<VV> How to put head rests in seats?

[Bruce Schug]

I just purchased a nice pair of '67 head rests to go with my '67 head 
rest seats. My question is, how do you insert the flat chromed bar on 
the head rest into the head rest mechanism channel in the top of the 
seat?

The flat bar has a tab on the side at the bottom. I understand that 
this is to keep the head rests from coming out when they are raised up. 
I'm told that if you want to remove the head rest, you have to force 
the head rest over to make room for the tab to come out of a slot in 
the side of the channel that it fits into.

I can look down inside the channel and see a leaf-type spring on the 
side of the channel. This would seem to keep tension on the flat bar 
and keep the tab seated in the slot in the side of the channel. On the 
opposite side of the channel I can see the slot near the bottom of the 
channel, that the tab must fit into.

It looks like you could shove down hard on the head rest which would 
compress the leaf-type spring on the side of the channel and allow the 
flat bar to go down into the channel until the tab pops into the slot 
in the side of the channel. This would allow the head rest to go down 
all the way into the channel like it should.

When I insert the head rest flat bar into the channel it goes down a 
ways seemingly until it gets to the leaf-type spring. Because the tab 
is on the opposite side, the head rest goes in at an angle, waiting for 
the tab to pop into the slot and again become vertical. But when the 
headrest gets this far, that is to the leaf-type spring, it won't go 
further.

I've sprayed plenty of silicone on everything and shoved pretty hard, 
but it still won't go all the way down. I hate to force it anymore and 
break something, especially if this isn't how you're supposed to do it.

Is there some kind of release I'm supposed to release? I see a spring 
outside the channel but I can't see what it does. Am I somehow supposed 
to release tension on the spring to allow the flat bar to slide in?

I can't find anything in any of my Corvair books that addresses this. I 
understand only 204 '67 Corvairs with the bucket seats had head rests 
(head restraints) so I know not many have experience with these. I 
don't know how the '65, '66, '68, and '69's go together and whether 
experience with them would be helpful.

If anyone can suggest how to get these in, please let me know.

Thanks,  Bruce

Bruce W. Schug
CORSA South Carolina
Greenville, SC
bwschug at charter.net

CORSA member since 1981

'67 Monza. "67AC140"