Thread: Bucket seats in 31 Roadster Pickup (reposted)

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For some reason, this post disappeared off the forum sometime on the afternoon of New Years day. I don't think there is anything in it offensive enough to get it yanked, so I am reposting.---Got up early on New Years day and went out to the shop for one more look at the old skuzoid bucket seats that came with original project. When I looked at the seat adjuster brackets a little closer, I see that I can heat them suckers up a bit with the torch, straighten out the curl at the ends, and lower the seats about 1", and the tracks will still be functional. Once this was done, the top of the buckets slid back under the lip at the rear of the roadster pickup cab, giving a "reasonable" slant to the seat back, and reasonable leg room too. This is great. Now I got factory springs and foam under my butt and behind my back. The seats fit side to side, with virtually zero clearance between them (thats O.K.), and about 3/4" between outside of seats and inside of door panels. I couldn't have planned it any better. P.S.----THE MODIFICATIONS TO THE SEAT FRAMES ARE DONE NOW, EVERYTHING FITS GREAT.-----FOR ANYONE THAT IS INTERESTED, THE SEAT PORTION THAT FITS UNDER YOUR BUM IS NOW TIPPED DOWN 12 DEGREES FROM HORIZONTAL TOWARDS THE REAR AND THE SEATBACK IS 22 DEGREES OFF VERTICAL. I had to fabricate a wedge shaped spacer to go under the seat tracks which was 1 3/4" thick at the front of the seat track, tapering to a point at the rear of the seat track to get this finished angle.

Brian, That's it! The mysterious fleeting post that somehow got lost. If you ever find out where the seats came from, make, year and model I would like to know. Otherwise this post of yours shows me that there are probably a number of such seats available in junkyards and let me say that your innovations are great!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Seats are looking good Brian.

Here's an option that I've been thinking about.
Can't quite make up my mind cuz the bench seat in the 32 has been useful for hauling three.

Had three 6' 200# guys in there once. Worked ok, but the middle guy was the designated shifter....


Anyhoo, these are made by Beard.
They come upholstered as you see them.
I believe the car in the photo is a 29.

Once you get to the Beard Internet site you may have to do a little digging since they cater to dune buggies for the most part.

If I remember right, the price for two of these upholstered seats was under $600.

Toss in some carpet and side panels and you may be looking at a fairly reasonable cost for a roadster type interior.

Hey C9X that is a really nice interior shot. Since these seats I have seem to fit so well, I will probably either A---get them reupholstered or B---try to find out what they are out of and see if I can buy new upholstery made specifically for those seats and cover them myself. I am not as adept at upholstery as I am at other aspects of car building. I do o.k. on flat panels like doors and kick panels, where I can make up a flat backing board, then upholster it with landau top foam and vinyl, stetched, stapled, and glued When it comes to complex shapes and things requiring a sewing machine, I throw in the towel.

I actually got mommy out to the garage to set in the roadster pickup with me, and try out the new seats. (It was her that insisted that "this new car better have some comfortable seats"). As far as having a third person in the car---not unless they are less than 3 3/4" wide!!!! I don't even have enough room between the seats for my emergency brake.

My plan is to run the master cylinder below the floor, mounted off the framerail with the pedal coming up thru the floor on the right side of the steering column. I think my left foots only job will be to operate the dimmer switch if required. I welded the master cylinder mounting bracket on last week when I was underneath welding up the running board stiffner brackets. I hadn't put it on earlier because I still wasn't 100 percent sure of final body position when I welded up the rest of the chassis with the body off.

Techinspector---sorry, I just re read your post and figured out that your talking about the emergency brake handle. If I truly can not squeeze it between the buckets, I may run it crosswise directly in front of the drivers sear. There is plenty of room there, more than anywhere else.----Way back when I started this project, in a fit of exuberant madness I bought a chrome, shorty, floor mounted E-brake handle, so now I have to find a place on the floor for it.

i am doing a t bucket and and going to widen it and am courious how wide is your truck across the seat area?
nice unit you have got going there

The roadster pickup cab is 41 3/4" wide inside at front of doors at the top ( which is also at dash) and 47 1/2" wide at top /rear of doors, (which is widest part of cockpit, ) and 42" wide at bottom rear of doors. The bucket seats, which actually touch one and other at the seat area, are 41" across.

your rear measurements will be close to mine but i am still contending with a driveshaft problem as the car is set up real low am planning on a 8 to 10 in lower frame ht with body on top of frame and run a 30 to 32 in tire so i may still have to modify the center seat mounts so they sit right on top of the tranny tunnel . i looked at fibreblass buckets but they arnt very comfortable . have to see what i can find at the local wrecking yard.

My roadster pickup is not channeled, so fortunately I don't have a driveshaft or transmission hump to contend with. I have built channeled T's in the past, and the seats can be a real misery. Unless you want your head stuck up above the windshield, or a really tall goofy looking windshield, you have to get the seats down low in the cockpit. One way is to custom build the frame so that the framerails in the seat area closely follow the outer contour of the body, and fabricate a driveshaft tunnel from heavy ga. sheet metal (not less than #14 gauge) that is only about 5/8" larger in radius than the driveshaft, then tuck the seat down into a recessed pan which drops the floor down between the framerail and the driveshaft tunnel. This still ends up being a compromise, and if you have a big butt like me, you are never going to get too comfortable in a T seat.

of course i got a big butt but it wont be gettin any smaller. i was thinking of a seat like a cavalier or maybe a narrow thin foreign bucket and removing the slides etc so that the entire seat would be as low as possible. i also want the bottom area of the frame to be the actual floor pan so that the seat bottom would start approx 4 in above the floor right on top of the frame rail . this would mean the frame rail would be exposed inside the cockpit . i am a machinery nut and like the idea of exposed parts like the mastercyl being to the left of the frame rail farther back behind the pedal as the body widens to the back with a rod from the front pedal back to the mast cyl . all in the open for all to see, aluminum floor panels and side panels all business no bs but some kind of soft for my tush
waddya think