Customs 1949 - 1951 Mercury: Bench or Bucket Seats?

Sure 70% of the folks will respond with bench seat. But hear me out. Is there a mid 50's bucket seat I could use for my car? I'm shooting for a built-before-1957 look for my car.

More blaphemy, is there is a similar era console that anyone would suggest?

My project might be back on track now, but I need to resolve what seats I am using up front.

As purchased:

 

That interior looks like it would be a great place to record a drum kit!

Bench. I think some Plymouths had swiveling buckets but to my knowledge that wasn't till '59 or so. Thunderbird did work as well, I believe they were buckets since the get go.

 

65 full size Ford

That'll be $0.02US, thanks.

Cheers -- Gary

The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.-- Goethe

 

Z48 would have to be bucket seats made before 1958 otherwise the seats would be too new.

I know my dash sucks too I'm working on that but that's a thread for another day. I never saw so much tweed before except in a pro street 1984 Camaro done in like 1994.

 

53-58 corvette

 

I've seen newer seats re covered with the headrest removed. if done right, they might work nicely. lol tuck n roll

 

You have a big job ahead of you....

You will need to replace the dash, steering column and probably a bunch of other stuff. Save the chopped top.

No offense but mixing styles...1/2 50s style and 1/2 gay nineties won't appeal to either group. I don't personally care for the theme but at least it is consistent.

Prior to 57 buckets would probably be from a foreign sports car or an early thirties sedan or panel truck.

 

Stick with a bench John!! That is a lot of tweed

 

John, IMO if you want to keep it 50's you gotta go with a bench seat. Your're making progress and that is good.

 

What the fuck does it mean to record a drum kit?

 

this is not period correct, but if one has a bad back and needs buckets, you can disguise them. The headrests are removed and '50's style tuck n roll kinda pulls it off.



The bench seat is the most correct looking though in my opinion.

Wow, that is alot of tweed. A friend of mine has a Merc that must have been built in the same time as yours. All his window frames are covered in tweed also like yours. He kept the stock bench seat but ripped out all the springs from the bottom frame. Then he had a custom made/shaped foam blocks to replace the springs. This way he was able to sit low and normal and not have to hunch over to see out the front window.

You could go crazy with pinstriping on that smoothy dash and that would help hide some of the moderness.

 

I am guessing that it means the present interior has good acoustics like a sound recording studio.

 

Wow! Tweed and more tweed! Mine is pretty 90's, too, but at least the previous owner decided to have the velour covered 80's pillowed buckets and the rest of the interior in white pleated vinyl. I'd really love to ditch my 80's seats with the right bench, though. Still looking....

I did, however, come across a nice 50/51 dash to get rid of my smoothed over one like yours. Now would be a good time to do it while you have so much other stuff apart. You can probably just swap the dashes....I'm betting your column is hung some how off the factory mount on the bottom of the dash (mine is). If it is, the dash would be an easy swap without having to worry about your column right now if you wanted.

To go back and answer your seat question, though, I'm thinking the only 50's American cars with buckets were the Vette's, some late 50's Mopars and 59 Eldorados.

 

T-birds started using buckets in '58, I thought Studebaker was the first to use a bucket seat/console combo in a non-sports car around 1955 or 1956.

To pull off a 1957 build date you're going to need a bench seat. Chopped late model seats are a waste of time for the amount of work. If you insist on buckets I'd either do 58-60 T-Bird seats or early Corvair seats which are very squared off.

The stock upholstery on 58 T-bird seats is actually very pretty, you could buy a pair of seats, recover them in a stock pattern, and try to make the rest of the interior match them. I don't think it'd be tough to get a repop set of T-bird rear seat upholstery to fit on your current back seat frame, you could dye the tweed headliner black and then all you need are door panels.

I'd be a little scared of what the interior garnish mouldings are going to look like under that covering.

 

I know bench seats are correct, but dang I like buckets. Maybe I'll do what I've done with everything else I changed, I buy 2-3 and then pick one. lol

I've got gm frame and floorpans, so i'm guessing gm seats would swap in easy. any local chitowners got anything interesting?

Dash comes out easy, it's some sort of fiberglass shell:

 

Bench...

Buckets are like bell bottoms and platform shoes....

IMO one of the cool things about old cars is bench seats....

3 across FTW....

 

These pix make me shake my head and laugh...actually I cant stop laughing. They remind me of the old guys in Hawaiian shirts with porsche red fiberglass 32 coupes complete with those dolls leaning on the front bumper. Whoever though it was a good idea to wall to wall carpet your entire car with tweed... And bench seats are the only way to go. Nothing says cool like a bench seat with a floor shift, and a girl sitting in the middle straddling the shifter.

 

Pro Stock,
You probably know this already but I'll mention it just in case. The headliner, if it is changed, has to go on before the rear window gasket goes onto the car.

 

It's been mentioned before, you are saying I cannot reinstall the window until we do the headliner?

Does it appear that I have a stock back seat or is it too generic to really tell?

 

The rubber of the back window fits over the headliner as you can see in the picture. Probably a professional upholstery guy knows a way to do the headliner after the window is in. I should just clarify that I don't know how to do it myself.

That is not a stock back seat. the stock one is straight, not slightly curved like your back piece is. The stock bottom seat piece is about a foot high, really high. Also, the stock back seats have an armrest that fits in the corner. The armrests actually hide the wheel well. I can't figure how they hid the wheel well on your car. I don't think the average person would look at that seat and think it is not stock though. In other words, I wouldn't bother changing it for a stock one if that is what you are asking. It actually looks good with the curve, sorta like the T bird seats (shown below) that everyone likes to use.

 

How many tweeds had to die to make that interior!? Late 50's early 60's Olds had some cool buckets. Wouldn't early T-birds and Vettes like 55-57 have had buckets? They might be kinda small in a big interior such as your Merc. At least it would be pre-'57.

I still say stick with a bench if you're going for the pre-'57 look though. Form before function.

 

Like Mike said, that's not the stock Merc rear seat, but it might actually be the "stock" seat that matches your floor pan....which might explain how they hid the rear wheel wells without the Merc armrests. With that in mind, you may be able to find some sort of bench that fits the floor pan without too much trouble that will still look 50's-ish, rather than trying to hack up a Merc bench to fit.

Saw this one in a 56 Ford at the Roundup this year. I thought he did a good job with the upholstery to make it look like it belonged there. He also painted the aluminum/woodgrain trim pieces to make it blend better. You could also wrap the trim with 1/4 inch foam and matching vinyl/leather of your interior and that would round them out a bit and make them look more like 50's trim parts. Loose the headrests, too, of course.

 

Thanks guys. I'm looking for a bench but if I come across buckets I'll give them a lot of consideration.

 

If you want to go early 60's I have some Impala buckets I want to get rid of but I'm sure shipping would cost as much or than the seats are worth.

 

I'd say stay with the bench. Here's some ideas for you...

 

I have got a set of '70 Chrysler Imperial buckets.
Fully electric and a perfect fit.
Just like a bench seat but better.
No room for a console.
These are very large buckets.




Using '80 Caddy Seville tilt steering as well.

 

A 65 Cad coupe front seat is a perfect fit in the 51 Mercs. Buckets out of a 70's early 80's Mercedes without the headrests might be a good fit. Some of them have the right shape and are usually good for a lot of miles without putting the hurt on your butt or back.

 

I 2nd that.