I'm building a '40 Ford pickup street rod, basically retaining the original style. What I need some help with is figuring out how to mount the seats. I have 60/40 seats out of a 80's Ford Ranger. My thought was to have both seats pivot forward at the front edge of the riser so as to have access to the area under both seats, as the fuse panel, battery, etc. will be mounted there. Have any of you guys done this, and how so? The other thing I am considering is to mount the seats such that they can both be removed fairly easily from the cab. I would appreciate any advice by anyone who has done a sililar type of mount for their seats.

Curt, won't those seats be to wide to fit into your 40. I am building mine now and ended up with buckets from a Toyota. I mounted them on top of the original seat platform. I can slide the seat far enough forward to gain access to the inside of the original platform for storage. If you still want to use the seats from the Ranger, you might have to have them narrowed. Hope this helps.
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Lynn Stallbaumer

Lynn,
You are correct sir, about the Ranger seats being too wide. I did indeed have to slash 3" off the right side of the driver's seat as well as the arm rest. The seats go in there pretty well now. The reason I went with the 60/40 was that I figured that each seat could tilt independently
of each other and be less hassle than a full bench, yet still have the seating area in the middle like a bench. This is pretty important because I want to have room for my grandson to ride between my wife and I when we're croozin. In looking at the other responses I got, I may change my mind on these seats, if I can find a bench that will work. I don't have a problem whacking the donor seat to fit, it's just the the question of mounting it and having the ability to remove or tilt the seat to get at the electrics. Thanks for your input!

Hi Curt, I did the same in my truck. All the electrics are under the seat. There are no switches on the dash at
all. I used the oringial seat base which has holes or notches so you can move the seat where ever you want to.
It had a pivot between the bottom and the back of the seat which I removed and mounted the back in a solid
position. Now I can remove the seat bottom for easy access to the electrics. I also like it because I have storage for tools and cleaning stuff under the seat and in back also..
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Grump

I found the middle seat out of a 96 Ford Aerostar to be 46" wide(should fit with just a little squeeze by each door) to be a great solution. It also is designed with the middle seatbelt fastened to the seat frame itself. Its a nice gray cloth. And......drum roll please.......
It is designed to be easily removable! It connects to 1/2 rod via clamp thingys with a nice little handle to just pop them right out.

All I did was make "U" shaped peices out of 1/2" rod, then to set the height( I just made them to be the proper size height wise) and welded them to 1/4" plate to bolt the the cab cross braces. I gusseted them for strength.
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Damn, I wish I had more time.
35 Ford Pick-Up

I have to make one statement about the bench seat in an aerostar (those little suckers have some weight to them!) I think it's the steel frame that does it. They are nice when they are in place but it's not something I'd want to put in or pull out on a regular basis. Have you considered building a box (hinged on the front edge) to mount on? That way you could still have axcess below and if you wanted to remove the seat you could remove a hinge pin (just a thought).

You've got me goin on this one. It does sound like you've found a solution that can be implemented with not too much hassle. Do you find that the seat is comfortable enough on long hauls? Of course the seat could also be padded more and modified if necessary. One thing I want for sure is an arm rest in the middle, and there again, one could be fabbed up. That's the nature of this hobby, take something that Detroit built and modify it for your ride to get what you want. I'm not sure where the cross braces are that you mentioned, but then if your truck is a '35, it's probably set up differently than a '40. Now I've got to get to the boneyard to see if I can find one of these seats and check out the hardware on it. I really like the idea of the seat belts for the middle being part of the seat. Thanks much for the tip!

Your not kidding about the weight!!!!! It is not a one man job. But it is a SUPER easy install. Wouldve been even easier if I didnt have such a high tranny tunnel that I made for the cab floor. I had to modify the cross bar(it braces the seat frames on each side) to kick up 2" in the center. But someone using a non-modified cab would not. As far as the mounting brackets, I made square "U" shaped peices out of 1/2" steel rod, and set the seat in where I wanted it to belong. Then with 1/4" plate 3 1/2" wide and 30" long, under where the mounts belong, I stuck my "U" shaped peices in. I then gusseted them for strength(I wanted it to stick up a little higher in the rear than the front). Now, I have a peice of plate 30" long to bolt onto the cab floor cross braces.


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Damn, I wish I had more time.
35 Ford Pick-Up

Grumpy-Just wondering if you esentially had the original seats completely rebuilt for comfort. Do you put a lot of trip miles on your truck, and if so how are those seats on a long haul? I don't want buckets at all because as I mentioned to Retired Marine, I need the middle area of the seat to put my grandson in. He's pretty small now, so he'll fit in there for quite a few years yet.