Where's all the leg room in a Model A?

was the seat out of a minivan or fullsize?

 

It was a soccer mom van . . . is that a minivan?

You should be able to tell by the measurements.

 

What are a soccer mom's measurements?

 

Soccor mom you realy see, or one we would LIKE to see?

 

I sit on my shins and use my knees to push on the pedals...lots of room there

 

Z the frame in the front as well as the back and use a taller seat.
Pogo

 

Geez . . . I dunno.

Every time I approach one with a tape measure they run screaming....

 

Not much leg room in one either

 

Are you trying to get the Official Hamb Comedian title??? I'm only 5' 10" and the 31 coupe is Very Small! I have talked to people who have crammed a family of 5 into a coupe but the truth is, two people fill the car.

 

Lots of interesting comments here.

Lots of good points to be made for good ergonomics as well.
I'm a real believer in setting up the car to fit well and be comfortable.
I want to do more than the 4 mile trip to the Saturday night rod run.
In fact, yesterday we made an about 70 mile round trip out into the Dez in the 32 just for the helluva it - and some good Polish dogs.

I do ok in my 32 and spend the whole day in it at times, but it's main problem - and not too big a one - is the overly thick and a little too far forward back cushion.
It's working though, mainly due to good lumbar support and the seat lower cushion is tipped up a bit as well as additional form fitting foam under the backs of your knees.

You'll note in the pic of the 31's seat above, it's tipped up a bit in front.
3" - 4" if I remember right.
In the pic it's on wood blocks for the set-up bit, but the seat base duplicates the height and tilt.
It's really comfortable that way.
The seat base was made to be adjustable fore & aft 7" in 1" increments.
Requires removing four easily accessed bolts, but that's easy.
It should be about where it's gonna end up right now and if movement is needed maybe 1" would do it.

I could have installed a low seat base that allows adjustment, but once it was set it probably wouldn't be moved again.

My 5'2" tall wife drives the 32 - sideways sometimes - and uses an upholstered to match square cushion behind her back most times.

My 6' 7" tall friend drove the 32 for about a half hour one day and did alright.
He was a little cramped, but he did ok.
I thought operating the pedals etc. would be tough for him, but it turned out to be a non-problem.

The pic below shows another area to think about as far as gaining legroom goes.
The throttle pedal doesn't stick up very high nor does it sit back.

The brake pedal is a Deuce Factory (DF) item that's been shortened 1" so it can accept the 53-54 Ford style stick shift brake pedal.
I have the wider auto trans brake pedal and it fits ok, but there's a little more transverse room for your feet with the stick shift pedal.
(And once upon a time I had a 59 Ranchero with stick shift and auto brake pedals on both clutch and brake. Was kinda cool.)

The DF brake/clutch bracket on the frame was carefully located so as to gain the most foot room.
I run the same bracket and cut down pedal on the 32.
One mistake I made there was to follow the DF instructions as to where to place it.
An inch further forward would have been better and especially better would have been to mount the bracket down about 1".
One thing that conflicted with the DF bracket - which is a nice one - was the DF frames front lateral tubing in the crossmember system.
It dis-allowed having the DF brake/clutch bracket any further down.

Looking back, I should have notched the DF brake/clutch bracket and got it down a touch.

The same bracket on the 31 sits down and that helps in the legroom dept as well.

One small thing to point out is there was room in the 32's footwell to fit your left foot.
At the time - during the trying the car on process, othewise known as vroom-vroom time in the garage - I didn't realize that my foot was contacting the inside of the body panel.
Once the upholstery was in, I lost about 2" of foot room.
When the 31 gets upholstered I'm gonna inset the front panel upholstery into that area and gain the lost room back.

If it would help I could shoot some pics this afternoon to give you an idea of how much foot room there is in my car.

It's not as lacking as some think it is....

 

C9, do you think that tilting the seat back will help with head room? I am thinking of doing that in my chopped and channelled coupe. It has plenty of legroom

 

Maybe . . . just what you wanted to hear, right?

I'm guessing the package shelf is already out of the car.

If you tilt the seat back by lowering the back rear you'll gain some head room and lose a little bit of foot room due to your butt will be a little further forward.
It's all a trade-off, but the big thing is, you don't want to end up with the seat back cushion too vertical.

My wife likes the back cushion in our 32 and it's a little more vertical than it should be, but I don't have a problem with it.
She has good posture and back problems so a more vertical seat is good for her.

I encourage you to take a look at Rolf's coupe build.
It's in the tech archives.
Go here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104922

Take note of how his seat is set up.
It's a little flatter than the similar seat in my 31 roadster, but it looks to be comfortable.

