Bodgers Guide to Building a Swivel Seat
The following is a detailed description of how to go about building your very own Swivel Seat.
The Swivel Seat or Captains Chair as Pop Eye would have it, is one of coolest additions that a custom bus could have.
The conversion of the standard front seating arrangement, is not one, that many people take lightly. Many reasons exist such as "Safety", "Looks", "Functionality" and "Work Involved".
The conversion as detailed below is not as drastic as many would believe and can offer the final statement to your bus. Giving more room in the back and a multi locking arrangement all adds up to more than the little hassle that is involved to complete this simple but very effective job.
To increase the available space in the back of a VW Type II, however this process can and has also been performed on the VW Type 25 in both air and water cooled varieties.
The conversion should also be simply to perform and must incorporate the following design requirements:-
- The conversion must be SAFE.
- Allow for easy locking of the seat in any position.
- Simple construction.
- Parts should be easily sourced.
Very Important
A good ability with a mig welder is essential as there is some structural work required to the passenger under-seat & some work to the area where the seat mounts to the wheel arch. With this said, a person who has restored the body panels of their bus should have no problems.
KombiKlassic'sand/or the author of this article can and will not except responsibility for anything related to this article or it's design documents, what so ever.
The parts required for the job are simple to obtain, most of which can be sourced from the local scrap yard or your local Boat Chandler/supplier:-
- A Golf/Polo/Rabbit passenger rear wheel hub assembly, Including:-
- Backing Plate,
- Wheel fixing bolts,
- Brake components,
- Length of the original hand brake cable.
- Approximately 2 Meters of Heavy duty Steel angle iron.
- Approximately 3 Meters of 50 x 25 x 3.2mm box section mild steel tube.
- Rigging tensioner for the Offset lever type or a wire fence tensioner.
There are four main parts to this project:-
- Preparation.
- Hub and inner wheel arch Construction.
- Seat and fixing frame Construction.
- Installing a Locking mechanism.
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Preparation.
This section provides details of the preparation work required for your swivel seat conversion.
Start by removing the front seat. Once out it's time to remove the rear panel that used to support the rear of this seat as indicated below:-
- Take a good long look at the panel behind the seat, note where the panel is attached. It should be spot-welded to the door pillar and welded at the top. It will also form part of the wheel arch, again this will be welded at it's end.
- From the top of the panel nearest the door pillar cut downwards through the welded part using a metal saw.
- Drill out all the spot welds that hold the panel to the door post.
- From the front of the bus, scribe a line following the inner wheel arch seam and give it a 6-8mm clearance above this seam line. This will ensure that we don't cut into the wheel arch area.
- Using an Angle grinder or chisel carefully cut along the scribed line.
- Again with a metal saw, cut through the last bit of the panel nearest to the walk through. This should free the panel.
- Now remove any chassis plates that may be on the panel and put them to one side.
- With a hammer carefully bend the cut edge over the seam to make it safe and to enclose the seam as shown below:-
| Seam
before it is hammered over
(Example of the seam before the seam allowance has been hammered over.) |
Seam
after it has been hammered over
(Example of the hammered over seam.) |
Seam
allowance example
(View from Cargo area looking forward, the vertical line represents the door post.) |
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Seat and fixing frame Construction.
8 - Constructing the Seat Frame.
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The following section provides a detailed description of the process involved to produce a "Multi Purpose Swivel Seat Fixing Frame.". The size of this "Example" frame in our experience fits most seats. However checks should be made to ensure that it will fit underneath of the seat and must be weldable or boltable to each of the four corners of underside of the seat/frame. 1. Using the 50 x 25 x 3.2mm Box section steel, cut :-
2. Using some right angle steel cut 2 length of 2.5 inches. 4. Now drill the holes as per the diagram. Lay out everything on the bench and test fit the hub onto the frame. Check that the holes line up with the ones in the Hub. We recommended you spend some time producing this frame, tack weld everything and test fit again. DON'T fully weld anything until you are sure its all going to fit and line up. Go for it, it's up to you now...
