Can I Repair A Broken Seat Backrest?

[jnuts]

The backrest of the middle seat of our 1998 Bongo, the smaller section by the sliding door, is broken. The top half of the seat feels quite loose and wobbly, I guess the frame inside is broken or bolts have come loose.

Has anybody else come across this?
If so is it fixable?

I was wondering if by removing the seat back table I might be able to see inside, and possibly fix it. Or is it just going to be easier to replace the whole seat?

[David Edwards]

Not sure but anything you do in regard to stripping the seat could be of interest to folks one here, if you decide to replace, try george on bongospares 07836 598528, nice chap I am sure he can help.

[Northern Bongolow]

at the hinge there is a plastic cover held on with 2 screws, remove and see if there is anything jamming it, bits of kiddy stuff can fall in there

strip the whole cover off, all will become clear, its pretty straight forward inside.
if you still have a rear bench seat but dont need it you can swap them over while you fix the broken one, its only 4 bolts.
http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... 2of04.html

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... 3of04.html

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... 3of04.html

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html

[jnuts]

Ah, great, thanks for reminding me about the diagrams.

Looking at those I think I can spot which bit is loose, so will investigate, hopefully it's just some loose bolts and doesn't need welding.

[the.sasquatch]

Mine is the same, not got around to having a look at it yet. Let us know how you get on, might help me find the energy to have a look at mine

[jnuts]

So I had a look at the weekend, and have identified the problem, here is the process and what I discovered below:

With the seat back folded down its a quick job to remove the table, simply pull up the middle pin on each of the 4 lugs, these can then be removed, which exposes the insides of the seat.

The seat cover is held on to the frame with some wire clips, these are easy to bend and remove with pliers, I just removed the 3 at the top, which revealed this:



Closer inspection shows that the flat plat which forms the top part of the seat frame, has broken away from the rest of the tubular steel frame:



This should be flush against the rest of the frame as below:



So it looks like a quick fix with 4 spot welds, next time the Bongo goes into a garage I'll strip it all down and ask them to do the welding.

I did think about fixing with a drill and some self tapping screws, but given this seat gets quite a bit of abuse with people climbing in to the back, or up into the roof I didn't think that would last long.

[helen&tony]

Hi
Have you thought of "rivnuts"?....I have tried them on a couple of bits and bobs
Cheers
Helen

[mikeonb4c]

Nothing will beat spot welding, provided it can be done without damaging the upholstery (and without fire risk!). And then teach the occupants to respect the seats etc more