Ran into a gentleman, today, at the beach in sunny Florida. He spends some of his time during the year in Costa Rica. He has a '71 Bug down there. I guess the local government has instituted a new vehicle inspection. One of the things that was noticed by the authorities was the sloppiness in the movement of the back of the hi-back front seats, when they were in the "locked" position. If you are familiar with the hi-back seats, the little lever that catches the stud that is attached to the back of the seat, has a tendancy to get worn-out. That leaves that small movement in the seat, when it is locked in position. This is what they are picking on. They say it is dangerous. We went to a local VW hang-out and checked out several sets of seats. They all seemed to be the same, loose.
Using all of our combined "backyard" mechanics and engineering, we have more or less come to the conclusion that this small "sloppiness" has to happen, so that the lever has the ability to move, so as to allow for the "lock" and "un-lock" positions. Of course, the "sloppiness" will get greater with increased usage and age. I have searched the entire Forum in reference to this situation. A couple of posts skim over the problem, with the solution being to get a good set of seats out of a Honda, Subaru, Daewoo or Nissan and weld them to the original VW Bug seat runners. We even "thumbed-thru" several aftermarket magazines, looking to see if there might be a repair kit for this situation. Nothing was found. I have spent a couple of hours, this evening, thumbing thru books and magazines to try and come up with a solution. All to no avail.
So, to all who read this, is there really a solution to this problem? Or, are some people in the position of authority, creating a problem that has no answer. I am simply trying to help this gentleman out, and am asking if anyone has encountered and/or solved this problem. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and effort, in advance.