Picked up my new (to me) Recaro seats

[81pumagtc]

Had a good day in Ypsi on Sunday.

Picked up a set of nice Recaro seats for the Pig of Plastic for $150 for the pair. He dropped them off at Randy Townsend's house this morning. They are awfully nice, with one very minor burn on the driver's side. They are a nubby tweedish charcoal material, and have VW Beetle tracks on them. Won't work on the Puma...I'll have to fabricate something up.

I don't know if the color will work...and if I could, I would pick up a set of black covers for them, or have them made if needed. The price was certainly right. I plan on playing with them this weekend.


Dave

[ed]

Great score! I had a quick "wish I had seen those first" moment, but I'm over it. :-)

Can you tell what style of Beetle seat tracks they have? If they fit a '71 Super, and you're not going to use them, I'd like to buy them from you.

Good meeting you at the show last weekend!
-Ed-

[dansam]

I already scoped out the tracks and they are old school 6 volt style I would not mind getting them off of you if you don't end utilizing them.

[dubfreak1]

Dave,

Sounds like you made a good score! Glad to hear it. Now, how about a project thread on the Puma. You are constantly doing improvements and upgrades. Some of these will be directly applicable to other air-cooleds and some will at least get the creative thinking going.

This seat thing in paticular caught my attention as the stock seats in a bug don't have a lot of (any) side support. It will be interesting to see what you encounter in mounting them.

[81pumagtc]

Mounting the seats in the Puma will be a bit of a job. The Puma has two separate rails that bolt directly to the base of the Puma seat...one rail simply slides, and the other one has the adjustment mechanism. I mounted the seats on 1/2 inch nylon spacers as well. I am using Grade 8 bolts to bolt everything in place.

I will probably have to have the tracks welded up to fit the bolt pattern in the pan, and then bolt this assembly to the bottom of the seats, along with the spacers, which keep the seat bottom off of the carpet. I also built custom "washers" to go on the underside of the pan which have special bends to keep them in place. Of course, all of the Grade 8 bolts and washer are supposed to keep everything in place of an impact.

Right.

The car is all fiberglass, and weighs 1500 pounds or so.

Puma vs. Ford Excursion. Ford Excursion wins.

Puma vs. Chevy Suburban. Chevy Suburban wins.

Puma vs. Honda Fit. Honda Fit wins.

Puma vs. John Deere garden tractor. John Deere wins.

Puma vs. Black Labrador. Black Labrador wins.

You get the point. Pretty much anything I hit or that hits me...I loose.

I'll get a better chance to see how everything works on this weekend.


Dave

Right now, Dansam has first chance at the bases, because they won't work in the Puma...a little high to allow the seat, the steering wheel, and my fat a$$ to occupy the same place at the same time unless I get to be about as thick as a sheet of paper...

[ghiastein]

Just a thought is your floor plans also fiberglass? If so grade 8 bolts are pointless.

My driverside floor pan in the Ghia is fiberglass. Not really safe but it was done by a PO. Someday it will be fixed correctly.

[81pumagtc]

AJ:

Fortunately, this car was never driven in the snow, and sat in a warehouse for many years while the government forgot that it was in the country. (Long story.)

The pan (and everything else) is perfect...which is a good thing. Brazilian steel seems to rust faster than early Porsches. You know, turn everything off in the shop and you can actually hear them rust...

Interestingly, Brazilians must be short people. I could not fit in a Puma coupe, or a Ventura either. Some of the larger importers actually offered to fit fiberglass pans in the cars before delivery so that people could actually fit inside the car.

Sadly, don't think you will ever fit in a coupe...

My car even has side door impact beams.

Too bad they bolt to fiberglass...


Dave Riedle

[dansam]

Ally is not any safer. I think of it as a more stable motorcycle with rain protection