General Front Seats

[Jambo1]

Hello All

After previously owning a pre nosejob Multipla and missing it, I thought I'd better buy another one before they completely disappeared. I found a beauty with really low miles.

As it's not going to be an every day car I thought I'd convert it into a mini campervan, which I've now done and I'm really pleased with it.

I've had to remove the front passenger seat as it did not fold completely flat, forward like the middle front seat does.

My question is, does anyone know of a way to get the passenger seat to fold flat or, does a middle seat fit in the passenger seat mounting points?

Regards

Jambo

 

[jackwhoo]

Sorry I can't help with your question.
Could you please post pictures of your camper conversation it sounds very interesting.
JW

 

[widemouthfrog]

I've been gathering information on the seats for quite a while as at some point I want to do something similar to what you're looking at (i.e. make the front passenger seat removable).

As far as I can work out, the front & rear seats have much in common in the region of the joint between the seat base and backrest. Only the outer front seats have airbags (on the roundhouse ELX and the squarenose at least). I'm looking to bolt a pair of rear seat floor mounting rails in the front passenger seat position, then build a frankenstein seat using the base of a NSR rear seat and the backrest of the NSF passenger seat. This would retain the seat side airbag but also allow the seat to fold flat or be completely removed(like the rears). There would need to be some custom rewiring for the airbag with a switchable ballast resistor so that the error light wouldn't flag with the seat removed, but I don't think it's insurmountable.

For me, the main reason for doing this is that the Multi is one of very few cars with a flat floor from tailgate opening to the front of the front passenger footwell. With the NSF passenger seat removed, it should be possible to carry pretty large loads - perhaps even full 8' x 4' sheets, or a small motorcycle (though I still think one of the Brotherwood wheelchair-converted Multis is the ideal candidate for the latter)

 

[Jambo1]

Jackwhoo, no problem. I'll take some pictures today and post them on here.

Widemouth Frog. Thanks for your reply, I didn't think anybody would have done so much research into the seats. I am puzzled with the seats though because like you, I thought the front seats didn't fold flat because of airbags but my 2001 ELX does not have front seat airbags and the passenger seat is still restricted in its forward movement.

Even if fully flat, I don't think you'd be able to fit full 8 by 4 sheets into the Multi though because it's too short. I'll have a measure inside though. When I bought 8' planks, I had to poke them through the front sunroof.

As the rear seats clip into the rails, I can't use one of those in the front so I thought my only option would be to use a front middle seat from a breaker.

 

[Jambo1]

As promised:

 

[Jambo1]

1

 

[wiltshire]

If I need to carry 8' timber then the rear seat on the passenger side comes out and also the drawer unit under the passenger's front seat on my 2000 uglybug model. if I remember rightly a couple of screws on the top hold it in. I leave the drawer out because I transport my fishing rods by laying them along the floor, 8' is no problem.
The passenger seat won't lie flat like the centre seat but it will go right back over to lie flat.

 

[widemouthfrog]

I'd be looking to make the NS front passenger seat removable (just like a rear one) as well as fold flat. It would need to fold flat to be able to get it out, just as as is the case for the rears. Then the completely flat floor has relevance. No cross braces or foot wells in the way when loading/unloading. There's no way an 8' x 4' sheet would fit unless one does this. There's length enough for 8' sheets, if angled slightly across the car. For stuff like copper tubes, it's very nearly possible to get 3 metre lengths in, resting on the dashboard. That is incredibly space efficient for a car that's only 4m long. One of the many reasons why I love the Multi.