Series 3 S3 Seats (Britpart) how best to mount them.

I put the gearbox rebuild to one side over the weekend and had a look at the seats I've bought. These are the Britpart Deluxe seat set with the headrests on the driver & passenger seats.

The mounting at the bottom of each side of the seat backs appears to be a captive 1/4" UNF nut in a metal frame that is covered in the vinyl. There are several holes in the base of the internal steel frame that I can feel through the material, but not all of them appear to have captive nuts.

This mounting is fine for the driver's seat, as on mine I have the fully sliding base frame and it is no bother to use the pivot bolts to mount the seat back. Problem comes on the bottom of the middle seat and passenger seat, where they share a double seat mount bracket. The original seats had a pin and bar arrangement here, with a 1/4" bar poking out of the side of the base of the seat backs. The bars have a little hole in so you could stick the bars through the mounting bracket from each side and then use a split pin to hold them in place. That's fine except that on the new seats, these bars are not fitted, just the captive nuts. Of course on the shared double bracket there is no room to get a pivot bolt in both sides. Has anyone else come across this detail and what did they do about it?

The first photo shows how hard it would be to get two pivot bolts through the double bracket. The second shows the bar/hole mount arrangement on the original seats.

Thanks very much
Andrew

I have not had that problem myself as I have the sliding seat base both sides and a separate bracket for the middle seat, However if ti was me I would just spread the bracket a little so you can fit the bolts, looking at the pic it would only need to be a couple of mm for them to make it into the holes. Then if needed press it back together once the bolts are in.

Britpart?

The best way is to line them all up on a piece of steel box section. The best is the piece used for the lip of a skip.
Once lined up you gently tip them back until they fall into the bottom, have a copious amount of petrol added along with a lit match.

Bobsticle said:

Britpart?

The best way is to line them all up on a piece of steel box section. The best is the piece used for the lip of a skip.
Once lined up you gently tip them back until they fall into the bottom, have a copious amount of petrol added along with a lit match.

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Which brand do you recommend?

Could you mount a small length of threaded bar to the seat with a hole drilled out to accept the split pin?.....

Marmaduke said:

Which brand do you recommend?

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Just kidding. They are probably designed in India and made in china so just do what you have to. The originals wouldnt stay on the ally box in the event of a collision so dont expect too much from a copy. Luckilly you wont be going very fast anyway so nail em in and enjoy.

Bobsticle said:

Just kidding. They are probably designed in India and made in china so just do what you have to. The originals wouldnt stay on the ally box in the event of a collision so dont expect too much from a copy. Luckilly you wont be going very fast anyway so nail em in and enjoy.

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Mine hasn't got any seat belts at the mo

Marmaduke said:

Mine hasn't got any seat belts at the mo

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Nor mine, nor the originals. Nor my bus but I aint killed anyone yet.

Bobsticle said:

Nor mine, nor the originals. Nor my bus but I aint killed anyone yet.

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That's cos bus drivers stop every thirty feet

Marmaduke said:

That's cos bus drivers stop every thirty feet

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Nope. That’s coz bus drivers take very few risks

Thanks for the interest and replies guys. I think I can spread the double bracket enough to get the two pivot bolts in back to back. Or having now given it a bit of thought, I may go for a longer length of threaded rod and screw a decent amount of it into one seat back, put the seat in place and then unscrew enough of the rod to go back through BOTH halves of the support bracket and screw into the second seat on the other side. A couple of locknuts in the middle would secure the whole setup.

In answer to David's enquiry, I don't think a short length of threaded rod on each side would work as the captive nuts are not very captive. I think the leverage would just result in the nut coming loose on the inside of the seat back.

For any in a similar position, if I were doing this again I would shell out for the Exmoor Trim seats. They are a superior offering in my view.

Cheers all. I will post a final solution when I get around to doing it.
Andrew