Glassic Model A Replica Information

This page will record my attempt to swap the seats on my car. My previous car (#1254 - a '78 Replicar) had VW seats bought by a previous owner as an after-market set. He paid quite a bit for them, new, a number of years ago. My seats on car 689 are the originals, and not as attractive as I would have liked. In April of 2014, I felt that the driver's seat was quite loose, or broken, and figured that this would be a time to look for a replacement.

While browsing Craig's List (a free classified ad website) I found a dealer that had a number of sets of NEW seats. It turned out that he was going to be at the San Diego Good-Guys car show - as was I. Well, this guy was a "character" - a gypsy carnival act of sorts. He had many seat sets, mostly for larger cars. They were all new, since he had a contract with someone who yanked them out of new cars to make handicapped vans. I bought a set of black vinyl leather? seats from a VW Toureg Van - probably in the 2011 to 2013 year range. They have a suede insert (very deluxe) and one of them may have the wire for making it a heated seat.

This salesman (BS artist, in a good way) said that the arm rests came off easily. The seats fold down flat, and also recline and have sliders on the bottom.

OUR GLASSICS ARE NARROW CARS, AND THEY GET NARROWER AT THE FRONT, AND AS YOU GO TO THE BACK OF THE CAR AS WELL. THIS LIMITS THE SEAT CHOICES AVAILABLE.

Like the other, older VW after market seats in my newer Replicar, these seats leave ZERO room to spare. I think back seat access is going to go by the wayside, except for little kids, and at the least, the two outermost arm rests will have to come off, since they are not likely to be used anyhow. The female end of the seatbelts are present, but the rest is not there. Our super-salesman said that the seats AND seat belts were a generic type item, and both also were similar to Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country vans. Sure enough, the male end of my mini-van fit the seat belt receiver on the seats. Once I get the seats in, I will look for the other half of the seat belts.

These seat cost me $230 for the pair - although that was a "special price", since he said he liked my wife. He also says that he travels the Southwest part of the country and also sells by mail - with a postage cost of $100+. Once I get these installed, I can say whether I recommend these seats.

First, why, other than the appearance, did I decide to swap seats? The driver's seat suddenly became wobbly, like a corner weld was busted, or one of the hold down bolts was loose. I removed the seat portion from the frame that held the seat up. The seat has 4 bolts, one in the middle front and back, and one in the middle of each side. The bolts point downward, so a long socket loosened three, and a short socket loosened the back one since the seat mount is higher in the front than back. The covered fiberglass bucket lifted off. How I manage to loosen the nuts without spinning the bolts that all appeared loose where they poked through the fiberglass (except one that had pulled out altogether).

The front of the car is to the left, The frame was, at some time, broken at the bolt hole in the back and repaired, more or less. The frame was also broken
on the door side, again at the weak spot where the bolt hole was. The bolt at the top of the pic had pulled out of the fiberglass, so the front bolt was
really the only one fastening the seat to the frame. Also, the weld at the front close top corner is cracked and would just pull apart easily.

The sagging back cross brace is intentional for the curved fiberglass to rest in it.

In the above picture, the slider mechanism is on the floor and the whole frame moves forward and back. With the VW seats, the sliders are on the seat bottom, so the frame and riser legs will stay put and the seat will slide back and forth. These seats are so wide that not much adjustment will be possible. I will first be sure that an average driver can reach the pedals, and then settle for any other possible adjustment.

One of the seats dropped into the car. You can see it hitting the shifter at the bottom and the car door at the top. It LOOKS like it belongs, but is just too wide at the front of the seats.
The head rest flips up and, if you try to put the seat back forward, it snaps over with great force. The seat does recline for comfort.

PROJECT WAS A FAIL. The issue here was that the seats fit in the car at the widest part, but they touched each other and both doors, and any adjustment of the seats made them no longer fit. In summary, the crude drawing below shows what the problem is. The engine compartment is not a cube of space, but one that is wider at the top of the car, and wider at the middle, but it tapers in both directions, front to back and ground to window height. Our replacement seat needs to fit the narrowest space where the adjusted seat will end up. My exaggerated drawing also shows three other issues to consider: The shifter on the floor, the emergency brake handle, and the little step down for the floor as seen in the top drawing in the lower corners. The floor space for mounting is narrower than the space for the seat.

By the way, I had somewhat overcome the shifter box obstacle by making the legs of the mounting brackets (for the VW seats) taller in the front. I had begun to make a pedestal out of 1 inch angle iron, and, like the original seat mount, made the seat higher at the front, so it would clear the transmission hump. Another issue with the VW seats, is that the fanny part was deeper front to back that the original seats - which meant that the seat got in the way of the shifter even while further back than the original seat.

Based on the failed attempt to squeeze the seats into the car, I made a temporary repair to the old frame, that was busted and had several stress cracks that will eventually fail.

Extremely over-priced square tubing with holes already in it, was purchased from Lowes (36 inches, I believe) and slipped over the broken joints. An angle iron was added to the front corner to beef up the cracked weld there.

The bolt that had pulled out of the fiberglass tub was replaced by using a toggle bolt (for hollow walls) backward. I threaded the butterfly bolt all the way on, pinched it together and pushed it through from the bottom. I had to make the hole bigger for the folded up bolt to fit through, but the hole was already a bit large since the head of the original bolt had come out. When the toggle bolt sprung open, I spun it back down tight and could then re-attach the bolt to the frame. The seat is still not attractive, so I will try to sell my VW seats and get some narrower seats.