DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Ferry Man wrote:The seats were good in places...

And bad in others. The webbing here is broken. The cover ripped and torn.

But the foam looks good, probably salvagable.

A point of much humour to those that know me has been my pursuit of the correct seat back tipping control knob.

One of my seats had the cover roughly removed at some point and in doing so the plastic knob had come adrift. I needed a replacement part.

The seat should have a round knob which slides up and down on an escutcheon with two vertical grooves. The knob has two slots on the underside that fit accordingly.
That part is now NLA. No longer available from Porsche.

My seats had one knob still in place but infuriatingly the other was lost, evidently when someone had previously tried to remove that covering.
My van had collected the seats and when I discovered the missing part I rang and tried to get the guy to check through his warehouse looking for it.
But even an offer of a cash prize for the button yielded no joy.
So the search was on. It shouldn't have been difficult but it was.

Ferry Man wrote:The seat should have a round knob which slides up and down on an escutcheon with two vertical grooves.
That part is now NLA.

This is the correct part.

After only a couple of years the button was altered to a square design.
The later part is easier to use and more confident in action so it’s an understandable upgrade.
And the new part fits the older seats. So the round version was discontinued.
You can use the later square knobs with the old escutcheon.
The square ones are available for pennies.

After struggling to buy the round version I can confirm its no longer available anywhere.
Porsche don't do it and other suppliers that claim to list it will substitute the later square part (it seems to share the same part number).

And then I discovered that the component was also used on some mid-seventies VW Beetles.
Now, they made a lot of Beetles I'm told. Over 21 million.
I've owned half a dozen of them myself and whilst that was some years back I do recollect having seats with that tipping mechanism.
However all the VW suppliers also drew a blank. No joy.
There is a newer style round knob still manufactured (and available cheap) but don't be misled, it's not the same as the old one for Porsche's.

I confess I saw several VW seats go by on eBay and found myself close to bidding for seats with the expectation of taking the knob and throwing the seat away.
But they were always just a little too much money and usually 'collection only' and in some distant & God forsaken county like Cornwall.

Here's the part used on a VW:

The search continued.
When I think back on how much time I spent on the internet searching for the part I flush with embarrassment.
My wife would be horrified. It's why they invented 'private browsing'.

Honestly, this was not some simple 'find the reflector' jaunt, this was top level geekery.
Luckily the story has a happy ending. Wipe away your tears and break out a smile. ........

I found the button in the US. There was a seller that advertises on The Samba offering vintage seat parts and a couple of people had guided me to him for the bit I needed.
Sadly when I contacted him he’d sold all his stock but he pledged to find more.

After a few months trawling through California scrap yards he turned me up one.
It arrived all the way from the United States of America.
"Seat Tilt Knob for Old VW Bug".

But I wasn't quite there yet.
I also needed a Recaro button for the seat back adjustment on one seat.
Perhaps a little easier to find than the round ‘tippers’ but I was missing one.




And then a wealthy philanthropist stepped forward.
My generous benefactor donated one free of charge. Thank you.
He wants to remain anonymous so I will respect his wishes.
Like me though, he owns a 210bhp car.

Ferry Man wrote: My generous benefactor donated one free of charge. Thank you.

That's a stroke of luck - I was worried this additional knob could have tipped you over budget

You know, Mike Moore's restoration was really quite normal, all things considered.....

I was thinking the same too.

sladey wrote:You know, Mike Moore's restoration was really quite normal, all things considered.....

Ferry Man wrote:But the foam looks good, probably salvagable.

Paul - out of all the parts salvageable on your car is the foam worth it?!

If this seat is going to have to be recovered would some nice new modern comfortable non farted on foam not be better?

I'm all for originality but....