Vanagon Seats

Removing the Armrests

Friday, April 13, 2007

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!!!!!

I picked up a pair of nice late Vanagon seats from the junkyard. They have those screw-to-adjust armrests. Comfy.

Problem is that the armrests collide with the air vent on the door of passenger busses. So the outside armrest needs to be removed from the seats to allow use in a bay window bus.

If you pry apart the foam on the armrest and seat and look at where they connect you can see a round pin. That`s what holds them together and needs to be driven out to remove the arm.

A 1/4" drift is what I used and it worked fine. A whole set of these with nice comfy handles is like $5 from Harbor Freight. The photo below shows the angle the drift must go in at.

With the armrest off you can get a better look at how the pin goes:

After driving the pin out, the arm slides right off. The seat is left with a big ragged hole in the upholstery. I`m going to have to come up with something to cover it eventually.

The parts that are removed should be saved if for any reason you will need to reconnect the armrest (like you bought a *gasp* Vanagon or something).

Here they are installed:

Postscript:

Jim from the Type2 list reminded me...

Don -

You might want to add that your procedure applies to 88-91 Adjustable Armrest equipped seats. Vanagon GLs & Westies thru 1987 have shorter, non-adjustable armrests that are held onto the seat with just a hex-head bolt accessed thru a removable plastic cap in the armrest itself.

Thanks for the reminder!