This was one of my most feared jobs – converting the front passenger seat to swivel and have adjustable runners, as by default its fixed. A bit of advice online and a few have done it, but some tough stories of getting the seat out and brackets off, and some trim removal or door needing opening on spinning. So a bit of fear of the unknown and not wanting to damage the original van or equipment.
One of my friends who runs an engineering company kindly assisted and lent me his workshop and access to any huts bolts I needed as well as expert engineers to help 🙂 Thanks!
Anyway, getting the seat out:-
- Remove 2x 15mm bolts at front
- Remove 2x 15mm bolts at rear
- Seat then lifts off, but disconnect any cabling. Weirdly I had cables fixed to the bottom of the seat, but no connector for them to go in to so they were just taped up? Also I have passenger airbag so a bit confusing.
Removing brackets
- There are 4 brackets, one in each corner.
- The 2 front ones are held on with easily accessible 10mm nuts (inside the seat).
- The rear ones are more awkward
- The first, can be removed with a 10mm ratchet spanner, slowly. Only enough movement to get one or two clicks. (Also – it can be removed in same manner as the second if you are lucky/careful
- The second cant be accessed from underneath, but instead use a 10mm socket and extender bar. You enter from the seat side, and “push” the cushion to the centre, and you can just squeeze the socket through. You can blind feel and guide the socket to the nut from underneat
Hey presto, easy seat out and brackets out.
The swivel plate recommended to me was a FASP – Single Seat Swivel VW T4 1997+ (1305.2893) from Jennings. This seems to fit reasonably well, the rear holes line up with existing pre-tapped nuts on the seat base, requiring only the correct bolts for the rear (supplied ones too small) and new drill holes in the sear base for the front ones to bolt through.
I could not find runners to match, so I bought JDR dual lock race approved runners (ebay/JDR) – assuming race approved will be higher spec than road. These are narrow so need modifying.
The seat plate caused some debate as it appears to be fit either way up – so with the release handle on the base left, or the swivel right. Not entirely sure, but the “correct” place seems to be on the top plate near the centre of the van. This is different to our last van and most vans I’ve seen have them near the door. The VW forums are also full of debate.
So, following the advice, we fitted the plate with the release handle on the top plate facing centre of the van.
The rear two countersunk bolts lined up with the existing seat holes. Sadly, these appear to require M10 countersunk bolts with a fine 1.25 thread of 8.8 rating, and we can’t find them anywhere, they seem not to exist. The best solution we found was to tap the welded nut from 1.25 to 1.5 thread. Whilst this weakens the nut a little, when its bolted through with a readily available M10 8.8 1.5 thread countersunk bolt, you can add a washer and a nyloc nut as well making it stronger than OEM. Do not be tempted with a stainless bolt – these can break under impact – whereas 8.8 stretches – much better in an accident.
The two front bolts didn’t match with the plate holes as there was a bar underneath, so we had to drill the plate and into the base, and fitted M10 8.8 bolts and washers. Good drill bits needed.
The runners I used fitted nicely to existing holes in the seat swivel, so M8 8.8 were installed. But, whilst most can be bolt down, one needs to be bolt up to miss the “locking pin”. Or get shorter bolts.
To get the runners into the seat base, no holes aligned so we set the runners to the middle and the seat in slightly forward of “Nissan” position and marked & drilled 4 holes for M8 8.8 bolts/washers to bolt the seat to the runners.
However, as the runners were not Nissan, the handle was the wrong length/size, so we anticipated cutting/welding, but didn’t try. Instead we got another friend to help out, and he fabricated a new handle out of 10mm solid bar, which we drilled 5mm + partial 7mm (IIRC) holes to go over the pins, and also extended it so it was in the more natural position. We spring this request on our busy friend, so more beers owed! This is finished with primer and spray black gloss paint.
Getting to some of the nuts n bolts in is a bit of a handscraper, but overall not that difficult job apart from fabricating a new handle which was a pain and glad we had a friend with the industrial bender!
I was lucky, my helper was a pedantic expert (which is a huge compliment) and I think I learned a lot, and will remember some of the tips n techniques.
