Has anyone converted their cab bench seat to a flip/swivel-back? You know the ones? Where the back spins over to make it a rear facing seat. Think it was a westie option, and you can buy repro ones but I don't fancy laying out over a thousand quid for one when I reckon its do-able as a d.i.y lol I know it'd mean cutting out the bulkhead and bracing it up, but if anyone has some detailed pics of an original westie arrangements, measurements of the brackets etc i'd me much obliged.....got some rough ideas on how to make it work, and securing etc but could do with some pointers. I have to do a project for my welding course at college and I thought this might fit the bill lol
I think the Creative Engineering solution is pretty damned ugly tbh. It works really well, is well put together, and those who have the disposable income and the inclination to fit them give them rave reviews, but it's just so out of character with the rest of the bus, unless it's a creamy old splitscreen, with wicker accessories IMHO. From a design point of view, you only really need the support/crash resistance when the backrest is in the normal driving position, so this frees you up to consider alternatives. If you intend to design something to convert to a rearward facing bench seat, then a really easy solution would be to have the rear section demountable...a simple rectangular frame with extended legs that slot into supports (tubular?) fitted to the rear of the seat base, at an appropriate angle, with two more supports fitted at the front (at roughly the opposite angle). The backrest frame would then be lifted out, and slotted into the front supports... Another possibility would be to make the whole shooting match into a rearward facing bench seat/bed. In this case, I wouldn't try to flip the backrest over, but think the other way round...the backrest folds flat (backwards) the seat base slides forward and up (forming a rearward facing bench seat) the two pull backwards to form a bed. Look at the designs for folding beds and sunloungers (what we used to call Zed beds back in the day) The only issue is that both seat base and backrest need to be the same thickness to function as a bed...Good luck with it...I came up with a good design to do this, but it never got any further than a sketch on paper...if you crack it, and it looks elegant, you'll have yourself an alternative source of income, fabbing them up for other people....
Great feedback thanks I'm thinking a side mount bracket on each side of the seat tub, with either a swinging arm mounted to the seat back and fixed to a swivel pin (forgive the terminology.....I have no idea what these things are calld, I can just picture them in my mind lol) that will lock into either forward or back position with a sprung plunger pin of a suitable gauge - Similar to the westie/evolution seats but a bit less clunky looking, or a sliding rail of some kind that allows the seat back to slide backwards and forwards, maybe disguised as a low armrest, with some sort of locking mech at either end......have to see what my fabbing/welding skills will stretch to I guess but I reckon its do-able
Ok, well I've had a bit of a brainstorm on this, and I think with some decent thickness plate steel, the sliders and runners off a Mk2 golf seat, some steel tube to fashion a pivot and some retaining tubes from, a mig welder, and some decent sprung plunger pins I could make something functional and fairly easy on the eye Just need to draw it all up to get a feel for how it'll work and do some measuring on my cab seat to see about dimensions and the like lol
Saw one of these in a van at Brighton Breeze (not the same as one in pic but similar design) Thought it was great!! Made the inside of the van look huge when parked up and flipped round! Plenty of seating plus big enough to use as another bed if needed! Would love to knock one up for mine but not sure if removing my none walk through bulk head would be a good idea As its a twin slider. But I think there great!!
Mines a twin slider too Done some reading on removal of the bulkhead and apparently theres no technical reason why you cant as long as you weld in some bracing in the corner at the rear of the door to the top of the wheel tub to make it rigid again. I'd only need to remove the passenger side of it up to the side of the drivers seat anyway so I could weld in some tube around the drivers side bulkhead and plate it up, similar to the configuration of a walkthrough. Question is, now I've got my interior in and looking great, do I really want to pull it all out again to get the grinder in there? lol
There was a guy on here a while back with a lovely slammed van - I'm not sure if it survived the crash. @rickyrooo1 - the keeper of the archive - may remember
some of the buses I've seen with the bulkheads removed have a triangular fillet between the corner of the seat base and the B post... Does the seat have to slide? Think how late passenger seats are fitted....a couple of hooks and a rail...in fact there's one of the hooks in the pic you posted. Now, whilst I wouldn't dream of suggesting that you could support the entire weight of seat + person + momentum with such a weedy set-up, you could think along those lines... the seat base frame could be tubular or box section...this could "drop" into a subframe with suitable cut-outs and retainer... for a bit more inspiration, have a look at boat seats....they often flip over Also, don't be put off by thinking how the original stuff works and trying to reinvent it...
why not just fit two swivels and a seatbox in between in the walkthrough. A flip forward backrest shouldnt be difficult to construct? Same outcome unless you want that bench seat "diner" feel!
Because we want a solution based on practical engineering experience that it's actually possible to build?
Did a bit of thinking on the commute home.....got a bare bones setup in my head that I think might be feasible. Will be self contained within the bench, do what im after as well as fold flat as a bed posssibly, and should be fairly easy to fabricate. i'll do some sketching up and see how it looks
cutting bulkhead out of a twin slider with make shell floppy as there is no fixed side thats why twin sliders came with belly pans to make the shell more rigid. westfalia fitted triangles between the b post and the arch tub on berlins with passenger swivel seat but i dont think that would be enough on a twin slider to restore rigidity
presumably one could weld in some decent gauge angle steel along the join of the load bed and rear of the seat tubs to brace it up though?
