Van bench seat installation

The entire process took much longer then I anticipated, mostly due to the difficulty drilling holes in the fabricated seat brackets and the constant double checking fitment of the seats, floor, insulation, etc.

The overall fitment of the seat is extremely sturdy and snug against the flooring. The one big thing we would have possibly done differently is to look for a different seat that weighed much less and could have been installed in smaller sections. Moving the factory bench seat requires two fairly strong people to not drag it all over the place and risk damaging the flooring in the van.

Affiliate Disclosure: Affiliate links are used on this page and any purchases made with these links help to cover operating costs of this website. SO passangers on that build seats would not be covered as vehickle is modifies and not safety inspected. Any comments on that? A few socket extensions did the trick to reach the bolts between the tank and frame. Hi Nick, Thank you again for sharing this info. We were under our transit trying to figure this out. This makes me more nervous than the windows we installed.

Thanks again. Our bolts ran along the right side of the frame rail, directly above the tank. I was able to get my hand and a socket extension in between the tank to bolt the bracket in though. I did some measuring and counting of the ribs to confirm the correct placement before drilling as well. I also advise using a small piece of pipe as a safety device to prevent drilling into the tank see the install video. Hi Nick, So about the that front to back rail above the fuel tank — you had no problem having washers or metal plates or bolts against that rail?

Have the van at a shop to do the install they have never done one. And they are a bit nervous about this…. I have no issue with the plate near the frame rail that the seat track is bolted to. The bolts are no where near the tank or any fuel lines. Only electrical inside wire loom. Here are photos of the underside of the rail on the driver side.

I have two separate plates with two bolts each. They are right against the frame rail directly above the gas tank. There is plenty of clearance above the tank against the rail. Installed floor brackets today.

A couple things helped. Use the spot welds on the van floor to map out the frame rails with a permanent marker. You can clean up when finished with carb cleaner and a rag. Cut a piece of pipe to go over the drill bit so it hits th drill chuck when the bit pops through and stops it from hitting the tank. I used super glue to stick the nuts to the washers. Then I could work them into place as one piece and a helper could see the alignment from the top and thread the bolts in.

On one of them I put thenut and washer on a socket and worked it up into position. Hi, where did you purchase the seat please? My husband has a ford transit and we would like to install the extra seat for the children. Thank you. We found ours on eBay. Many people will remove all the seats from a ford transit wagon and sell their seats on eBay.

Pay close attention to the descriptions as there are cloth, vinyl and leather seats sold online. Predominantly they are vinyl. Hey Nick, Did the track allow you to slide the 2nd row back an forth at all before you put the plywood around it?

Currently wanting to sell my extended 7. We took very deliberate measurements and test fitting to determine the ideal spot for adequate leg room of a taller adult before we chose the final mounting location though.

Great, thank you. Mine if I buy will be a moto van, and was thinking for passenger trips without bikes, it would be awesome if it could slide back for more legroom, or forward when no one in them and larger loads in the back. Love your website, great work. Our seats do come in and out by pulling a release handle on the back. The majority of the time we leave them out and it gives us way more space.

This one is a Fiamma F45S, and is 3. I just wanted to come back and tell you that I just finished our install yesterday! Thank you so much for taking the time to document your process! Now my e Econoline is perfect. Can those second row seats also clip in facing rear? Planning on doing the same but would like the option to turn them around.

But I think the feet have different widths that might prevent that. I would also be curious if the seats flip around — if you get a chance to check that would be awesome. Thanks for all the info and great tips! Just got some brand new seat from ebay at a very reasonable price. Big suprise is that our seat as 3 sets of rails? Looking at your photo and video i can imagine you have removed the midle rail?

Was is because the midle rail is hard to acess from the bottom of the van? I need my set up to use all oem rails to have it certified. HEY, i would also like to put a second row in my conversion, great work!

Nice documentation. I appreciate your attention to detail. We have our kitchen cabinet behind where the seats go and right up to the back of the seats. You can checkout our instagram account for some photos of the near finished build. Ok, am I missing something? Where did you buy the seat from? Could you order it at a ford dealership. I could see no link for this.

Great to know this can be done as the Sprinter Crew van is expensive. We bought ours from eBay. There is usually a number of them available at various price points and materials. Trying to come up with a layout for a family of four. Based on your experience is this a reasonable idea or a total PITA? There are some seat options that actually fold up flat against the wall. For something that will be installed most of the time it would probably be a better solution.

Hi, is there a legal distance that has to be between the front seat and the rear bench seat. As in leg room? Finding actual legal guidelines for installing seats is very difficult. Hello what a great tutorial about the seat install. Do you see any issues with that? Or having to drop gas tank.. Thank you in advance! Skip to content. Van Conversion: Bed Platform.

The drill bit should be one size smaller than the bolt being used to secure the seat. Place the seat back in the desired area. Ensure the bolt holes on the seat match up to the holes in the floorboard.

Place a washer on to the bolts. The washer will help to prevent the bolt from working its way through the floorboard over time. The washer also serves as a lock to prevent the bolt from backing off. Use a socket wrench to secure the four bolts to the floorboard. Crawl under the van and locate the four bolts. Place a washer on the bottom end of the bolts and follow with a nut. Tighten each nut by hand as much as possible.

Have an assistant hold the top of the bolt with a wrench. Tighten each bolt with a socket wrench. Ensure all bolts are tight. Gregory Crews has been in the film industry for three years and has appeared in more than 38 major motion pictures and 16 television shows. He also writes detailed automotive tutorials.

His expertise in the automotive industry has given him the skills to write detailed technical instructional articles. Step 1 Park the van on a flat and level surface. Step 2 Place the bench seat in the desired location in the van.