| Rear
Seats
From the day we bought the
defender we knew that we would want to fit a set of rear seats for
the odd time when we need to carry more than 1 passenger.
Implications of rear seats
- Despite being a hard top commercial vehicle we checked with the
local motor tax office about having rear seats. Apparently as long
as the seats are fold up and removable there is no problem.
- As far as the Gardai are concerned people in the back just have
to be belted in, otherwise it's a €200 fine.
- Finally, insurance, as it's a farm policy I am insured to carry
up to 5. When I asked them about fitting the rear seats they said:
"We don't need to know anything about it", that's fine
:)
So with the boring bit out of the way we can focus on “which
seats?”
Inward or forward facing?
We decided to go for the inward facing seats. This was based on
a number of factors. The rear seats will not get much use, so prolonged
comfort is not really an issue. We didn't want to completely ruin
our load space and the forward facing seats seem to take up too
much space even when folded. Finally there is the issue of getting
in and out and the inward facing fold ups again have the upper hand.
I must point out as well that we only wanted to install two seats
in the back, both opposite each other in the middle.
Which Supplier?
Now that we had decided what style of seat to go for, the next decision
was what supplier we would buy the seats from. This decision was
based primarily on price, because one would assume that most of
these seats are the same design. We also wanted to have them re-trimmed
in the same material as the front Cobra seats.
We worked out a deal with Exmoor Trim Ltd. [http://www.exmoortrim.co.uk/]
who seem to have the best reputation for retro fit Land Rover interior
trim. I arranged that they would sell me the entire kit with the
seat base and back constituent parts, less the fabric and obviously
the trimming cost. This worked out at £40 GBP ex. VAT per
seat including the foam.
So not bad, about half price. I also had some concerns about the
fitting, or should
I say the completeness of the kit (which was justified as you will
see further down). However the guy at Exmoor assured me that yes
the kit came with spreader plates for the under side of the rear
seat boxes and everything needed to fit the seats was in the kit.
Great.
Arrival
On arrival the parcel was missing the seat base and backs. Not to
worry though, one call and they agreed to send them out at their
cost.
On further inspection the parcel was also missing spreader plates
for the underside of the seat boxes. Another call resulted in confusion
at the other end of the line; "we don't do spreader plates"
they said.
So I was going to have to fabricate my own spreader plates (to distribute
any force applied across a larger area). As well as this I was under
impressed with the overall feel and solidity of the seats. They
felt pretty flimsy and as far as receiving comprehensive fitting
instructions…
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| Seat-base parts |
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Seat-back parts |
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Seat-base mock-up |
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Folded seat-base |
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| Fabricated seat locators |
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Spreader plates |
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Trimmed seat-back |
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Trimmed seat-base |
Mockup
When the seat base and back arrived we were able to fit them all
together and mock them up in the rear of the car. I should point
out as well that none of the nuts and bolts supplied were the correct
size, so I had to buy a whole set of M8’s. When mocking it
up it became clear that the backrests had considerable variability
meaning that they would sit at an angle to almost every surface.
As well as this the seat base and backrest had no bracketry to maintain
the correct distance between them, and we were still unhappy with
the solidity of the components. So, there was a fair bit of modification
and fabrication to be done in order to make the seats acceptable.
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| Seat-base frame |
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Seat-back support |
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Constructing back-rest |
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Checking levels |
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| Constructing seat-base |
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Checking flip-down support |
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Plastic screw cap finishers |
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Attaching backrest to locators |
Fabrication
1. 8 spreader plates were needed as mentioned above.
2. It was also decided that we should make plates to sit on the
top side of the rear seat boxes in order to maintain the distance
between seat back and the seat base and also to provide some kind
of force distribution.
3. The stays which support the back rest had angle bracket stand
offs near the top of them which are to be bolted through the top
rail of the rear tub. As we had already installed the Alcantara
rear panels which covered the top rail we decided to cut the brackets
off and provide support lower down, rather than cut the Alcantara
panels.
4. So to replace the support provided by the angle brackets it was
decided to fabricate angled stays which would rise up from the top
side spreader plates to connect with the angled section of the back
rest stays (look at the picture to understand). These brackets were
welded on and drilled.
5. When all of this was done and the seats were mocked up again
we had to try and eliminate the fact that the back rest was lower
on one side and one side sat further forward than the other. It
turned out that the existing holes in the brackets on the seats
were at fault, so these had to be filed out in order to make the
seats line up.
6. We also had to fabricate angle brackets with m12 holes to accept
the lap strap seat belts. These were welded onto the seat top bases.
PHEW.......that was a lot. A lot more work than one would expect
from a “complete” kit.
Installation
With all of this done and the spreader plates drilled the next step
was to line them up in the rear on the seat boxes. This is relatively
easy but you need to make sure that you're not drilling into the
spars which run under the seat boxes. By setting our seats in the
middle this was pretty easy but as well as avoiding the spars with
the drill, you also have to avoid them with the spreader plates.
The final step was to paint up all components especially those under
the car. The under car components got a liberal coating of underseal
as well to ensure that no rusting or water penetration occurs.
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| Side shot of fabricated panel |
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Backrest installed |
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Shot of spreader plates |
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Seat-base installed |
Upholstery
We bought the blue seat material direct from Cobra Seats
[http://www.cobraseats.com/]
at £20 GBP per metre. The trimming of the seats was done by
a local chap Thomas Colclough [] who solely does car upholstery.
He was even able to add the Cobra logo onto the rear jump seats,
NICE. All this came to a pretty reasonable €100 for both seats.
And they look fantastic. He did a really top job. I would highly
recommend his services to anyone who wants to give their motor that
‘pimped’ look.
Summary
So, to sum up, I am delighted the seats are done and fitted. The
overall result is actually a lot better than we had imagined. I
wouldn't want to have to do it again in a hurry or have to fit four!
They are surprisingly comfortable as well. My advice would be to
investigate the seats that you're intending to buy, better still
try and see the finished article before you buy. Unfortunately we
couldn’t find anyone in Ireland who stocked this type of seat
so we had to base our decision on what we had heard, and the reputation
of the company providing them.
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| The finished article |
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They fit in nicely |
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You've been pimped! |
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