Now that I have the VW bug’s front seat bracket location, I can go ahead and mount it to the frame. Again I am welding 4 mounting brackets to the main frame so that the bracket can be taken off and on. Once complete both seat brackets can be directly bolted to the frame.
With the rear seat bracket in place, I need to position the front bracket. I am using the same fastening system as for the rear only a bit smaller. I will bolt and weld the brackets together and then weld the assembly to the frame.
It’s been a while since I posted any pics. I now have 4 new slide shows on the new “MR2 VW Bug pics page 6” page. MR2 VW bug pics page 6
Now that I have the VW bug seats in the right location, I need to go ahead and attach them to the frame. I must attach the seat brackets so that they can be removable. Once carefully placed I will need to create a mount system. I am using 4 separate brackets to both weld and bolt them to the frame.
I now have the entire seat assembly fit into the VW bug’s passenger compartment. I fits really well and there will be plenty of room for the pedals and footbox. The seats are pushed back as far as I can get them and still fit the fuel cell. The shoulder location when sitting in the seats is at the widest location of the bug’s interior, it’s still a snug fit.
I now have both seat mounting brackets built and bolted to the Vw bug seats. I carefully measured everything to make sure that the seats were in the correct locations as well as square. I can now re-fit the assembly back into the passenger compartment.
I am finishing up the mounting location brackets for the VW bug’s fuel cell. I have also fine tuned the seat locations and taken the critical measurments so I can start building the seat mounting brackets. After the brackets are bolted to the seats I can fit the entire assembly back in the car to fine tune their locations.
With the VW bug’s floor plate tacked in place, I need to start installing the fuel cell. I know that it must sit as far back as possible to accommodate the seats. I will build a box around this tank later, for now I will tack in the front lower support.
With everything lined up, the VW bug body and the custom frame with the bottom floor plate sand-witched in between, I can tack weld the plate to the frame. As I tack the plate to the frame I need to insure that the frame members and the plate are in contact with each other. I am placing my bottle jack under the platform and lifting the entire assembly off the ground, just a bit, to accomplish this. Each tack location will be lifted separately one at a time.
With the body and frame as one, I can begin to try and fit everything into the VW bug’s interior. I am temporarily positioning the seats and the steering wheel just to determine where everything is going to be. I will have to replace the lock-set because the steering column came without keys. All and all it looks like everything will fit “whew”.