The man with the T made a great point. The last thing you want is a seat that looks goofy in the car and distracts from it. From my own experience with the T bucket I built in the early 70's you want support under your thighs no matter what seat you use as I had a flat bench with 4 inches of discount store foam covered with brown viynal and the fun of driving the car decreased when the pain in my **** and legs increased because the seat did nothing to support my thighs. A bench with a roll along the front for thigh support would be the most practical. A few years ago a rod magazine did a thing on building a simple bench seat and one of the things they did was to cut the center out of the board (plywood) that made the seat bottom and crisscross it with webbing so your **** wasn't sitting directly on foam covered plywood. I wish I had seen that before building the seat for my T.
As of late we have been building several seat bases only for the bucket T's. Id m*** build them but there seems to be a whole bunch of different mold sizes for cars out there, so there doesn't seem to be any consistency in size. We just got the new web site up and running which will allow you to order a seat frame the size you and your upholstry Guru would likes, not what we think should fit... Check out our page on the Hamb O Dex or our site @ www.hotrodseats.com The custom seat page is where you would want to go on the site. We have been making steel frames with springs and the hinged front so the seat frame base hinges up and forward just like the Model A style seats we sell. this allows for access under the seat base while giving that nice feeling ride using the zig zag no sag springs. Keep in mind we can build these any height and shape you would like for that perfect fitting seat frame with the comfort of a new vehicle. On the T's the seat backs are being built by the end user using foam and attached to the back and sides of the car.
I seem to remember an article in a mag using early Camaro/Firebird seat bases not the backs. I don't remember what was used for the backrest. Nick
benches in both of mine, cut down school bus seat in the roadster and leather over foam right on the rear panel in the rpu
The problem you will get into with a T-Bucket every time is the lack of space. The second you put a bucket type seat into the typical T-Bucket body you lose many inches of front to back space and the same in leg room. The ideal is to use the body's back panel as your seat back, then build a base that has a front rise of about 4" tapering back to nothing at the back. For the last six months I have been running around with just the 1/8" Masonite backing piece as my seat back, and a 3/4" ply base that I have cut "**** - holes" into and webbed, the a chunk of low density 1 1/2" foam over the top. It is quite comfy as it sits, and soon I will cover the Masonite inner shell with 1/2" rebond carpet padding, then an outer cover of white vinyl. The base will remain the same, but when I make the outer cover will get the foam upgraded to 1 1/2" high density stuff. Too much padding again robs the car of valuable space and legroom, especially in the backrest. Keeping the seat low will keep you down below the windshield too. Might just be me, but every small early type car that I have pulled bucket seats out of and replaced them with a simple, low bench has become infinitely more drive able and comfortable in the process...
I made these out of DC pilot seats. They have a clip on padded leather backrest (but I'll probably run them bare around town) and I'm going to have some pads made for the seat - may be a single pad to cover both seats. The backs still adjust for rake using the original DC3 mechanism.
Thanks I am looking to build one similar to www.****tyseats.com bench seats. There Standard size is 39" Wide X 21.5"Tall X 18" Deep at 90%
Nice idea. I'd bet there are a lot of sporty style cars like the Camaro we could be stealing seats from. Gary
It's funny you post this. I read this thread yesterday, then as I was climbing out of my late model Camaro, I thought, "I bet the back seat would work as a seat for my T". Sure enough! Nice idea
I've often thought that, instead of using foam for the bottom cushion, a lightly inflated wheel barrow inner tube would be like, "riding on air." It would also be adjustable - like those expensive mattresses. ("What's your seat number?") A cheap 12V tire inflater pump mounted out of sight would be all you'd need. They are pretty small once you take all the plastic covers off them. You could put a push-****on somewhere on the seat, dash or console.
On top of webbing, for my seat bottom, I thought about Memory Foam. Instead, I went to an upholstery supply and bought two pillows. One for each side and I stuffed my seat with them. Works great. When I drive my T on a nice weekend, I usually put about 70-80 miles on each day. In the summer, more. I hardly ever stop to get out. I have NEVER been cramped or had my muscles ache. It's all in what works for YOUR body. If you look at my build, I changed seats 3 times, before I got to what I have now. You just have to experiment. Bucket seats are great, for some folks. Not for me. If you end up having to set two buckets, right next to each other, you may as well just have a bench. But hey. What ever floats your boat.
I'll admit that I give up some leg room so my much shorter better half can drive comfortably. Something else to think about, different height drivers.
Nice...looks like its made for the job! Lots of modern coupes out there with similar leather/vinyl rear seats, and a nice thing is you can pop out the lower cushions and take them inside if the car is on a road trip and a nightly garage isn't available. Keep you from getting Wet **** syndrome!
I used '66 Mustang seats in my bucket. The backs rotate forward allowing for storage behind the seats.
What Chip said. Haven't read the entire thread but if you have a steel or early fibergl*** body you want all the leg room you can get and that means the backrest as far back and as thinly padded as you can get it. Also the seat as high as you can get it and still see through the windshield and not over it. It is all a compromise. I used the thinnest plywood I could 1/4" and contoured it to the body by wetting it with the towel and clamping it to the body, letting it dry then drilling it below the bed cover and pulling it back with two carriage bolts and using 1/2" carpet pad for padding. Looking at it now I could maybe get another 1/2" by lowering the plywood backrest below the body bead. Worth it? Maybe. That's another job for another day.
I have a good set of Mustang buckets but figured they would be too high for my T...didn't try them though. Are your's on a base or mounted directly to the floor? As they sit there now they would be too high for me to use. My cowl is extended so the back thickness isn't as critical for me as it would be for some. Got any pics of how you mounted them???
Bill, the Mustang seats in my bucket rest directly on the floor at a slight angle. Under the front of the seats is a wood 4X4 riser (carpeted like the rest of the floor). I can actually lift the front of the seats for underneath storage as well as tilt the backs forward for additional storage. Each seat is attached to the floor by way of stainless steel snap hook carabiners that attach to a couple of eye bolts run up through the floor. Real easy to remove the seats when needed.
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