Swivel Bucket Seats?

Anyone know what year or years, make & models swivel bucket seat where factory installed? Thanks...............

 

My friend had a 57 Plymouth fury with swivels.

 

Wow, I thought they were GM only?

 

I thought they were mopar only?

 

I had a 74 Monte Carlo with them. I believe '73 and later had them and I saw some in a Cutlass once.

 

1973 through about 1975 or 76 in the Chevy Laguna (like a sporty Malibu). Maybe some other GM intermediates of the era too.

 

Me too!Mid 50's to early 60's?

 

Mid 60's Thunderbirds also if I remember

 

I had a '76 Monte with them

 

GM '73-'77 A-Body cars(Chevy,Olds,Buick,Pontiac)

I believe it was '57-'60 Mopar(Dodge,Plymouth,Chrysler,DeSoto) that had them.

 

Thunderbirds never had swivel seats.

 

A lot of Vans had them too, they were called "captans chairs".

 

OOOps your right I was thinking about the steering colum moved right?

 

I typed a short reply on that,sorry....yes,only the steering wheel.
1961 was the first year for that and it's something like less than 25% of the '61's did NOT have the "swing away wheel".

 

GM Intermediates used the high-back buckets from '73-'77. I had swivels in a '75 Cutlas S. They seemed pretty cool when I got the car, but became problematic over time. The (un)latching mechanisms seemed to work when they wanted and they didn't like certain objects under the seat or between the seat and the console. They were a good way to keep unwanted passengers out of the back seat.

Late 50's/early 60's Mopars as mentioned above. Not sure about the later years or models, but the early versions were more split bench style than buckets.

There is also another car that comes to mind from the late 50s or early 60s that had almost a whiskey barrel shaped seat that swiveled for easier driver access, but I can't think of it at the moment.

 

'59 Mopars offered a "semi-bucket" front bench seat that both side "buckets" swiveled out leaving the center cushion and backrest. This is called "swivel buckets" but is really more of a bench when "closed". That continued into the early '60s. Those are highly sought after by restorers and customizers.
The Chrysler Letter Car 300s had true bucket seats that swiveled out starting in 1960. In the attached pic my seat is not swiveled out but that is a 1960 300F bucket front.

 

The 1960 Mopars offered them, too, as well as those mentioned above.

The '61 - '66 Thunderbirds had a sliding steering column that moved inboard, for easier ingress/egress on the driver side.

Only in the early-mid '70s did GM offer them, and only on the intermediates.

 

76 monte carlo had them......

 

73 SS Lugana, a buddy bought one new, nice styling in its time for a big bumper car but no real power, low hp, emissions, girls didn't care the car was new, had T-tops, good sounds, for a high back space age looking seat believe it or not they look ok in a double nickel chevy.

 

The aftermarket mounts for those captain's chairs are a cinch to shorten too. Very easy to fit them in anything. Most of the conversion vans in junkyards have them.

 

I thought of that before and wondered how hard it would be to modify for a car.
I can confirm what everyone elses has said about the GM A-bodies. I pulled two sets, one out of a Monte Carlo and one out of a Cutlass. They are quite poular with the lowrider crowd and they do pay good for them.
If you have fabrication skills I would suggest using a set of van tracks and modding them or just building your own. They are basically a lazy-susan between the seat and the track. Btw, the bottom of the seat is a plate of steel (which is actually part of the seat back continuing down) that mounts to the rotating part which in turn mounts to the tracks. I hope that helps.

 

I am using swivel bases from a VW bus. They have a pretty low profile and allow for swivel as well as forward / backward adjustment.

FONZI

 

i had a 59 plymouth sports fury with swivel seats.

 

73 SS Lugana... is all I've seen them in.

 

Had a set out of a '73 Monte Carlo in an GMC Sprint I built once. I think 73-76 Monte Carlos had them.

 

The Mopar swivel buckets used the same frame as the earlier 'swivel bench seats - just with the center fixed portion and fold down arm rest removed. I have a 6 way power swivel bench seat out of a 300E in my '58 Chrysler and the chrome bill was huuuge. The chrome trim on the seats were different according to the model - the more expensive the model, the more chrome trim you got.

For a short while in 1960 the swivels were activated by cables attached to the doors, so that the seats swiveled when you opened the doors - this was dropped pretty quickly when dealers had to keep on replacing snapped cables...

 

1973 Chevelle and Monte Carlos for sure. I had a 1973 Laguna (Chevelle w/ a euro nose) that had them. Uncomfortable as all get out, but cool!

 

From the Los Boulevardos site...

 

i have a set think from monte carlo look like hiback racing buckets ive seen a few installed into 55 chevys

 

I didn't know they were out in '57, my Mom's '59 D-500 had them. I always thought the Chevy guys were funny when they got so excited about the monte's having them; like it was some new thing. As usual, late to the party, and not as well engineered as Mopars were in the '50's!