Well sometime ago I asked the list about the confort of
the seats in the Vanagons. I concluded that the back rest
needs work, so I padded mine. Here what I did.

       PADDING YOUR VANAGON SEAT BACK:

1 - REMOVE SEAT BACK: This is the hardest part.
    Remove the arm rest by removing the black
    center plug, pull the armrest off, and remove
    its mounting bracket. Turn the seat over and
    remove the small socket head screws that hold
    the seat track to the base of the seat. These
    bolts are small and go in front the bottom.
    Note the springs under the seat track etc.
    Remove the 2 larger bolts that the seat piviet
    on the the seat should fail apart, except for
    the spring (wire) in the tube. Yes it has to
    be removed.

2 - REMOVE COVERING: on the bottom of the back you
    will find small metal tabs bent over. Straighten
    them, and remove the metal rod they hold in place.
    Pull the head rest out and pull out the plastic
    mounts that are pushed into the top of the seat.
    As you start to remove the covering you will
    find inside a final wire holding the covering
    in place. Note the palce that it is tied into.

3 - INSERT PADDING: Using a 2" thick piece of foam
    rubber carefully cut and install the foam to fill
    the hollow back of the seat. It requires that two
    pieces be used because of the strange frame work.
    The top piece being 4 1/4" x the seat width. In
    addition I install another 1" thick piece in the
    lower back area, and the same in the upper center
    between the head rest support.

4 - PADDING SUPPORT: Cover the new foamed area of the
    seat with a thin piece of sheet metal. I used two
    pieces of .04" thick aluminum. I pop riveted one
    piece from the bottom edge to the 4" wide cross
    support and a top piece from this 4" support to
    the top. Insert the edges under the existing fram
    at the top and bottom.  At this stage there is
    only 1 small problem. You have to clear
    a path in the foam for the plastic head rest mounts.
    I simply turned the seat cover inside out and
    install the head reset and padded around it.

6 - RE-ASSEMBLE: This should be straight forward.
    Don't forget to tie down the two wires that keep the
    cover fabric tight to the seat. I had to drill
    extra holes thru the base of sheet metal cover.

           Comments can be directed to:

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler