Thread: roadster legroom

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There are other threads on steering-seat distance and how to adapt a seat from another source but here I want to discuss with other roadster builders the topic of roadster entry/exit. Sadly I have wanted a Model-A roadster for a long long time but only had a very few rides in one, always admiring rod magazine articles on roadsters. Today my neighbor, Dick Ivey, just four houses down the street took me over to an owner (Ted Glenn) of an original '29 Ford roadster to test the seat. Dick is a local luminary of the Model-A club and has won awards for best in class at Hershey with both a Model-A sport coupe and also with a 1953 Ford convertible and routinely repairs restored Model-As. He claimed that the Model-A rodster has less leg room than any other model and his sport coupe has a sort of package shelf behind the seat. Well anyway I am only 5'10" and average size but I had to twist my leg to get into that roadster. Once I was in there seemed to be enough room to wiggle my feet around the pedals but entry/exit called for a knee twisting motion with a duck down under the standard height top (not chopped). Sooo, can you roadster owners comment on your way around this problem? I note the seat was a restored stock seat with the usual fat part at the back of the seat with no package shelf. I assume if I fabricate my own seat I could use a minivan middle seat that could maybe be pushed back a bit under the back collar edge of the cockpit to gain maybe 2 or 3 inches of added leg room but the entry with my intended 2" chop now looks like something my wife will surely complain about and may even be tricky for me, although I have put up with a number of inconveniences in the past (no doors at all on a VW Sand Rover Dune buggy and tiny doors on a MG midget) but how can I make the best of the small doors on a '29 A roadster (including a firewall indent for the V8)?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Sorry Don, but there's just not much room in a roadster. To gain some room and make entry easier, you can stretch the body and or put suicide hinges on the door. A race car type removable steering wheel helps a lot, too. My '28 that I sold last fall had the normal things you mention, plus a 6 point cage to contend with. But you know what? Once you wiggled your way in, pulled the belts tight, and started grabbing gears it didn't really seem to matter.!!!!!!!!

Thanks Dave, I guess there is no way around it except maybe to use thin bucket seats. The funny thing is that the MG Midget doors were very small and the cockpit tight but in the unibody of the Midget the legroom went pretty far up along each side of the engine so you could stretch out once in the seat. Maybe if I use fiberglass bucket seats with only thin naugehyde coverings I can gain several inches further back and hence leg room. Well, I have to tell myself it would be worse with a '27 if that is any consolation. Anybody else have another solution other than thin bucket seats?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don----you haven't bought your body yet. I am pretty sure that there are people building fiberglass A roadsters with a longer than stock door. They make up for the longer door by shortening the area immediately behind th door jamb by an ammount equal to the door stretch so that everything fits on an unmodified A chassis. The only penalty you pay is that you then need a non stock convertible top and bows to fit it.

Thanks Brian, I am aware of several '32 roadster bodies with stretched doors but not any '29s. I will look around and see if I can find something like that and inquire of Bebobs if their doors are stock size or can be ordered stretched. Thanks.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder