. Between 1981 and 1990, VW did not sell ANY passenger cars in this country, and the Transporter was the only new VW available. Even then, Transporter sales were a mere trickle:

1982 - 435 Transporters (in the whole of Australia for the whole year)
1983 - 179 Transporters
1984 - 262 Transporters
1985 - 393 Transporters
1986 - 123 Tranpsorters
1987 - 48 Transporters (VW's lowest ever sales year in Australia)
1988 - 82 Transporters
1989 - 1,097 Transporters (VW's relaunch by new importers Ateco)
1990 - 1,075 Transporters
1991 - 665 Transporters
1992 - 326 Transporters (the year the T4 Transporter replaces the T3)

So it's no wonder the wrecking years shake their heads!

Mike where are you located at

I have a few seats avaialble

I have the same problem, but i hate the seats in there. what have others replaced the seats with? something that is a close fit the the original bases?

Wow, only 48 transporters per year, that is less than one a week. That must have been the poorest marketing since Eva. Pity I don't like the T4s too much. They are plentiful in supply. Regarding the question of rustgard.....well, I would not have a clue what could fit, but these seats suit me like a glove, best seats for my size and build. If you don't like them, I'll take them gladly :-)

Regards

Mike

hi, i 'm only a first time Forum user , but i have run into a local guy ( wodonga vic ) driving a caravelle who bought a whole vehicle roadworthy (with cloth seats and arm rests) as a spare parts kit for his .. i will pass your concerns to him and if he wants to off load his extras he can also contact you via this forum ..good luck p.s he only paid a grand for a pretty straight and serviceable vehicle..

you could also try Menangler on here, he usually is wrecking T3`s

Quote:

Originally posted by whitey hi, i 'm only a first time Forum user , but i have run into a local guy ( wodonga vic ) driving a caravelle who bought a whole vehicle roadworthy (with cloth seats and arm rests) as a spare parts kit for his .. i will pass your concerns to him and if he wants to off load his extras he can also contact you via this forum ..good luck p.s he only paid a grand for a pretty straight and serviceable vehicle..

Keep looking, hopefully a donor vehicle will turn up somewhere. If not, a good motor trimmer might be able to spruce up your existing seats and panels with new padding and new material - your old seats in new cloth and leatherette would be pretty good.

After 1985 LNC Industries (VW Australia) basically stopped marketing VWs at all; they were the Subaru, Fiat, Renault ad Lancia importers too so that's where their resources went. 1986 was the last year of imports and the 48 sold in '87 were just old stock. They gave up the VW business in 1987 and Ateco took over in 1988. LNC went out of business in 1991, bought out, broken up and sold off by the Libermann investment group. Then it was TKM and Inchcape and VW struggled through the '90s here too. It took until 2001 before VW Germany took over the Australian business again - thank goodness.

Do u still want the seat for the Caravelle