The original early 80's Westy Seats were different than passenger vans. They
were much thinner, and sort of scooped. I always figured it was to
compensate for the inch and a half lazy susan height.

tim in san jose

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 12:11 PM, Oxroad <oxroad@gmail.com> wrote:

> For What it's worth, I have an 83.5 VanagonL full Westfalia which does have
> swivel driver's and passenger seats.
> The seats are also shown with the swivel in the '83 Vanagon brochure with
> the full Westy package.
> I don't know what the earlier VanagonL had in the way of swivels or when it
> started.
>
> The seats originally were the kind of low-grade fabric seats with the brown
> and blue stripes, not velour like in the later GLs.
> And the seats do not have arms attached as the captain's chairs do in the
> velour.
>
> My understanding is the bottom seat cushion is a different part number for
> the swivel seat vs. the "fixed" seat. This because the
> full Westfailia seat bottom cushion is shallower or less high.
> (My PC with ETKA on it is not working today so I can't check the part
> numbers to confirm this right now.)
>
> I think I remember discussion in the past on the different height of the
> bottom seat cushion adjusted by VW to somewhat accommodate for the
> added height of the swivel mechanism.
>
> While my driver's seat has the swivel I almost never use it. For those who
> don't have it, I'll tell you even with the swivel the driver's seat only
> has the clearance to "spin" about 90 degrees to where you're facing the
> passenger. The kitchen cabinet prevents you from facing toward the back
> of the full campmobile.
>
> And then my original fabric striped seats with the "horsehair" "cushioning"
> certainly had less seat bottom cushioning creating more head clearance.
>
> IIRC, Somewhere on the web someone pictured the 2 seats (Camper swivel vs.
> Passenger fixed) side by side and measured the bottom seat cushion.
> I'll see if I can find the link.
>
> Just thinking out loud here. I do get that if you remove the swivel
> mechanism you will get more headroom from the seat that was on the swivel.
>
> Best,
> Jeff
> 83.5 Westy
> LA,CA
>
> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:39 AM, Loren Busch <starwagen@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >  RE: Swivel Seats
> > Don't forget that there are a lot of earlier (pre '86?) Vanagons and
> > Vanagon
> > Westfalias out there that were in an "L" series trim package, not the
> "GL"
> > we see on virtually all later model Westies.  Ed Anderson built a lot of
> > Adventurewagens on the "L" series bodies.  And IIRC the swivel seat was
> an
> > option on early models.  What's the difference? Most obvious, based on
> what
> > I've seen, is the "L" series has no tach and the analog clock instead,
> > rubber floor mats instead of carpeting. I'm sure there are other
> > differences
> > in the trim but those two stand out.  And I'm guessing the swivel seats
> are
> > part of those differences.
> >
>

--
Where ever you are, there you be. Unless you're driving my van, in which
case, you ain't got there yet.