Hey guys,

My little van is getting closer to being ready for rego. I believe it to be a one owner van (rego wise), with only one other brief owner - he threw out the back seat and did a bad respray and sold it to me.

I have the ACT rego papers and plates “YAB-***” – seems to indicate an early act plate. On the papers it’s listed as a station wagon. I don’t know the history of aussie vans and back seats, only that they were done by the dealers with the side windows.

If mine was done by a dealer and rego’d in ACT, and now after 8 years of being off the road and looking at NSW rego – would they pass it as a four seater if it had the original fitted rear seat?

As mentioned, the temp owner threw the back seat out as it was old and torn etc and didn’t like it. So I’ve got three options as far as I can see.

1) Have no back seat and get rego (possible fail for having the chassis cut for the seat?) – look at getting one engineered later.
2) Bolt in the seat in the pick (the bolt holes line up with the rises in the floor, and put plates underneath). If this works and passes, look at doing 3 later.
3) Get some pics from the web and you guys and construct an original aftermarket look-a-like.

From what I’ve been told, the Aussie dealer conversion has no rear seat belts.

Any info / advice would be greatly appreciated. I guess the moke owners out there may have had the same problems with factory 2 seaters?

The main thing I don’t like with the current seat is that it sites quite high, no adults or their heads are on the roof. Also, the internal door hinge bracket is so close to your head in the back..

Let me know what you think,

Cheers, Tom.

If the Registration department in NSW are anything like Vicroads they wouldn't even know if their asses were on fire so I doubt they'd even take a second look as long as it all looked neat. You'd have to be real unlucky to get an inspector who was an expert on aftermarket accesories on 60's minis

I'd be tempted to put in the rear seats, register it as a four seater and if you decide you're not happy with the rear seat then just take it out. It's a lot easier to go down in seating capacity then up.

I've recently been fighting with Vicroads and after two inspections they haven't looked anywhere except at the body number and the engine number. For all they know I could have a steering wheel made of cheese!

_________________
Mister White Keys
"He who has the most toys, Wins"

1963 Austin Countryman Woody
1964 Morris 850 Van
1967 Austin Countryman
1975 Range Rover 2 Door
2004 Subaru Forester XT
2015 Potts Teardrop Camper
RIP 1990 Citroen BX 16Valve

Yup, the joys of rego! In NSW you have to take it to a blue slip certified mechanic - your choice of who. They basically do the same as the yearly check and just double check the numbers (only the ones on the car - no computer check etc.)

Then off to the rego office, where I really doubt they'd pick it up at all, especially considering the ACT papers have station wagon, not van / commercial (unless this is all they had on their database as an option).

I don't know if any boxs on the rego check list seating capacity, I'll have to double check the compliance plates on the van - Would these list seating capacity / been changed with dealer mods ect? I know newer cars have the number on the plate.

My biggest concern is a mechanic going, my mate used to have a 1600cc Cooper SSS van, vans didn't have back seats - fail.

that is most definitely a home rear seat job - the period conversions looked a lot different to that, as did the factory ones. In both of those cases the seat sat on the floor level, so adult passengers could sit in the back...

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

The seat in the pic is out of a Pajero - but fits between the wheel arches, so it was a start, and was sitting in one of our paddock bashers so i grabbed it.

From what I've seen and read - the period seats were basically made from two sheets of ply with a couple of long hinges (so it could fold down, then over = flat floor).

Any pics of seat setups would be great. So do you think the pajero seat would be likely to fail inspection?