Progress, however slow... but isn't it about the JOURNEY?

Have a seat!
I have made good progress on the installation of the Safari van seat. Since it is a different path than the "Hanlon Conversion", which utilized square tubing to attach the seat to the original slides... I think it will need a different name. But anyway, I trimmed the original seat frame down to a point where it did not interfere with the new seat.

Most of the vertical sheet metal at the rear has been removed. The "seat back" tubing has been removed as well. I left a vertical flange for stiffness.


I trimmed the pipes level with the back trim: passenger side


and driver's side, shown here with a filler


and the passenger side filled


Here's what I have to work with, at the rear of the seat. I removed a few hog's rings to get a look at the framework.


The center stiffener ribs held the seat up off of the frame, so a trim was in order (I did fill and weld this all up... but forgot to take pictures):


I bent up some 14 gauge tabs... (pardon the chunky welds- I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I realized the wind was blowing the shielding gas away as I worked outside)


and


I trimmed the tabs to keep the pipe tight to the seat- I didn't want a space there.

At the rear of the seat, I took advantage of an existing bolt, and used some L angle stock to make attachments (these will be fastened- but the bolt is of course metric):


Here's what I have, drivers side:


And passenger side:


And this is how the front looks, bolted up:


The original corner "skirt pieces" I have are in pretty rough shape. I will need to make new ones, with a flat top piece to cover the mounting studs from the slides, and I may do a skirt which goes all the way to the rear of the seat frame. We'll see.

 

I am on a roll!
Here is what I have come up with for the wheel color scheme: The center of the wheel body color, and the rim black. All black wasn't working for me.

 

Seat looks good to me Mike.

In the all the way to the back position mine hits the cab just below the rear window. The primary reason for me to put the seat in mine was to gain space for my 6'5" 300 pound body. I gained about 1 1/2" of dash to seat back space and reduced the seating surface about 2".

 

A long and winding road, eh Mike? I love the originality you are putting into your truck!
The wheels? We won't know for sure, until they are on your truck.
Meanwhile, I drove mine around today. (And my stock seat felt pretty dang good...)

 

Mike~ Have you done all your wheels this way, or just this one?
I'm wondering what the opposite of your paint scheme would look like.
(Copper on the outside, black in the middle)
You really spent a lot of think/work time on that seat idea. Well done!

 

Thanks Zig!,
Wheels: My plan was to de-emphasize the wheel diameter with the paint scheme (as the sidewall on 20" wheels can look like 'rubber bands'), my goal is to run modern rubber, with a classic look. If I were to paint the rim of the wheel body color, it wouldn't achieve that goal. The black middle would break the color scheme. I have given it a great bit of consideration. Driving down the road, the 'rim' of the wheel will appear to be sidewall- per my plan.

Seat: The seat design plan came together nicely, and once the 'skirts' are done, it will add to the 'look' even more. Understand the entire truck is a vision in my head- it's OK if someone doesn't approve (I am a purist- but if it weren't for my intervention, Penny would have gone to the crusher- she has no provenance, she wasn't the truck I learned to drive in, etc.). I plan to drive the tires off of the truck. When I roll up in front of your house, you can let me know what you think then! Our trucks are a blank Advanced Design canvas- no two will be alike! (if I were a sports fan, I'm sure the Boston Red Sox, or the Boston Bruins, or the Celtics or New England Patriots would be happy to grace my doors). I am my own worst critic- worry not!

 

I can't believe the progress you have made out of nowhere, Mike! I can't imagine how happy you must be long about now~ Soon you should be sitting inside your truck making driving sounds just like I did!

 

Your seat install looks real nice, Mike. Looks like the seat will allow you to sit a little lower than an original seat.
You will have that modern street rod look, sitting low in your seat.
I like it..
Steve.

 

Paint the black part white and have it look like wide whites?
(Yes, I am full of ...help...)

 

I can't wait to see how this turns out!
It looks like you could cut more of the old tubing off at the back? (where it starts to curve up)
Are you covering all that around the bottom with carpet? Metal?

