Rear seats, are they all the same size?

[keynsham1]

I have just tried fitting my rear seat squabs and backrests. I have the original squabs which are of early ambla boxpleat design. My car is a 1970 Nada 3500S but I believe that these use the same seats that were used in the early 3500S cars. I have some second hand backrests which seem to fit perfectly, but at the outer edge at the lower corners where the backrest screws to the rear wheelarch area, I have a gap between the squab and the backrest of around 3/4" when both are fitted correctly. The center and inner edge of the seat fit fine. Are the seats different for early and late series 2 cars?

 

[harveyp6]

Is it located correctly over the outer bracket on the parcel shelf?

 

[chrisyork]

As far as I'm aware, rear seats can be swapped with abandon across the whole range from launch through to end of production. Only observation I'd make is that whilst the top of the backrest position is determined by the fit over the parcel shelf lip, the bottom is ad hoc. The tabs on the bottom of the backrest are bent and self tapped to wherever it makes the seat sit right. You should be able to see that the original self tapper holes in the seat pan back are obtained simply by punching the self tapper into the metal! So I'd start by using rather more force and initiative before you start panicking!

Chris

 

[keynsham1]

I have attached a couple of pictures, one of my original seat back, and one of the replacement. It isn't very clear as I have a rear seatbelt in place, but it shows the gap. It looks like the replacement curves upwards at the outer edge where the original doesn't. There is a small repair to a split that I made. I did pull the cover off in this area, but I am sure I put it back correctly. It is actually quite difficult to do it wrong as all the folds and clip marks already exist. I will have a look and see if there is enough spare material to pack it out a but and lower the line to fill the gap!

 

[chrisyork]

Oh. That's odd. I wonder if early boxpleat (NADA) seats really are diferent then. I don't have any other boxpleat seats about to compare at the moment - Lucky has settled on flatpleat herringbone cloth.

Anybody else out there able to compare against a UK boxpleat?

Did you buy the cushions to go with your replacement backrests? Presumeably they would complete the fit! What was wrong with the old backrests? Sun damage across the top? It could be as easy simply to retrim that portion of the originals. If you're really stuck Cyril at Krych Trimming in Kingswood has met P6 boxpleats before!

Chris