Stephanie, Chip, and others,

On Tue, 1999-11-16 22:35:30 -0600, Chip & Stephanie wrote:

> ...
> 1)I have a '86 GL that currently seats 7. Are there other seating
> configs that would allow me to increase this? safely..........

That's probably the standard 2-2-3 configuration with two separate seats
up front (and enough  space between them to get  from the front seats to
the Vanagon's rear  or vice versa), a two   seated middle bench (with  a
"missing" righthand seat  at the sliding  door side), and a three seated
rear bench.

In a first step you could easily convert to 2-3-3 where the middle bench
would also seat three.  The right seat of this bench will have a folding
back rest to ease accessing the rear bench.  The middle bench is mounted
on two rails which are screwed to the bottom tin of  the van.  Of course
the rails for the  three seated bench  are  longer and thus  I'd replace
them together with the bench.

The next step would then be 3-3-3 with the front passenger seat replaced
with a  two seated bench which totally  fills the space  between the two
normal  front seats, thus  preventing you  from  easily walking into the
rear, from  easily reaching  the  parking brake, and probably  also from
easily shifting gears, in particular when the middle seat is occupied.

With respect to safety:  on all outer seats  you can install normal seat
belts which go around your belly as well as accross your chest and which
automatically adjust to the   correct length (how   are these called  in
English?).  All center seats, of course, can only be equipped with belly
belts.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely
 Rainer

'89 Caravelle GL Syncro 16"

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