Porta Potti Box 2.0

Our kombi season 2015 was a very short one. With the arrival of our second child in May, the summer raced by in a blur of busy days and sleep-deprived nights. But I got at least two small projects with Taiga Lily completed. The front seats now both have head rests (will post on this soon) and I upholstered the Porta Potti box in the back to match the plaid pattern of the rock-and-roll bed which I had completed last year. I still had enough of the very nice and strong green-and-yellow plaid material from BUS-OK.de (Item no. OK60072). I had built the box in about 2007 for our first kombi. When the Old Lady was retired in 2010, I borrowed the box for Taiga Lily and fixed it more thoroughly to the base plate. In the meantime I have added an aluminum frame along one edge to protect it from clashes with the pram which is now regularly being shoved in between the box and the back bench. Also, I added two snap lockers to make sure that if the bus tumbles over in an accident, the box is firmly closed and the Porta Potti will not start flying through the van. The foam cushion is 4 cm thick and was bought from the same mattress shop in Berlin where I got the cushions for the back bench. I cut and sewed the material to form a sleeve that slides over the lid and the foam cushion from the front, has the appropriate slits for the snap lockers on each side, and is closed by Velcro in the rear (see the sketch below). Worked out nicely!

 

New Front Seats!

Well, not really new, second hand from Ebay. And not in brilliant condition either, but importantly with head rests, which Taiga Lily’s original seats do not have. Both seats are from late bay buses (1974-79). The brown one is for the passenger side and hooks into eyes at the panel separating the driver’s cabin and back section. It should fit directly. I already have the corresponding driver’s seat, same brown and with head rest. I also bought replacements for the inner horse hair paddings, two new ones for the two seat sections (bus-ok.de) and an old one in good condition for one of the back rests (Ebay). Once built in, this brown pair of seats would be original VW and from the right period, but not in black as the “leatherette” vinyl that Taiga Lily was delivered with. But for the sake of finally having head rests, they will do.
The green driver’s seat from a Westfalia camper comes with green-yellow-orange plaid similar to the material I am using for the mattress cushions in the back. I got the material as reproduction from Bus-ok.de. Below is a snapshot showing how it fits to the original pattern. Not really sure yet what I will do with this seat, but it may be a template and starting point for a restoration of two seats with this repro plaid. So all more the beginning of a new project, to be started after the next winter break.