I'm building a low buck A V8. Somewhere a while back here on the hamb, it was suggested that Honda Civic Seats from the early 2000's were a good fit. I was able to purchase a complete Civic interior from my local bone yard for $50. The seats have fore and aft adjustable tracks backrest positioning, and the driver's side also has a two-way adjustable seat cushion. A set of Amazon golf cart seat belts completed the deal.
I have to agree. They do fit nice, but they look out of place, very obviously modern, especially in a flathead powered car. Obviously it's only gotta please you but for me personally, I'm not feeling it.
Sorry to blunt but those seats make it look like rebodied Honda. Comfortable maybe . But there are plenty of seats out there with a little searching will look way more period . These to me scream I got them cheap and I don’t care if they look way wrong and overpower the final look of the car. I am sure with a little thought you could loose the plastic dials and put the seat release and recliner hidden underneath like we have done and still be a comfortable and mush more eye friendly seat. My son was given some late mode PT cruiser seats for his 28 Tudor , but he had genuine reason to return them , he said just plain ugly ,but the way they folded didn’t allow access to the rear . .He found some period perfect super comfy inner sprung 74 fiat coupe seats.
While it feels good to find a solution to a problem on your project like this, I don't expect you'll get much approval on the seats here on the HAMB. They remind me of street rods that were built in my area in the early 2000'S, and with the traditional style of the rest of your build I have to agree that they miss the mark. Just too bulky and too much plastic. That said, I bought a cheap Caravan seat for mockup for my roadster to see if I liked it. I was pleasantly surprised after removing all the plastic **** how much simpler and nicer it looks. In the end all that matters is your opinion, but I'd be trying to either make that seat look more traditional to align with the build or start again with something else. However, I did see that your roadster with the early hemi has less traditional wheels, so maybe you're not so worried about it.
I put some junkyard Mitsubishi 4x4 seats in my 36 pickup. Fit nicely, comfortable (if one can ever be comfortable in that tiny cab), but look like ****. Best investment I made was a Mexican blanket to hide the plastic. After that move, they’re sort of ok. For me at least…..
In the mean time, black dye or Mexican blankets will knock some of the modern off it. Cool car, enjoy!
Throw on a couple of mexican blankets and everyone will stop whining! Good cheap solution. They fit well and look pretty comfortable for long trips (which is a big deal for those of us north of the half century mark)! I like 'em. Well played!
If you do decide to use a Mexican blanket....I have one like this behind the seat and use it on occasion. Looks damn nice with a black car/white firewall.
If you drive them a lot, the comfort of the seat becomes more important. I like modern seats. Covering or eliminating the plastic dials will go a long way towards making those seats more acceptable. You will probably be the only driver, set the seats where you like them, and remove the plastic side panels. If you really want to fit in, replace the plastic with sheet metal, sort of like the original seats probably were.
Oh my. Back in the sixties we went to the junk yard and tried to find something that would work. Looks like these work pretty well. Drive the hell out of it.
I like the idea of using Mexican blankets. Do you guys have any good tips of how to fasten them to a seat, so they aren’t constantly sliding around?
Hog rings, a friend of mine took his time and covers his seats with Mexican blankets and they look great. He trimmed the blankets and then clipped them with hog rings, he made sure all the stripes etc lined up on the top and bottom panels. He topped the interior of with a chrome chain steering wheel and a foot gas pedal. The whole job took him about three weekends but it turned out great!
Same seats with nice upholstery. You can't really remove the plastic bits,whats under it is uglier I drive my stuff, so I wanted comfort over someone else's idea of "correct"
I'm almost certain that golf cart seat belts are not DOT approved for street use and might actually be more dangerous than no belts at all. Good,new belts are not expensive and this is not a place to cheap out.
The more comfortable it is the more you’ll drive it. I got a set of third row seats from a Caddy suv with full belts. I really like them although they do need a more appropriate seat cover.
Comfort is cool. Side bolsters add a lot of that. Best part of it is, the headrests are gone. Go for it.
I had the same Jeep seats in my Austin g***er and liked the looks, but not very comfortable. After about 13 years with them I saw the local wrecking yard had bucket seats on sale one weekend at $35 a pair, so went over to see what might fit my very narrow Austin. Only have about 44" door to door inside, so a lot of seats are too wide. I found a pair of late 90's Honda CRV buckets with manual adjustment that fit the width limits great. Had to weld up the bases to get them to fit my flat floor, and tossed the headrests, but they have all sorts of adjustment to make me more comfortable, and don't have huge bolsters, or too much extra padding. Three years now and I still love them!
I'll only add that I use a '99 CRV as a daily beater. Seats are definitely comfy (even on 2-4hr jont's) . Never even crossed my mind as hotrod seats (minus the head-rests). The Jeep seats look the part pretty good too.
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