There is debate as to whether modifying seats is safe or not. Well, that’s for you to call. All I am going to say is that we thought about each change, and used engineering spec parts or quality approved parts, and we are confident its as safe as any install would be in an approved van with an approved kit. This post details how I did it, and does not in any way suggest it is approved, safe, or that its DIYable. If you copy any of this its at your own risk.
Really helpful write up for anyone else thats going to do same.
You going to follow up with dealer about the passenger seat cabling not being connected ?
No – it was deliberate – it was taped back, and also the seat has nothing to connect it to! So its not like its not plugged in. My Transit had driver and pax airbags, and it didn’t have any seat sensors either. Is strange though….
the impact sensors were mounted at the front bumper, perhaps..
otherwise, that was a great job well done and I kinda like the way you thought that even if you had to do it yourself, you try to stick with specific engineered parts which is awesome..
I was looking for a safe way to mount a swivel seat for my car, fortunately stumbled upon your site, and to be honest, I’m intrigued to have me a small campervan as well now! =)
Do you know if it would be possible to fit the seat swivel without the sliders?
Thanks,
Evan
Hmmm. Probably, yes, but I’d not recommend it. for the seat to swivel it needs to be in a particular “place” front to back. If you fixed it there, its not optimum for either sitting in as a passenger, or as a habitation seat. It needs to be “towards the back” for the passenger to have room when driving, and “towards the front of the van” when rotated for the habitation to have room (and to make room for loo). Youd also need to open the door to rotate which you don’t with sliders.
So yes, probably, but I wouldn’t.
Why without runners? They are cheap and don’t actually alter the height of the seat compared to how it is made – even with the turntable?
I have bought swivel but don’t have the back and forth mechanism is there a way of buying something that can use the back and forth so the swivel will work
Hi, Yes, you can buy car seat rails (ebay) – just get a model you think will fit. I bought a low profile race approved one but was a pain to make the release bar but apart from that was OK. use good rated bolts too rather (IIRC 10.9?) – but check
It’s difficult but not impossible to get hold of fine thread (1.25mm) M10 couter sunk bolts.
https://www.belmetric.com/sf10x125x30-flat-head-p-6417.html?cPath=6_340_372_1070
Good spot!
We really struggled here, I installed the seat with an engineering customer with most bolts known to man, and they didn’t have any, nor did a couple of specialist suppliers on the industrial estate. As we were doing it there and then we didn’t look online. But anyone who prepares in advance should check your link as they do look right (and rated at 10.9 which is important)
Thanks for making me and others aware
How long were the runners you used? I don’t seem to be able to find any matching JDR/seat runners on ebay. Most seat runners seem to be approx 340mm. The FASP swivel seat plate requires at least 450mm runner. Great write up btw, super useful!
I used https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RACE-SPEC-Bucket-Seat-Slide-Rails-Runners-Glides-Corbeau-Cobra-Rally-Kit-Car/260979541387?hash=item3cc397c58b:g:64AAAMXQY8JRggPP which aren’t 450mm – but work well and has enough movement in the van. I’d say the runners were “perfect size” to be honest. No issues with them at all. I went for “race spec” as I wanted something strong as they are important lol.. The only pain is the width between runners as the provided handle doesn’t work and I had to make my own – and that was a pain.
Best I could find……
Hi Ryan and Mel. Regarding seat runners did you try scrap yards?.
and do you know what nissan car use’s same runners.
I am building a nv 200 camper and have same problem
Nope. I didn’t try scrap. I don’t believe the NV passenger seat has runners anyway? So you’d probably need a drivers seat and even then they fit to the “legs” rather than the base where the plate goes… I’m sure there is an easy fix for this, but I didn’t find it
Great write up… many thanks! Will form the basis of my first job on my newly acquired NV200
Good luck!
Great writeup, very informative!
I just bought an NV200 for some lonely travelling and I want to do what you have done with the passenger seat. It has a steel bulkhead though. I would like to keep most of the bulkhead on the drivers side and if the steel is thick enough, remove 30-40% of the passenger side to create a walkway.
I’m getting ahead of myself though, the van hasn’t even been delivered yet, but thank you for the detailed information!
Good luck – anything is possible 🙂