Folding front passenger seat.

[esullivan]

Hi does anyone know the history of the folding front passenger seat in travellers; When it was introduced and when it was discontinued ?

[MarkyB]

I would think they were always fitted as it's a 2 door in effect.

[simmitc]

Marky, the folding seat in Travellers is not the same as the tip forward seat found in all original Minors. The passenger seat back folded down and then the whole tipped forward, resulting in the top of the backrest being in the footwell, whereas with a non folding seat, the top would be against the dashboard/windscreen. The Traveller arrangement was unique to that style and not the same as as 2-door.

As to the original question, sorry, I'm not sure of when the folding seat was introduced or discontinued - I have a 1970 Traveller built in Alderly Park, and the passenger seat does not fold.

[chesney]

Really? That's how the folding seat works in my saloon!

[simmitc]

That's the great thing about old cars - everything is to a standard, but everyone uses their own standard. I have just checked with a couple of fellow members, and they confirm that their saloons (2 and 4 door) do not have folding seats, only tip-forward ones. I've worked on numerous saloons, and never seen that style of seat except in a Traveller - but not every Traveller. The mystery deepens.

[beero]

My 62 2 door has a folding seat, was that not standard then?

[chesney]

Mine is a '58 if that helps? I thought they were standard as they help passengers to get in the back of 2 doors. Certainly not getting rid of it though!

[Boomlander]

My car is a 1953 and both seats fold and tip forward.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Tipping passenger seats would have been standard in travellers, 2 doors and convertibles up until the about 1963/64 when the last interoir change was made to the vinyl heat formed seats. Tipping, sliding seats continued to be fitted to the disabled 2 door minors.

[rayofleamington]

My car is a 1953 and both seats fold and tip forward.

Series II seats were like that - My assumption is that the question relates to Minor 1000's.

I've seen folding seats in a number of Minor 1000's that were original fit, but these were disability cars (often with sliding & folding seats!).

Late-model travellers: These were given the advantage of some of the 'nicer' parts used on the late commercials (e.g. locking steering column, folding seats etc..). However I'm nowhere near old enough to know if this was a fairly random implementation or could be specified by the dealer/customer as optional extras.

I had a traveller with locking steering column and some VERY rude guy came up to me at a national rally saying my car was half van. The column had been original fit on a traveller (albeit not mine). When it comes to the very late cars and cars built around model change times, and the disability cars, there are no hard and fast rules. e.g. early Minor 1000 disability cars had SII seats on sliders, later ones had Minor 1000 van folding seats etc..

However for most minor 1000 2dr saloons with one or two folding front seats, the seats came from a commercial vehicle (van)! The passenger seat was an optional extra on the van. Not all had a passenger seat and of those that did, some had a folding one.
Van parts to saloons by the 'owner' not dealer: This was a very common 'swap'* as the commercial folding passenger seat was a really useful thing to have in a 2dr saloon. Maybe this was also offered by a dealer, but I've no evidence either way to support that question.

* Van's were used and abused and a good percentage were poorly maintained (apart from GPO ones which were normally very well maintained) - this led to a lot of them getting scrapped at a young age.

[POMMReg]

I can confirm, from the introduction of the "M" chassis prefixed GPO vans, Engineers vans had 2x black non folding seats, whilst contempory Mailvans had a brown single non folding drivers' seat.

The 2 '71 civvy vans I've owned have featured 2xblack non folder's.

To add to the confusion, a '71 postal van I bought (2nd hand) was fitted with a BROWN "folding" LCV style passenger seat - suggesting brown "folders" were available - optional extra as Ray has stated.

What was the question again?

Why did the GPO specify the fitment of BROWN seats to their Mailvans? (no rude comments please!)

Anyone able to confirm post '67 civilian lcv's were supplied with either black/brown seats - where either type cheaper than the other?

Chris
pommreg@gmail.com

[esullivan]

Thank you for your replies, the folding seat comes from my morris traveller, which was built in 1963 Oct and registered in 1964 we believe. She is a delux model which may explain why she has this seat. Sadly she is a bigger restoration then we can manage. Like the young man in the article "A Cautionary Tale" we also bought her on ebay for a little more than he paid, and starting our restoration we discovered she needed more work than we could manage. Sadly she has no history and incrediblely past an MOT prior to us buying her. My husband says he bought her with his heart, it was my wedding present. Sadly she is up for sale. If anyone knows of a good morris traveller for sale, preferrably in the area of Essex or Suffolk, we would be interested to hear. Also if anyone wants a project my morris traveller is still available. Contact me 01255 862474[frame][/frame]

[Trickydicky]

Hi,
To add to the confusion....My 61 4door saloon has front tilt and fold seats.

Richard

[mike.perry]

My '63 GPO driving instructor's van had two folding/tipping black seats plus a third passenger seat in the back with a modified floor to provide footspace

[POMMReg]

My '63 GPO Mailvan had a single blk folding seat!

-FUU + -FLE