Club 80-90 Forums

Wondering whether anyone has come up with the usual 80-90's ingenious solution with regards to upgrading the catches for locking in the rear seat back rest as originally fitted by Autosleeper? I've currently got a couple of flimsy slide locks (one's even been downgraded to cheap plastic) and are held in by a couple of small wood screws in to the side panel and the cupboard frame. I'm installing a couple of new 3-point seat belts for the nippers (one from Brickwerks and the other looks like its a drive from Sheffield to London) but there seems little point unless I can drastically strengthen the locking mechanism on the seat. It's all original interior and so I'm loathe to drop in a new R&R rear seat but I'm wondering how far self-tapping screws and and stronger bolts are going to get me? I'll need to do something that's for sure. Cheers for reading.

cannot help you but have often wondered about the "pooh" quality of the fittings myself as I want to replace mine as well,hopefully someone will have a great idea

scottbott wrote:cannot help you but have often wondered about the "pooh" quality of the fittings myself as I want to replace mine as well,hopefully someone will have a great idea

Scottbott - yeah I saw your post back in the archives and so I wasn't hopeful. Out of interest did you investigate R&R beds at all in terms of what would fit, I'm thinking cupboard access etc? I really am very reticent to change the interior but safety comes before keeping everything 100% original. Although, if I have to change the seat I'd want to try and retain the same upholstery and keep it as close as possible to the original.

It was only when I removed all the interior units to get some welding done that I realised how flimsy the seat is. It really is just a rectangle of wood with the small sliding catches for security.

Without fitting a R&R bed, the only way I can think of strengthening it properly would be fitting a metal frame behind the plank which would lock into another vertical bar behind the pantry cupboard and another catch into the bodywork on the other side.

jamesakers - I've quite literally just been sat in there working on the seat belt (one step forwards, nine steps back - the usual!) and I was thinking the same thing. It's all fairly unique in there and I think I'll have a lot of adjusting to do to make a standard R&R work (guess I could fork out for a custom made ) but I'm just trying to get my head around how to make any solution quick and easy when it comes to swapping between seat/bed/seat

The vertical panel comes out really easily so if a 3/4 width R&R bed fits it should be a simple installation.

Rusty Lee's 3/4 beds are 1050mm width but he does custom sizes too: http://www.vwrustylee.com/vw-beds/

Oh yeah so what was that big mallet for. Seriously though, thanks for that. Yeah it does look deep enough to take a R&R without interfering with the cupboards etc. Going to have to get a few dimensions off the various suppliers and see what's what. Ideally want to be able to keep as much of the original trim as possible. A few suppliers seem to suggest having to raise the engine compartment to make it flush - want to avoid having to replace all the cushions!

jamesakers wrote:Rusty Lee's 3/4 beds are 1050mm width but he does custom sizes too: http://www.vwrustylee.com/vw-beds/

Yep think I've narrowed it down to them and vanwurks. Have asked the latter for a bit more info on the dimensions. Cheers!

M1 Camper Beds look like they do one with integrated seatbelts: http://www.m1camperbeds.com/M1CamperBed ... y=16267769

Here's a picture of one in an Autosleeper from this thread: http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... &p=8125721

Cheers chief. I was expecting a serious amount of cash when I opened up the link (being an integrated seat belt and the testing that would have had to come with that) but that's a really reasonable price! Very pleasantly surprised. P.s. Nice blog by the way.

just looked at the link for M1 rock and roll bed very reasonable price,another thing to add to the list but very tempted,thanks for the link

I had exactly the same problem with the catches and so eventually fitted a rock n roll bed.
It fitted fine and now of course the bed is a lot safer than the Autosleeper original.

I've always thought the Autosleeper solution was a bit pathetic too; my main worry is all the heavy camping stuff in the boot flying forwards at 50 mph in the event of a crash and the only thing stopping it is two brass catches I wouldn't trust to keep a toilet door shut.

I toyed with the idea of a luggage restraint bar fixed across the van behind the rear seat back and the seat attached to that.

Then I saw this van on a well know auction site:





It's got a 3/4 width rock 'n' roll bed with built in head rests. Sod originality, I though, I want that! Contacted the seller to ask if they knew where the the seat was from but no joy but at least I know it exists somewhere....

Yeah, that would do it!!