Technical Dodge caravan rear seat in a 1933 ford truck

My 33 still has the package tray partition or whatever you want to call it on the rear floor of the cab. The van seat is at the right height when its resting on it or right above it. I'm drawing a blank on how to fab the rear brackets between that tray / partition and the rear of the cab without cutting a hole in the partition for access to the seat bracket bolts. Has anyone done this before? Have any pictures?
I guess what I'm asking for is pictures of seat brackets used with the caravan seats.

 

Unless you are unusually short you don't need the brackets,mount the seat on plywood. HRP

 

Don't know if this will help but made these brackets and got the sliders from speedway

 

Nice one. that looks nifty

 

That is nice. My problem is that my rear subrail is behind that 6" high partition and that's the only place strong enough to mount the rear of the bracket.

I'm not getting what your saying HRP. How do I get the seat 6" off the floor without brackets?

 

I can't imagine needing an adjustable Caravan seat (referring to supernut) in a '33 Ford P/U, you usually can't get it back far enough. If what your trying to do is make a seat riser to raise it up I made one out of electrical conduit framing and rapped with sheet metal sides. Covered top where seat would sit with sheet metal, Cavity under seat provided a space for Battery, Heater, Fuse Panel and radio. Back of seat folds forward as stock Caravan does, than I have front edge of seat hinged and all pivots forward and stops at steering wheel. Pic's would be nice of what you are trying to do so there is no confusion. I would post pic's of how I did it but the cab is being painted at the moment........................

 

Does your truck not have a seat riser? I did what HRP suggests in my '32. Piece of plywood on the seat riser, covered it. Or in your case, plywood and the seat bottom sitting on the plywood. I have a cneter seat from a caravan in my cabrio. It sits right on the floor. I am 6' tall and need the headroom.
Tim

 

I'd really like to see that! Did you keep the partition in place and bolt the conduit to the subrails? What battery did you find to fit under there?

 

No seat riser.

 

Bad pic but you can see the partition to the left almost even with the door opening

 

We fabricated a seat riser the height of the original gas tank,I used the area underneath the seat for my wiring & heater. HRP

 

Yeah I'm not married to that van seat but it IS comfortable. Maybe put some hinges on the front brackets and some support legs on the back attached to the seat instead of the floor so I can fold it forward like brigrats.

 

HRP, what kind of heater did u put under your seat?

 

The "partition" you mention looks like the back part of the seat riser in my '34 PU and in the picture HRP posted. I'd just build out the sides and front of the seat riser and make a seat.
Most seat backs are too thick for these pickups. They'll push you too close to the steering wheel. Even my stock seatback is too close. I always feel like I'm hunching over the wheel.

 

That's an option for sure.

 

Mine van seat already had brackets for the original mounting. Removed the riser and bolted it right through the existing brkts and floor. This truck interior is bare bones and I love the extra easily accessible space under the seat.

 

If you take out the partition spanning the bottom of the "B" pillar I would suggest you replace it with a piece of square tubing as far up as the surface the seat will be sitting. This will help stabilize the "B" pillars and help keep door gaps from moving.
As far as battery, we bought the shortest in height 12V, side post we could find but still had to recess a bottom tray an 1 1/2" through cab floor so as to have room to mount under seat. Mine looks like HRP but with a metal, partitioned in the middle, top. We mounted a small Vintage Air Gen. 2 heater in the middle with adjustable out lets blowing forward toward your feet. If building the seat "stand" like HRPer's you can make it sit level OR higher in the front than in the rear as to angle your legs for more comfort. Simple mock ups with meat in the seats works best!

 

I've been using mini van middle seats for the last 10 years. Not just Dodge, but Ford, Plymouth, Chrysler, they all work great. And I use Speedway sliders. Works for me.

 

Great info guys Thanks a lot for the pics and advice.

 

I had a small heat and air unit I had purchases for another car and decided to use the heater,after installing it I went ahed and hooked up the air also.

I ran the vents out below the seat along with the controls. HRP

 

One of these days.....

 

Similar set up, no A/C BUT with defroster. Ran hidden Plastic tubing up back side corners of cab, along inside of headliner, drilled downward holes above windshield header to defrost inside windshield..................................

 

This is a great thread for those looking to mount this seat in their car. I'm looking to do this exact seat in my coupe. I thought that it was the middle seat out of the van? Maybe I heard wrong. Either way. I know it's one of them lol

 

Also am just living under a rock or what because I thought the trucks didn't have the package tray. Thought it was just a coupe/sport coupe thing.

 

I mounted a ford van 3rd seat right on the floor. Somebody before me removed all vestiges of the seat riser years ago. Worked great and I'm only 5'9" but long in the body...no problemo

 

It's the back side of the seat riser I guess, but I can't tell that there was ever a front side attached to it. I think the under seat gas tank was actually the riser in mine???
With your model A I would go with the middle seat out of a van, It's narrower than the back one. 33's are wider than A's

 

yeah that risen section in back of the seat is what I was talking about. So that's news to me! haha.

Also, yeah I figured the 33's were wider than an A. Which is why I was confused on which seat to pick.

 

What do guys usually do for mounts? My coupe isn't chopped, and I'm not too keen on mounting it directly to the floor like some guys with chopped cars do. I'm short and have to really stretch to see over the wheel when it's like that. (Sat in a really well built car done by Hilton Hot Rods that had a 4 or 5 inch chop, with an S10 seat mounted on the floor recently). I wonder if guys just build custom mounts or if you can actually use the stock bracket and mounting system from the van when you pull the seat, and drill holes accordingly. Having the ability to slide the seat would also be nice too. Sorry if I am technically ''hijacking'' the thread, but I don't really want to make another thread and have so much redundancy . Thanks

 

You may be making this a lot harder than this is. Blocking the seat up with some pieces of scrap wood will let you know where you want it so it's most comfortable. Then fabbing some sort of base for it to sit on and leaving room for slides if you want it to slide back and forth.
Lots of choices for slides but that old mid 80's or so conversion van in pick a parts with the captains chairs has some pretty solid slides that would be easy to install in most rigs.
A strip of flat bar under the floor board will spread the pull on the bolts though the floor out far enough so that you won't have an issue. you could do the same on top if you feel the floor is a bit flexi.