Fitting 2 X Front Swivel Seats

DavySNP1242's - Task: Swivel Seats
Write up for their project LDV Convoy Minibus Campervan ConversionStatus: 50% Complete

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Task Write-up: 

I planned to replace the standard double passenger and single drivers seats in the front of my LDV Convoy with a pair of decent single seats mounted on swivel plates right at the start of this project after seeing the huge benefit of swivel plates in my sister's V Dubb T4 Remo Conversion.
As one of my aims during this conversion is to produce a decent livable van without spending too much dosh I shall be investigating various ways of achieving my aims. That said I decided to have a look around the local scrappies for suitable seats. I have already acquired some wardrobe carcasses as a job lot for 40 pounds from my local IKEA which I shall use to build my furniture. These carcasses are in birch veneer so I was looking for light coloured seats to match.
On one visit I found a Peugeot 806 (Fiat Ulysse) with a good set of cream coloured seats. On further investigation these seats have armrests and are fully reclining with height adjust on the drivers one. Then I discovered their 'piece de resistance' they're mounted on swivel plates and their bases each have a sliding storage drawer in them.
I negotiated a price of 100 pounds with the yard for the two front seats, two matching folding rear seats with table tops in their backs, the front seat bases, the rear seat floor fixings and all the matching seat belts.
I removed both the front seats from the van and offered up the Peugeot bases to ascertain how much drilling I would need to do to secure them in the LDV. The LDV floorpan is drilled for both left and right hand drive seating and I was pleased to find that 4 out of the 6 mounting bolt holes on the Peugeot bases lined up with the LDV mounting holes.
I have bolted the seats and bases in on the four mounts each and used the van several times successfully however I intend to do a bit of fine tuning at a later date particularly in the area of the handbrake as the drivers seat base is too close to the handbrake lever to get an all round grip on the lever with the seat in the forward facing position. I shall make up adapter plates to move the drivers seat base to the right by about 30mm and to make use of all 6 of the Peugeot's mounting holes.
I also intend to reinforce the cab floor around the mountings as LDVs are somewhat weak in this area. More of this later.
The LDV seat belt buckles do not engage with the seat mounted Peugeot recepticles so I replaced them with the Peugeot webbing.
To do this I removed the inertia reels from the van's door pillars then removed the plastic covers over the webbing of the inertia reels, pulled the belts right out to expose the center shaft of the reel, locked the reel by pushing a thin screwdriver thru the slotted shaft and jamming it against the carrier frame. I could now push the webbing thru the slotted center shaft to release a plastic peg from the loop in the end of the webbing and pulling the webbing back thru the slot.
Having already removed the Peugeot webbing from it's inertia reel I checked that the webbing was lying the right way over so that when the reel was reassembled the buckle was on the outside of the webbing then pushed the loop end thru the slotted inertia reel shaft, replaced the plastic pin in the loop, pulled the webbing back till it locked in the slot then removed the locking screwdriver and allowed the reel to rewind. I then refitted the plastic cover over the webbing and replaced the reels back in the doorposts.
The results can be seen in the photos. The Peugeot seat mounted seatbelt setup also means that I have been able to remove the floor mounted LDV seatbelt stalks (along with the wheelbrace/jack handle clips) which leaves a clear cab floor between the front seats.

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