When I purchased my vehicle, the original seats had been long since removed, and replaced with ugly bucket seats from an unknown donor vehicle (probably a Toyota, heaven forbid!!). Traditionally the Series 3 had three separate, individual front seats. In addition to just not having these seats, I kind of love the idea of a three-person bench seat for cruising around the neighbourhood. I thus found an old, rusty (and heavily modified) frame for a Landy bench seat at a scrap yard, and proceeded to fix it up and return it to original condition. It was the genuine thing, complete with tilting brackets, spring steel seat "cushions", and sliding rails to adjust the seat position (important if you see the height discrepancy between my loving wife and I!). After stripping it down, filling all the pitting, removing the welded attachments (like head rests, for heavens sake!), I primed and painted it in a gloss black, with a bit of clear coat over for good measure. Considering most of the frame was to be covered in foam and leather, it was a bit of an overkill, but I felt good knowing the insides of the seat were as good as new.
The frame has been sent off to the upholsterers to be covered in tan leather. Watch this space for an update when it is complete!
