Car couch plans?

That is inspired!

 

I say go for it.
It takes up a lot less floor space this way.
And its kinda neat to be a little different than everybody else.

 

I don't have any plans for building a car couch, but I've thrown one together several years ago. I had a trashed 57 Chevroley 4 door, so I cut it up and built it around an existing love seat. It made the car a bit wider, but I fabricated a section for the center of the bumper to fill the void. Mrs. Stu d baker hates having a car in the house, but the grand kids love it. Stu

 

my desk ,

 

I like your chair, but does it leave funny impressions on your butt afterwards?! Hahahaha, can't wait to see it completed!!

 

Sweeeeeet!!! I would love to work at a desk like that!

 

Stops people in their tracks when they come in the office! Jaws drop and they just stand there!

 

Looks like you could drive that one to work ratbone! I love it.

 

I think you can buy them from Corbin seats. The custom motorcycle seat people. Try their website

 

OK, here we go with the measurements and stuff I have on how I did mine.

First thing I did was measure all the furniture in my house for height of the seat top from the floor, depth of the seat from the front edge of the piece of furniture to the front surface of the back cushion, cushion thickness, etc. Averaging all that gave me a height from the floor to the top of the seat cushion of about 18 inches with a cushion thickness of 4 inches. The depth from the front edge of the furniture piece to the front surface of the back cushion was about 22-24 inches in most cases. I will point out that this is not necessarily the depth of the seat cushion itself, since there is a bumper hanging off under your legs, this affects the depth of the cushion so you don't end up with a couch that feels like you sit too far back in and your legs don't comfortably rest out front.

I did all that before I started cutting so I could get an idea of how far back to cut the car....you can always cut it shorter, but it's not real easy to make it longer after you have cut it too short. I also took into account the shape of the car itself and if there was anything I wanted to keep on the couch. I'm showing my 56 Olds 98 couch here, but I also built one out of a 59 Caddy and wanted to make sure I kept most of the fins. On a 57 Chevy, for example, you may want to keep the full length of the rear trim section and insert. So, with measurements in hand, I knew I needed 24-ish inches from the back of the bumper to the front of the rear cushion, another 4 inches for the thickness of the rear cushion, plus a yet undermined couple of inches to be able to lean the rear cushion back like on "real" furniture rather than leave it straight up and down...so a few extra inches for that. Measure car and cut. I needed at least 32-ish inches back from the back edge of the bumper, so I cut like 36 or 38 inches off. You will note I cut out the floor pan since I built my own frame inside and decided not to use the pan for any of my structure.



Once I had it all cut off, I started propping it all up to "ride height." I used wood for the couches because I thought it would be easier, but if I had it to do over again, I would use 1 inch square tube like I did on my desks. Live and learn. So anyhoo, I stuck in a front cross board with some clamped on legs and a rear cross board with the tall legs clamped to the trunk lip to support the back. This was the beginning of the base. The height of this started with my 18 inch seat height, minus the 4 inches for the cushion, 1/2 inch for a plywood seat and another 1/2 inch or so for upholstery. So, the top of my bottom base was going to be about 13 inches from the floor.



I set the lower trunk lip at the same 13 inches so my seat cushion would sit on it and not leave any gaps. With that set, I leveled to the back of the base and then made sure the fenders themselves were level. As a side note, you will see I cut the weatherstrip channel out so the upholstery panels would have a flat edge to set against...



With everything level, I started filling in my base framework.



With my base framed in, I put in some temporary legs in the corners (to be replaced later with 4x4 legs) and welded some tabs inside the fenders to mount it all together. This was the point where I started to figure out the angle of the seat back. I took one of those adjustable angle finder thingies that carpenters use and stuck it around the furniture in the house. Can't tell you the actual angle, since it doesn't have any numbers on it, but once I had a reasonable average angle, I transferred that to some temporary back posts.



Before committing to anything (I still have not cut the fenders off to final length yet at this point), I put on some boards and borrowed some cushions off the patio furniture. I proceeded then to have folks sit on it and tell me if I was close....including my wife who does not have the leg length I have and hates deep furniture.



Satisfied that I was where I needed to be, I finished the framework. With all the dimensions finally settled, I cut off the fenders to length and cut a back panel. In my case, I cut the fenders 1/2 inch longer than the framework so the back panel would be recessed inside and the final upholstery over the back would be flush with the sheetmetal.



The last part of the framework was something to hang the bumper off off. I used a 2x6 mounted to the legs to bolt the bumper brackets to.





Cut panels for sides and cushions....



Bodywork, chrome and upholstery to taste and enjoy.

 

Thanks for the pictures, gives an idea on how to work out the support under the cushions.

 

drdave,

Sweet, that's exactly what I'm looking for. That will get me in the ball park to get started.

Thanks,

Ralph

 

If you have any questions along the way that the pics don't answer for ya...give a shout.

I forgot to mention, not that it's a huge deal, I welded tabs to the trunk lip on the sides and put those blind nuts with the spikes that pound into the wood to hold the side panels on. I didn't want screws to show from the outside.

 

Harry,
I got the pictures today, These will be a big help, I can't wait till spring so I can dig the car out of the snow and start.
Of course I had to show the pics to my wife and got the standard " Not in my house"
and then I reminded her I have a 2000 square foot shop to put in in, along with all my dead animals.

Ralph

 

These are all pretty badass,have you guys seen the Chris Craft boat couches ?They are unreal.

 

Dave, thanks for posting the build pics.

Here is a pic I took of the Chris Craft one at the Roadster show.

 

HOLYSHIT !!!!!!!!!!! I have to have one of these. I wonder what it went for ? Maybe something to think about making. Thanks for the pics.

 

that is so badass. i LOVE this idea and i will be stealing it. haha

 

awsome couch man. I saw it on kijiji like 20 minuites ago. If I could afford it I would love to have it.

 

saw one of these at a show a few years agoa dn always wanted to make one, always thought maybe finding a wrecked 59/60 cadillac or a 57/58 ford would be cool.

 

Hmmmmmm. I will have an extra 55 Caddy rear end laying soon. Just might have to make 1

 

hello folks
once i found a 55 mercury monarch in the belgium woods
and the only thing I could save was the trunk

my wife always want's an outside kitchen and I like barnfind's
so I came up with this
A car-b-que

 

Nice BBQ Jan

 

Im stealing that bbq idea.

 

This guy here in Hansas City has a '51 Henry J clip ready to be made into a couch - only $250!
http://www.weirdstuffantiques.com/weirdstuffFUN.html



~Jason

 

Don't have a picture, but the best one I ever saw was a complete 57 Chevy wagon rear with about 6" of roof and the upper tailgate mounted into the wall at an advertising agency in S.F.
One of my army buddies had a complete 47 Ford pickup truck bed. Yes, it was his bed. He had it against the wall. He painted the back of the cab and a desert mural on the wall.
It was really incredible.

 

My 58, waiting for me to decide which t/lites to use

 

These are all cool. I've got parts to build a few. Once I get a place big enough for any then I'll try to build them.

 

This guy has done alot of them. Kinda neat as long as the car is junk. However he cut up a '55 wagon and it looks like it might have been pretty nice. Breaks my heart.

http://www.sweetsofas.com/recent_couches_3.html

 

He should change his name to SOFA KING!