I'm building a 30 Closed cab (non-exteneded) pick up and have a question about the seat. I want to keep the interior somewhat simple, going with stock dash with minimum of guages, roadster colum with 40's wheel and want to keep a simple seat. Due to the lack of space in a PU I was thinking of going with a stock seat riser and spring base and building my own back out of 2 Inch highdensity foam. I would recover the cushion and back to match. My question is has anybody got a better idea or is there something I could be missing. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
I was in the junk yard the other day and pulled a set of seats out of a MG nice and small, I'm building a 31 RPU... There is not alot of area thats for shure. Billy
thanks a million for the reply. I am aware of the mini van deal but I wanted to go along with the old stock theme inside kinda. I just thought the mini van style might contradict the old colum and wheel and simple dash and guages. you think the stock A seat cushion will be big enough? anybody have stock seat spring dimensions. Thanks ****
Boys I have the same problem. I currently have bomber seats with boat cushions in them. The fit is perfect but it's not the look I'm going after. I would like a bench type seat. I imagine I'll have to build it out of wood. The back can't be very thick either, maybe just 1/2 inch with a thin layer of foam with vinyl. My rod is chopped 3" and channeled 3". I always tought those mini van seats would be too tall and the back to thick. I've heard of guys building seats out of wood with two holes with some type of webbing in them for your ****. I'm open to any thoughts.
i don't mean to make a bigger deal out of it than what it is, but there is a tremendous amount of knowledge on this board and I just wanted to reach out so to speak for some ideas. I dont have a riser and springs and before I invest i wanted to ask. With stock springs and riser the cushion height ought to be peerfect for me. I am 5'8" and the car is chopped 2". I mocked up a seat and I need about 9 " to the top of the cushion. I was lloking for stock riser and spring height if anybody had it. I would most likely make the back out of plywood or something and cover it with 2" high density foam and cover it.
Yeah, not much room in there, for sure. The bomber seat idea's cool, but why don't you take dimensions from them and make a 'bomber' styled bench seat, same as the buckets but wide? Sew up some stiff foam cushions that fit right in, might be that thing you're looking for. My brother has a '29 roadster pickup he took to a local upholstery shop. The guy did the plywood seat cut out with webbing, but the wood was 3/4" std. ply, and the outer perimeter collapsed from being too stressed and too little material left around the perimeter. I told him I could make a metal frame and transfer the cushion and cover, and he said, "An upholsterer did that job. You can't do that!" I laughed. His ****'s still crackin' the wood.
That's not a bad idea A****er Mike, thanks. I'm afraid my **** will be crackin' wood too! I'll look into those wide bench style bombers. I've seen them on here. I'll also do a search.
What I did was take the rear seat backs from a newer (I say around 1999) f-150 ford extended cab. One of the seat backs I simpley cut 7" from the center and welded the frame together. I then cut 7" from the foam and glued it back together. The second seat back, witch is to be the bottom.... I cut the same 7" out and curved the ends in a bit to look natural. I then beefed up the frame to suport my big *** 225#. The foam is super stiff, easy to work with. Its kinda thin and leaves ya some leg room. Makes for a real good looking seat.
I made a new seat base that was about 3" lower and that helped a lot. The back cushion is still to thick. I have considered redoing the cushion and making it about 1-1/2" thinner to give me more room. People must have been a lot smaller back in the 30's.
I made a seat for my new pu. I used 3" dense upholstry foam. The foam was the most expensive part of the whole project. 1/2 plywood for the base and back. The base fits in the stock seat riser and holds the back in place. The back is a snug fit under the horizontal wood strip to allow it to be as far back as possible. Had a local canvas seamstress s***ch up the covers using Sunbrella (?) material I tirmmed and gluded the form to the plwwood. A friend and I borrowed a pnumatic stapler and finished the job. The truck is very comfortable and the material breaths so you don't get the "stickies".
I haven't tried the Chrysler mini van seat in a '30 '31 pickup yet, but I would suspect that the back would be to thick to allow you to go back far enough to fit it well. Did the same with my '29 roadster pickup. Pulled it right back out and am doing the same as you. Your plan to this point is a solid one, and 2" high density foam for the back should be about right. Another thing I have found with model A closed cars in general is this - everybody seams to want to drop the seat base down, but that seems to create more leg length problems than it helps. Keeping the seat base at stock height, but thinning out the back on model A closed car applications seems to be the best for my 6'1" and 34" inseam. Also, be careful where the front of the seat ends up, one of the things that drives me nuts with these cars is turning my right foot sideways to get in and out of the car, although this is always worse on open cars.
i am using a school bus seat in my coupe should fit a pick up too. the width will work for sure of just use the frame for the back. plus u get the foam too
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