After the initial fiasco with the seat mounts and trying to make all this trash fit, I finally got to a happy medium where I modified the seats and the seat mounts and the seats sat at a position that I could work with. I still had to do the passenger side seat as far as hacking up the unneeded material and prepping the T base on the VW seat to accommodate the modified minivan seats. At least with me knowing how to do everything I can get the seat done pretty fast, compared to the trial and error with the first seat.
After cutting the excess material from the T, I cut the notches at the arms of the T to accommodate the frame rails. From there I drilled the holes for the rear mounts. I cut a notch at the bottom of the T at the front of the seat to accommodate the other bar of the frame. With the rear of the seat frame bolted down to the T, I was able to weld up the front bar to the bottom of the T to fully secure the minivan frame to the T of the VW seat. Still following? Ok then.... With the minivan frame attached to the seat, the next move was to drill holes in the floor for mounting the frames and by extension, the seats to the floor of the car. It took a little trial and error but I managed to get the holes pretty much figured out. I would later have to drill a couple holes that were off from the original holes I drilled. It's kind of hard to get the holes lined up with those holes in the frame when you're looking at it from different angles. With the holes drilled in the passenger side, I mounted that seat first. As stated before, I had to drill an extra couple holes that were offset from the first holes since a couple holes didn't line up. I also had to use a large nut as a spacer under one of the corners, so we didn't have any teeter action with the seat since the contact points weren't all level with one another. Other than the one corner that needed the spacer, all the other bolts went in just fine, washers on both ends, and tightened down. Now for the driver's side seat. As before I had to drill another hole offset from the first hole as well as use a large nut as a spacer for the leveling of the seat frame. After bolting everything down I was able to sit in both seats to test fit them for my frame. I reclined the seat backs some to get a comfortable posture in the seat, making for a comfortable ride, whether passenger or driver. The steering wheel only had to be raised halfway to give me more than enough clearance between the bottom of the steering wheel and my legs. I slid the seat to the right position where my posture would be comfortable and my feet would reach the pedals nicely. The seats are in positions on the floor where they clear the seatbelt reels and buckles, allowing for their use just as well. With the seats done, all that I have left to do now is wire up the oil and temp gauges to their respective sensors on the engine. Once that's done I can clean up the car inside and out of anything that is not needed, which would pretty much be everything, and consider myself done on the Elco until I get a new batch of parts to continue the build. Of course those parts would be exhaust, some brake parts, maybe some shocks for the suspension, who knows. We'll see.
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