Christmas in the Stone174 house has never been a place of big romantic gestures but this year we have bought each other seats. Sourced from eBay, the passenger seat has come from an '06 van converted for a wheelchair bound passenger, the driver's seat from a low mileage '09 van where the owner would prefer to fit bucket-seats.
The passenger seat was a little more than we wanted to pay but these seem to be rarer as every panel-van comes with a twin-seat as default and a single as an extra - so a captain's single with arms was an extra on top.
Eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the trim change between '06 and '09 - the newer seat having the leatherette sides as oppose to the earlier having INKA fabric all over. As we ultimately intend on having the seats re-trimmed it's something we're happy to live with for now.
The driver's side was a bit of a bargain (for the as-new condition) and therefore the value of both seats has balanced out nicely. The next job was to pick them up.
Posting a seat complete with base was never going to be cheap, for the same price we could fill the van with diesel and pick them up - one in Newcastle and one in Plymouth - road trip!!!
Newcastle was a four hour round-trip from Skipton, first-thing on Saturday morning, home in time to do a bit more work on the bed covering in the afternoon.
Saturday evening was a work's Christmas-do followed by a quick blast to Donnington for an over-night Travelodge stop. First thing Sunday, after refuelling on McMuffins and other road-side junk, it was down the M42 and M5 to Plymouth.
A quick chat with the seller and we were on our way back. A brief stop in Exeter for lunch and a bit of Christmas shopping then back on the road.
The weekend has put just short of a 1000 miles on the van, now to bolt the seats in - will update with progress in due course.
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