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Re: [T3] Rusty Seats!


On 24 Jan 2006 at 21:21, Mike wrote:

> The car has been sitting outside for 7 years.  The chrome levers seem to be 
> rotating the rods to the inner seat slide release with good return springs 
> etc.  Neither seat wants to move fore or aft but it looks to me like the 
> release is functional?  I noticed bits of "plastic tubing" hanging out of 
> rear slide.  Is this the remnants of plastic installed by VW?  Mike

Each stationary slide rain came with a plastic "cover" which serves as a 
bearing for moving the seats. That's probably what you're seeing the remnants 
of.  

The seat lock works only on the inside rail, while rust generally attacks the 
outside rails first, because those are closest to the weather and have much 
more tendency to get wet. The slide lock consists of a sort of movable steel 
"comb" attached to the seat  which has fingers which engage similar fingers 
which are part of the inner rain assembly. To release the lock, the seat 
fingers must rotate about 90 degrees to clear the rail fingers. They generally 
do so without any problems, but it's worth verifying.  

Once the fingers are clear, one generally finds that the inner rails will move 
a bit, while the outer rails are stuck. I know of no simple way to get them 
loose other than lots of WD-40 and a big hammer. I suggest just completely 
removing the front and rear carpet pieces to give more clearance and to avoid 
damage to the carpet.  

Once the seat can move a bit, you'll have to depress a flat spring on top of 
the front part of the inner rail, in order to allow the seat to move all the 
way forward and off the rails. You'll want to do this to clean off the parts, 
replace the plastic slides, and lubricate the steel bits.  

Once the seats are out, it's critical that you straighten each rail, using a 
straightedge as a guide. They WILL be bent by the time you get everything 
apart, and bent rails won't ride smoothly, AND they will cause you to break 
your new rail slides immediately.  

I like the idea of using a piece of wood there to bang on, but you'll also need 
a very heavy hammer to provide the momentum to break the rust bond. I'm afraid 
that dented seat bases are extremely common, and I'm seldom managed to free 
these up without damaging them. The good news is that the damage is seldom 
noticed by others, after the fact.  

I have a few NOS genuine VW seat rails which I want real money for, but there 
are some reproductions out there which look slightly different but seem to work 
just fine.  

-- 
Jim Adney
jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711-3054
USA

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