 

FEELING 'BOXED' IN

I have started the Deve's underseat storage drawer project, Building Drawers Under the Seat of an AD era Truck but with a few differences. Thanks Deve!

First task: sketch up the flat sheet for the drawers (no convenient HVAC duct-work shop to knock these out for me).

Second task: cut 2 blanks out of a sheet of 20GA with the nibbler and tin snips.

Third task: bend up the edge hems (for this I bent the hems as far as the break would allow-maybe 120 degrees, and followed up with sliding the bend into the break and "clamping" the hem down with the break), followed by 1st and 3rd sides on the sheet-metal break, then clamp work to table and bend up 2nd and 4th sides since I don't have access to a pan break.
The result:
Welding is next, followed by a splash of Rustoleum White paint. The drawer slides have been riding around with me in my DD pickup, they will have their time soon.

 

Interesting idea~ I can't wait to see how these turn out. Are you putting a padding type of liner in them to keep the stuff in the drawers from rattling/rolling around?

 

Good morning Zig,
There will be some means employed to prevent cargo shift. A Fire Extinguisher will be mounted, with bracket, in one drawer. I have considered DIY spray-bedliner (tinted white), which would help. Check the link I provided to Deve's website.

 

So quit doing whatever you are doing and post some more pictures of your truck, Mike!
Tease, tease, tease, PHOTOS, ...................................

 

Zig,
I WISH I was wrenching on the old girl. My house looks like I am a hoarder. Boxes >everywhere<. We put Elaine's house on the market last Friday- I think it has shown 10 times already. I did manage to squeeze in a little time to buy a new (old) tool last night...

And a(nother) work bench to go with it- with a beautiful WILTON (after Wilton Avenue, Chicago, Ill.) vise on it, and a pair of heavy-duty retractable hose reels too. The drill press ended up needing a motor- and I was able to negotiate a very good price, so I can replace the 1725 rpm motor with an 1140 rpm for slower drilling speeds.

That's all I have to report. Phil is running WAY ahead!

 

Mike, I have a question about your paint.
So, I gather the color you chose is a three stage? Ground coat, color, or tint coat, and then clear coat? Kind of like a candy?
Is that an exotic street rod color, or a OEM, automotive color?

It seems my color choice is active again. So many to choose from...
I've opened it up again to five possibilities. I'll stop by my body shop friends, and see if he will mix up some samples.

Steve.

 

Steve,
Thanks for remembering the old girl! I actually spent Friday working on her.

My paint is 2-stage, with tinted-primer. So maybe that IS three stage. My brother told me the primer will even have metallic in it. And it is an OEM color. Do yourself a favor- if you want to try out some different colors, have the paint store mix you some spray bombs in the color(s) you'd like. Significantly less expensive than buying a pint.

 

Here's a pic of the Safari seat installed in mine. My son and I did the fab work in a couple of weekends. We also did Deve's three point seat belt installation using Toyota pickup belts that I have had in my garage for over five years waiting for the right seat to finally go in. Thanks to Mike (52 Wasp) for securing the Safari seat for me. I had been looking for one for over two years. World of difference in comfort. We used the "Hanlon Conversion" method and it worked out just great. The only thing different we did was to use 1 1/2" X 1" square tubing instead of 1" X 1". We did that because in Hanlon's original post he said that the install left the new seat about 1" lower than stock. The new seat is a a very good height although I think just a tad higher than original now but not distracting at all. Given my messed up left shoulder, it is a a perfect height to rest my arm on the door when the window is open as any lower would cause a lot of discomfort by having to raise my arm up higher. Loving it and can't thank Mike enough for getting that seat (a story in and of itself).

Andy

 

Hey Mike,

The link to Deve's under seat storage solution is broken.

Andy

 

Andy,
It was nice to meet you, and you didn't waste much time getting the seat installed! I tried the Deve's link, it's broken for me too. I went directly to his site, not using the link- the site appears to be down.