Technical Seat recommendations

Could use some suggestions on replacing seats. I believe the seats are from a 68 Camaro but have zero lateral support. Any recommendations on buckets seats for a 32? Cheers, Joe

 

That car needs a bench!

 

I have had over 30 first gen camaros and those seats ****! Drive a 69 Mach 1 to the beach, feel fine. Drive a 69 camaro to the beach and I actually considered selling it and taking the bus home.

I agree with the professor, put a bench in it with some decent foam to hold you in place. I used a glide bench recently in a PU I am building and it is very comfortable. Buy the foam with it.

BTW, I like your upholstery job. Old sofa?

 

A bench or talk to a good upolstery guy/gal that can redo what you have. They fit the car fine, 99% of what you will find for buckets will not and need to be rebuilt anyway.

Great looking 32

 

If not a bench, upholstered bombers look right in these cars....but that's JMO.


...and my bench.

 

Lateral support.

 

The stock bench seat in my '39 p/u was OK at best. I finally bit the bullet and sprung for a Glide Engineering frame. The guy who did the upholstery used his own foam not the stuff from Glide. The new seat, while not cheap is night and day over the stock bench seat.

 

I've built a lot of cars mostly 32's Some were comfortable. I've done benches, buckets, bomber buckets and a bomber bench. I've done a couple Glide seats which the upholstery shop hated, the buckets were alright, the bomber buckets were simple as they required just a cushion. In my roadsters the most comfortable seat I ever had was just 2 pieces of plywood with hand formed foam padding covered with good vinyl. I could drive it all day. My current roadster is probably the most uncomfortable seat I've ever had, looks good but sits awful, needs redone. Probably the most comfortable manufactured seat I've ever had was a Teas bucket/bench seat in a 32 sedan. It doesn't fit this forum but I don't care, I'll probably be crucified but I'm putting another one in my current deuce highboy sedan. It's my **** and back.

 

It's pretty hard to beat an original style bench seat in a Deuce.

 

Yeah but look at all that wasted space!? Modern upholstery and materials have come a long way. Plus a good s***cher can make it look as cl***ic as you want.

 

Try sitting the backrest in a more of an upright position. It will help in the short term. Buying a set of seats and putting them in the car is one thing. You have to adjust the position to match the floorboard for your car. They have to look like they belong in your car. Most don`t.

 

a Glide seat but not their foam

 

Personally I’d go bench, but if you want buckets I’d look at sixties British sports car buckets. The seats in my Austin Healey 3000 always reminded me of upholstered bomber seats.

 

If you want buckets, look at the ones in early 2000s Chevy Cavalier. Very comfortable with good lateral support. Used to have a '05 Chrysler Sebring ('01-'06 Sebring and Dodge Stratus are the same animal) with some very comfortable buckets, and I'm a big guy (6'5" 260).

 

With the width & height of the current seats in the car they almost look like a bench seat.
Get an original bench seat frame ***embly , if you want access behind the seat then add hinges like on a 36 coupe seat ***embly so the back opens forward allowing access to the area behind seat. Use foam instead of the springs if you want. The original seat for my 36 5w with good springs & padding is very comfortable ..... my 2 cents

 

Take a stroll through a pick and pull, etc and look at some back seats of the modern cars, take a tape with you to see what fits.
I’ve about convinced myself I’m going to put a back seat from a ‘97 Fbody in my ‘32 Dodge PU. I think it’s going to kiss the doors a bit though, but it’s a good looking black leather seat and if I can pull it off, will look proper (IMO).

 

Just redo what you have, the easy way. Take the covers off, 3 pcs of foam each, stiff on the ends, soft in the center, but all at the same hgt. It won't take much difference, then just put the covers back on. Or, run a strip of cotton down each edge and cover it back up. 4 strips per seat, not too high, when you sit in it you "sink" a bit but the seat returns when you get out. It may sag eventually, maybe at 80K miles. We would sneak side support under the seat covers of 6 figure cars, couldn't see it but made a difference. Last, if you can reupholster, think about a cloth center insert. You'd be surprised at the "velcro" effect it might have.

 

Lots of options-but two thoughts:
1. If you really have '68 Camaro seats, there is probably a market with the muscle car folks and you can offset the cost of your replacement(s).
2. Bomber seats look cool but if you are a bit older, angling in over the side metal frame may get to be a drag pretty quickly.
I like the looks of a bench seat but if you are looking for lateral support, that's not the solution.

 

Considering the styling era, that car desperately needs a traditional looking bench seat with traditional pattern such as pleated inserts with matching piping. Newer styled buckets look as out of place on that car as 20" wheels or a TPI would!
Take a look at chopped 32-34 coupes that have cut down stock style bench seats. If lateral support is all too important, incorporate a center section in the back rest that folds down as an armrest. A good, vintage car upholstery pro will work with you on hiding the arm rest center section as the smooth area between the two pleated sections where driver/p***enger sit.

 

LOL, yes. It was some left over leather from a sofa we had redone in our RV.

 

Absolutely. But, you'd better have two piggy banks to complete that job!

 

So true.

 

Bench.........................

 

Look at the seat tracks. The floorboard narrows as it gets to the front of the car. No room for the sliders to mount. You would have to re-design this. The seats might be a bit too wide also.

 

So true. a few years back I scored some cool 60's Fairlady roadster seats (Datsun) for my Tudor. Only thing other that 50s sports cars that fit well in our hot rods. Buddy of mine was doing some work on this gals Datsun and she wanted to update the seats. They both came calling a month or so later when they realized NOTHING modern that you could find in the junkyards would fit! So, being a nice guy I sold them back to her.

 

Not exactly traditional, and they have headrests built in so not for a heavily chopped car, but Fiero seats fit and are very comfortable. Easy to recover with a kit ($699 a pair for leather) and the '84-'85s have speakers built into the headrests so you don't need to try to squeeze even more non-trad stuff into the cabin. Just saying this is an option.

 

The ones I have seen used still looked a bit too modern. And even with our decent junk yards I haven't seen a junked Fiero in 20 years!

 

Interesting, thanks.

 

Take a look at aftermarket seats for Jeep CJs. Some of those would look at home in a rod...

 

Those seats, when made, they pour the foam over the frame. Soo you have to peel and s****e the foam off the frame when welding the frame. High backs don`t look good in a Hot Rod. When cutting and welding the frame, the toxic smell of burning foam is not good.