Fwiw, his seat is a cut down three passenger seat and mine is a two passenger seat from a mid-90's ChryCo van, probably the mini-van version.

Looking from here, for the coupes it may be better to use the three pass version and cut it down for fit.
You'd get a slightly wider seat that way.

Even so, I find the two pass seat is just about right in my roadster.

One other thing to think about, the word is getting out about the two pass seats so the three pass seats are probably easier to find.
As Rolf shows, cutting down the seat is easily done.

 

Bend knees and hunch over, it adds to the experience of drivin a hotrod.

 

You just have to work a little. If you just want to bolt in some junkyard seat and aftermarket pedals the way they fall most easily in place it will be tight.

I'm just a notch over 6 foot and fit great in my '29 A roadster with a 6" firewall setback. I fought for every fraction of an inch I could find, built a comfortable seat that sits back beneath the tulip panel and my shoulders are under the tops of the doors. Not as comftorble as my caddillac but better than most new cars I've been in.

 

If you want to be comfortable and have a Hot Rod you enjoy driiving I would STREACH what I needed at the doors

 

I had to recess my firewall back 2.5 inches on the 35 Ford PU. I dont have any leg room either and Im only 5' 8".

However!

In my 34 Ford Sedan, I have so much room, I can barely reach the pedals and steering wheel. It has as much, if not more room than my 97 Explorer.

 

uh huh...pedals...columns...trans tunnels...its a very tight-knit community down there. Mine is an auto, I have the same deal...brake left, throttle right. If I had a stick, I would have had to make compromises on the column angle...

 

two people fill the car...and: they had better be PRETTY GOOD friends...or they will get to be.

 

They saved all the leg space for the 35 and onwars cars, couldnt waste it on the early ones...........

 

Bend your knees

 

I have a channeled-in-1954 Model A coupe that is a stretch to reach the pedals

 

There is none. A little better in a 32 but if'n you want room, a 33/34 is the best choice.
I rode w/ a friend 4,000 miles in my 29 fendered roadster & it was the WORST trip of my life. I felt like a pretzel & the leg cramps at 75 mph wasn't fun either.
At 6'2", I knew the 29 wasn't for me so I sold it. Years later I got the 32 but even that is tight. I had to thin & lower the seat & shove it under the body as far as possible. I've driven my friends 34 coupe & it's legroom heaven.


Oops- this is a 2 year old thread!

 

With my A pickup, when it was still an AA truck, I felt like it was too tight to be comfortable in. This with a stock seat still in it. I wasn't super uncomfortable, but there wasn't room to stretch out my legs like if I had to relieve a cramp.

Since moving it to an A frame and taking the stock steering out of it, I think it's possible to make it comfortable if not perfect. I'd have to make the upper back seat myself and keep it to no more than an inch or two thick, when rebuilding the cab wood, move the cab back wall so that the doors close flush, and run a tilt column with a modern smaller wheel on it, possibly hanging pedals too. I'm about 5'10" and the last time I tried it I had an F1 column mocked up into it, with the stock F1 wheel on it.

Headroom in it isn't a problem, I could probably channel it the height of the frame or chop it 3" or so and still have plenty of room.

A 5-window coupe, you can make fairly roomy for two as noted previously, just cut the package tray out so the seats can go all the way to the back of the roof. With that you should be able to make room enough for up to 6'2" or so to be able to stretch their legs out in it, will depend on just what you use for a seat though.

 

That's why I sold my '27 T coupe. The farther I got in the build, the more I realized I wouldn't be comfortable at all in it. I'm 6'1"ish and about 220. Model Ts and As were not built for guys over about 5'10". Sorry, but you're either going to have to get used to wadding yourself up to drive it or get a bigger car.

 

if your channeling it weld the floor boards to the bottom of the frame that will get you a few inches

 

Wait until you jam a 454 in it!!!!

 

All right, here's a couple of pics to show there's plenty of leg room.




I'm still 6' with a 32" inseam and the firewall still has a 4" setback.

And . . . there's still 2" more for the seat to go back on the manually adjustable mounts.


Here's the 455 Buick "jammed" in it.




It all fits, the hood top and sides are flat with no blisters and it has a 17" six (fat) blade stainless fan up front.
(15" fan shown, but it has a 17" now.)

Good ground clearance as well.

Y'all need to think of the car as a whole.

Don't just be flingin' an engine in and taking off.

There are a lot of other factors involved and like it or not, you're the head engineer on the project....

 

C9, the car looks really good-and the Dachsy doesn't look too fat, but, man, you gotta stop shaving your legs and get some tan on them!

 

This thread is 3 years old. I think (hope) he came up with a solution by now!

 

I'm a redhead, ya know?

We're fair-skinned anyway.


As for the doxie, you don't want to mess with him....