I've got the seats/carpet/door panels out of my '49 Chevy (Sport Coupe, short back window, long trunk) in order to do some minor floorboard repairs. There is no way the original door panels are going back on; the headliner is raggedy, seats are so/so with 30 year old black and white vinyl covers. The door and side panels are doable, and I think with some patience I can put a new headliner in. Carpet replacement is simple, which leaves the seats; re-upholstering them is way out of my range of skills and my budget to have them done, so replacement seems the best option. I'm not going to re-install the rear seat, going to make it Business-Coupe style (don't know if that was an option in '49). The only traditional buckets I can think of would be something on the order of '62 Impala S/S seats which would be WAY out of my price range as well as being somewhat scarce. I want basic black vinyl buckets, anybody got some ideas for readily-available (used/salvage yard) seats that aren't too pricey and don't look too modern?
when i started reading your post the impala seats came to mind. since your on a budget that wont allow that option think about redoing your seat with a wool army or navy blanket. have done this myself make hospital corners and hog nail them in. then save up for what you want. did this on my 41 olds and they were on for 10 years. army navy surplus store is your source.
I was having the same problem, I needed straight backed, flat mounted buckets that I could use for front and rear buckets. I used late 70's early 80's toyota fj40/60 seats ! They worked great for my app. W
Is that in your Henry J ? Also, if so, (or not) do you have any more photos of the seats in the finished car ? Looks pretty good really, and with some upholstery tricks.....I'm sure it has even more potentials. I've seen the Tbird rear wrap around used before....seems like your choice fits within the vein..."so to speak".
No it's my 55 Merc that I'm building, I used Peugeot seat in my Hemi j , also flat mounted cool seats!
there is a junk yard around here that seemed to collect more than its share of 70's and older Mercedes and BMW's, one thing I noticed was that many of them had big cool looking bucket seats that would fit well in an old car, sizewise about the same as the 64 Impala style seats.
You can go up into the late 90's full size cars if you can live with removing the headrests and having the 2 grommets holes where they pass thru. I've considered pulling the seat covers on these and just having the top panel of the seat cover replaced to eliminate the headrest holes. The seats don't cost much.
The 60's and 70's Benzes used the same basic seat shape since the 50's so they'd probably pass, and you can probably find a set that aren't tore up, dye them black if need be. But you can buy old aftermarket seat covers to go on your original seat, usually new in the box on eBay if you watch for a while, for less than $100. When I got my '52 Ford, someone had replaced the original seats with some 80's era seats from a Lincoln or something similar in a matching blue color, they looked like new. I threw them in a dumpster and repaired/recovered an original front and rear seat frame with a kit I bought online for about $375, blue pleated vinyl. The recovered seats look great and was easy to do.
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