Ok, first thing you need to do is make sure you have everything together.
Here's what you need:
(8) grade 8 bolts 1/2" diameter 2 1/2" length (grade 8 or better for safety puposes, I used stainless steel for conveinence)
(16) 2 inch fender washers --make sure the bolt hole is 1/2" diameter as well!
(8) 1/2" nuts to go with the bolts (once again, I used stainless)
Tools you'll need:
A drill. 3/8" or 1/2 inch will do, but remember, you will be drilling a 1/2" hole, if you use a 3/8" drill, you will need a 1/2" drill bit with a 3/8' shank. I'm using a cordless drill, but don't be like me. Make sure the battery pack is charged before you start!
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A #2 phillips head screwdriver (may not be neccesary, depends on if you want to pull back the carpet)
and if your van is as dirty as mine, you'll need a pick to clean out the heads of the phillips screws you need to remove.
and a couple ratchets and sockets to bolt the seats back down.
On with the pics/ process:
First you'll want to clear out the back of the van.
Next, your are going to want to mock up where you want the seat to go. A few things to consider: seatbelt placement. If you put the seat to far back, the shoulder harness will not contact the shoulder and will not protect your passengers in case of an accident and could possibly break their neck. Also if you move the passenger side seat to close to the slider door, the shoulder harness again, wont be lined up properly and will put more undue stress on the neck.
Sit in the seat. Buckle up. slide the seat all the way forward, then all the way back. Make sure there is enough room for the feet. When checking all this, take in to consideration the front seats as well. You may have enough room for your feet in the back, but if the front seats are slammed all the way forward, your passengers might be cramped when the front seats are occupied. Try to chose a happy median that will suit a variety of different sized passengers. But above all, driver comfort comes first for obvious safety reasons! If you are a driver that has to have the seat all the way back with a lot of lean, like I do, then guess what? the passenger behind the driver is going to have to give up some comfort. If you try to compenste by moving that seat further back, then seatbelt orientation becomes a problem.
Here is my mockup :
Here the seat is all the way forward
And here, it's all the way back
notice the seatbelt angle is a bit off when the seat is all the way back. I compromised here, because when the seat is all the way forward, there is enough leg room for me (I'm a big guy) but this seat will be primarly used by my son, so there is plenty of leg room for him with the seat all the way forward.
Even as far back as the seat will go, the seatbelt still wraps over the shoulder because it is routed through the seat "clip" (for lack of the proper word)
As you can tell, my carpet is trashed. Since I plan on replacing it, I just marked with a paint pen, where I wanted to drill.
The black dots are the where I planned to drill. I used the seat base as a template (Yes I adjusted the seat several times!!)
Since you may want to keep your carpet, you probably shouldn't use a paint pen! one thing you might be able to use is a water soluble marking pencil. It's used to mark fabrics when sewing and can be found at, you guessed it, sewing stores. The good thing about that is it's washable.
The I drilled pilot holes where I had marked. I think I used an 1/8" drill bit, and drilled through the carpet. I used a small bit like that for two reasons. If I screwed up, I wouldn't be left with a gaping hole in the floor, and also because the length is also shorter, I wouldn't have to worry about puncturing anything important underneath just in case I did screw up. After each hole I drilled, I checked underneath the vehicle to make sure there was plenty of room for the bolt to fit, with the fender washer. But that still didn't stop me from having problems...
After drilling the final two holes (the inside ones) I saw that I had drilled through a ridge in the floor. I don't think it's too bad, but it's annoying. So I pulled the carpet out to get a better look.
Here is the seatbase on the side closest to the slider door. If I had drilled any closer to the door, I would had the frame to contend with underneath.
Here is how it lined up on the other side.
Bummer.. but I'll deal with it. I was really hoping it would be seated flat, not half on half off the ridge like it is.
Now, because I was a fool and forgot to charge the drill batteries, I only managed to get one hole drilled and the bolt installed. But that's ok, 'cause here comes the rain...
One thing I was concerned about was how I was going to get the bolt to stay in the hole if I needed to take the seats out for any reason. I originally thought I would just JB weld the bolt to the floorpan on the underside, but when I was at Ace hardware getting the fender washers, I came across this:
I'm not sure if it's a "locking washer" persay, but it does what I need it to, by not allowing the bolt to drop through the floor pan when the seats are removed.
Since the clouds were getting darker, I decided to start putting it up for now, plus I had two dead drill batteries, there wasn't much else I could do! But I wanted to get a mock up of both seats in so..
That's roughly how it'll look before to long.
Feel free to add comments or suggestions. Let me know what you think so far (Yes I know I have a filthy van!)
