Rear seat into the beddy

[Strangy21]

Hi all,
Well still haven't picked up my beddy yet
Anyway would like to put in a rear seat in first for the kids. Does anyone have any experience/ information in doing this? I'm in NSW. Ideally i would love a seat out of a vehicle of similiar vintage- 70-80's. Be also great if it could be removed with ease to carry loads.
 Anyway any info or pics of your rear seat set ups would be appreciated.
Cheers

[Sammy]

I'm not sure what engineers are on the central coast but I would suggest finding a local one and get in touch with them before you go too far.

I know theres rules around mounting seats and seat betls, certain size plates needed under the floor and such, but they'd be able to tell you all the requirements before you lift a spanner!

[rumax]

Good call, Sammy. Last thing you want is your kids getting hurt....

[Strangy21]

Agree...
spoke to a engineer in Sydney, they do a 3 seater rear seat with belts etc fixed into the seat- engineered- $3500. Its more like a hiace seat though. He said it would cost $$$ to have a vinatge rear seat engineered, tested then built and certified. Any other ideas?
Some beddy owners must have been down this road

[wendyh]

i reckon you would want a more late model one too as old ones might not meet modern regulation standards blah blah...the original bedford front seats dont really meet modern standards.

we found Kia Karnaval single back seats were great for our two front seats, as both had arm rests oneach sides...the front only had one arm rest  ....they also had a good wide base to fit the standard beddy base on ...some may opt to fit the swivel base mechanism from the kia too...a bit more work and certification for that mod .

im sure Kias have a 3 seater bench seat as well, and they would be much more comfortable...also make sure you get the seat belts with seats as they are longer than any  sedan ones.

We got ours from the local wreckers...100 each bargin as they are really comfy 

just saying....

[Sammy]

yeah I am not seeing $3500 ... surely if you get a seat out of something else, then theres just floor mounts and seatbelt mounts if they are not in the seat already, I am not seeing anywhere near $1000!

I want to do the same thing in my Bedford eventually, but that's well and truly after its done and on the road, plus who says we can even have kids!

[Strangy21]

Yeah I was really hoping to get away with much less than $3500- but was wanting to get something in a similar vintage style as the 80's beddy..

[Sammy]

well I dare say any seat you put into it is going to have to comply with the current light vehicle modification guidelines and/or Australian design rules, so as long as the seat you want does then I see no reason why it shouldn't be doable on a cheap basis.

assuming you can do all the work yourself, I foresee a few hundred for a seat, then maybe similar for seat belts, then $50 in steel to make under floor supports, then the only other thing then is engineer cert, which surely cannot be too much for only a seat.

[Bruce]

I am in Queensland and fitted a 3 person fold-up bench seat into my LWB Bedford about 10 years ago. The seat I got was out of a Mazda van about mid-80's model and there was no real problem getting the seat approved, it was the seat belt mounts that was the issue because Bedfords don't have rear seat belt mounting points. To get it certified I had to put a half roll cage inside the van fully welded in one piece in the van just to mount the seat belts onto.
It really stuffed up what I could do inside the van, because the roll cage was always in the way. At that time if I wanted to have just lap belts instead of shoulder ones then I could have got away without the roll cage and just had big floor plates at each seat belt mount location. All these problems of seat belt mounts disappear if you can get a bench seat with the seat belts incorporated into the seat itself, then the only certification requirement should be the fixing of the seat to the floor.     

[Sammy]

handy info to keep in mind thanks Bruce!