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Hub and inner wheel arch Construction.
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Concept Overview...  |
The diagram (left) shows the basic concept of how the hub is fixed in place and the supports required. (Shown left is a early prototype, Type 2 camper) Please note The following pictures are of a conversion from a "bench seat" into a fixed drivers and swivel passenger setup. The only difference between a "bench seat" & "normal" installation is the length of the support bars (A). What follows is a "bench seat" conversion.
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1 - Hub Plate Design & Fabrication.
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This section is devoted to the fabrication and fixing of the hub plate. A flat piece of sheet steel welded on the top part of the wheel arch to provide a flat surface for the hub/spindle fixing. The hub spindle will be bolted through this plate and throuth the wheel arch thus providing a level and solid fixing point.
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2 - Determine the Backing Plate position & fix the Primary support bars.
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This section show where to position the primary supports bars (A) in relation to the approx position of the hub. The lengths are dependant of wether its a bench seat conversion or a normal two seat setup. (Bench seat setup depicted)
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3 - 1st Support Bar Position.
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This section shows where to position the secondary supports bar (A) in relation to the approx position of the hub and the primary support bars. The lengths are dependant on the width set in the location of the Primary support bars. (Bench seat setup depicted)
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4 - 2nd Support Bar Position.
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Again this section shows where to position the othe secondary supports bar (A) in relation to the approx position of the hub and the primary support bars. The screw driver indicates the position of the support bar.
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5 - Check the final Hub position and height.
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Be carefull !!! - check it's all level and in the right place. The screw driver indicates where the hub backing plate should touch, the same is true on the other side.
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6 - Side Support Bar placement.
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This section describes the placement of the side support bars. The bars provide support to the backing plate as we need to support the backing plate in four places at 90` to each other. One or both of the support bars can be omitted if carefull planning has been used to position them to serve as both the primary support and side support.the placement of the primary support bars are in such a position, to act in the
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7 - Weld the Backing plate in place.
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To be updated soon!!!
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8 - Spindle Positioning & Fixing.
| To be updated soon!!! | To be updated soon!!!
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Installing the Locking mechanism.
This section describes some ideas for locking the seat in position. The setup above has been designed to allow the locking of the seat by use of the hand brake cable from the hub. This basically involves the pulling of the hand brake cable, enough to lock the seat and then to hold it there.
However when we first tried to achieve this we had some considerable problems to over come. below is a list of idea's under several headings. Because of the problems with trying to describe all of these to you. We must leave it up to you, have a good look at the following ideas and pick the one you want. We will try to give you our opinions, you may have your own.
What sort of linkage...
We have tried several different types of linkage, all with pros and cons we have tried "Offset Rigging Tensioner", "Jam Cleats", and many custom made designs. Below are some example of what you can do:-
Rigging Tensioner (Offset Pivot Lever design).
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We have used a rigging tensioner on many occasions. It is basically a lever with the cable attached which when pushed also pulls the cable. I can not put this into words so look at the picture!. |
One off devices (Everything else).
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This one is a neat idea & it's the one we now use for most jobs. It's simplicity it's self:- |
The hand brake cable is looped through & attached to a threaded bar. This bar is fitted loosely through a hole in a plate welded to either the front or rear of the frame supporting the hub. a threaded nut then can be adjusted on the bar and against the plate to tighten the hand brake, on or off.
The nut can be replaced with a threaded knurled knob or the nut can be welded to something to provide a good twist. Very little pressure is needed for a knob of 2.5 inches.
Bits you need:
- 8mm threaded wire fence tensioner (Available from most hardware store)
- Nuts to fit.
- A steel knob of some kind.
- 3mm min. steel place with 8mm hole drilled through.
- Rigging - Wire clamp.
Again where and how you use this system is up to you, have a look at the diagram.
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