HELP! MK2 Travelhome cab seat replacements!

[ladiomarismari]

Hello All,

Im a bit green to the CamperVan life and coming to a lot of dead ends with my latest upgrade to our lovely 1979 MK2 Travelhome.

As its getting a bit long in the tooth, the seats in the cab(two singles, driver's on rails, passenger bolted to chassis) are to say the least, in need of replacement. I'd like to get a couple of secondhand seats that are more comfortable and modern, however, no-one in the Ford industry can tell me what seats will fit my current fittings. Can i use MK3 Transit seats, or could i even go for something outside the Transit market? And if they dont fit into the runners and bolt holes already in place, is it a nightmare to make modifications to get a non standard seat fitted?

Can anyone answer these questions?? I hope so, this is a man on the edge!!

Thanks in advance to whoever has the answer!
Ladio

[davev6newman]

To the man on the edge........dont jump.

I have a mk 2 camper and have got the seats out of a 1 year old transit in mine, what i would say is that i do have 2 passenger seats but it makes no difference as they both have there own sliders fitted and height ajustments. If your handy you can fit them yourself with a few modifications.

Firstly you will need to offer the passenger up over the crossmembers that are on the floor and makes marks so you can cut out enough of the metal with a grinder to fit over these. The new seats have 4 large mounting holes in them so all i did on the passenger side was make marks through these holes and drill through the floor, using M10 nut and bolts and large strong flatwashers pref 5 or 6 mm thick. Bolt the seat down to the floor with the large washer over 5the hole in seat flange and large washer under the floor using locknuts.

The drivers seat was just the same except i welded the original floor runners to the base of the seat as well so it is bolted down as per passenger seat but also to the 4 bolts that hold the runner down.
Lovely comfortable seats with headrest and arm rests.
Only slight draw back is you are bit higher than original seats so if your tall like me you are just looking through the top of the screen, so your eye line is on the more towards the screen rubber, but you get used to it. Would be helpful if you fit slightly longer screen wipers as you need to have that higher bit of screen cleared by the wipers.

This might all sound like double dutch so if you need photos...No problem.

[jnwferguson]

Hi you can fit any seats you like in your transit it just depends how handy you are at fitting (bodging)I have seats from a 1954 rolls royce in my mk2 camper saab seats are good any large saloon car seats fit ok make sure you get the seat runners and any mounting brackets, you can make frames from angle iron,flat bar,dexion if you cant weld bolt it together as I say depends how handy you are keep it simple and secure, some people have fitted swivel bases, my camper has a sort of metal box the seat runners are just bolted to this but you could make a square box out of angle iron and bolt the seats to this try to use the original mounting holes it makes it a bit easier.
cheers jim.

mk2 camper
mk2 4x4

[transerbia]

It is not difficult to fit any seat, but more important is the construction of the seat, to make the fitting simple. The best is to find some seats previously mounted on flat floor, for example Renault Espace, as we have already a flat floor. I took seats from citroen XM, for a simple reason I payed 20 euros for it. When I had last year an accident, those very confortable and secure seats saved my life, so it is also a question of security, and the welding must be of top quality.

[ladiomarismari]

Guys,

Thank you all very much for your sound advice. I'm starting to see that it's a slightly bigger job than i thought as I've never welded before, however, i wont let that deter me and will now set about getting things in motion. Any other advice gratefully received.

Thanks again
No longer on the edge!
Ladio.