Air Ride Seat makeover

[ComfortEagle]

I am currently in the early stages of converting our 1986 Gillig Phantom as documented here.. The driver seat was in pretty rough shape; sadly these two photos below are the only pics I have of it...


This pic is of the grouse that smashed thru my windshield on the 2900 mile drive from hell from NoCal back to MD...


I found this seat on CL for $80 and decided to give it a try. The seat is a passenger seat from a Mk5 Jetta (~2008?). It looks almost brand new. It has manual fore and aft adjustment and height adjustment and power seat back rake adjustment.


FWIW there are four plugs on the seat, all that's needed are the red and brown wires on the below plug for power and ground for the power seat back.


I fabricated the adaptor brackets from 1.5 inch 1/8 inch thick steel angle iron. Here is a fit check with it mounted to the seat bottom with the top of the air ride assembly attached.


The brackets were pretty easy, no welding required, just an angle grinder with a cutting wheel and a flapper disc to sand and de-burr (and a drill of course). Here they are after prep and paint.


Here is the finished and assembled bracket attached to the top of the air ride assembly.

A pic of the air ride components before reassembly.


And here is the completed air ride assembly waiting for the seat...


More to come once I get a little time to get the seat installed and test fit in the bus...

[Miles O Roads]

Good stuff. I have a rover going for parts we decided to keep seats to try this they are 6way power with heat. Figure free and a nice upgrade. Those prob have heat dont they?

[ComfortEagle]

Originally Posted by Miles O Roads

Good stuff. I have a rover going for parts we decided to keep seats to try this they are 6way power with heat. Figure free and a nice upgrade. Those prob have heat dont they?

No heat. That would have been nice. Those Rover seats must be nice. It's a little weird to me that the seat back adjustment is the only power adjustment on this particular Jetta seat. However, since I will be the only one driving the bus it shouldn't need much fiddling.

[ComfortEagle]

I did a test fit of the new seat today... I hope to start rebuilding the dashboard soon and want the seat installed to help me place the gauges and switches...

The fact that it's a passenger actually works out well for a bus since the righthand side of a car's passenger seat is generally trimmed out better than a driver seat right hand side.


I will definitely have find some fabric to cover the lower parts, maybe it will match the steering wheel lower cover...

[wrenchtech]

Beautiful seat and nice craftsmanship on your part. I'm wondering about the backwards tilt of the seat bottom. The seating position in most cars is quite different than the seating in the coach or a commercial truck, where you are sitting in a more erect position with something closed to a 90° bend at the knee. After a few years of riding around in class-8 trucks, I am thinking that a flatter seat bottom is the ticket. How is your experience of the matter so far?

[peteg59]

May of 2018 was the OP's last update.
Hope he's still around???