I'm picking up a 33 Chevy Truck, it's already been worked on, and in good driving condition. Boxed frame, 350/350, 8.8 rear end, chopped about 6" on the top and about a foot shortened on the bed. I have some things I already know that I'd like like to eventually do to it like putting in a manual transmission and other things, but in the first 1/2 year or so I'd just like to drive it around and get a feel for it before I start changing things up. I think I owe the truck that much, since it's a solid runner. The one thing I need to change sooner rather than later, is the seat. It's a bench seat and me being 6' tall, I have to hunch over to see down the road. There looks to be a good 4-6" of room that I can lower the seat, which should solve the hunching over. And I'll probably take the seat back and make it about 1/2 as thick as it is, so that I can be a bit more comfortable and sit back a bit. Before I start doing things to the seat, I'm curious what folks do for seating on chopped vehicles? I know 6" chop is probably nothing for a lot of extremely chopped vehicles, and seating must always be an issue. What do tall guys do for seating in shortened hot rods? I'm not really a hotrod guy, I've been in jeeps for a while now, oldest being a 46. So I'm new to 30's vehicles.
try back seats out of newer jeeps . unsure of years been talked about before. i used a futon for mine but back is to thick.
Personally, maybe modifying your seat or a bus seat may be the best option.Building your own is a possible alternative.
I don't think the seat that is in there is anything special, so I'll probably just modify that for the short term. Long term, I bet cutting the body in the middle of the doors and lengthening it 1/2 a foot would probably be perfect! Might be more work than I'm wanting to do though, I've not done a whole lot of sheet metal work.
I'm 6' 4: tall and my old Deuce pickup wasn't chopped but with the original gas tank in the original under the seat position and the seat padding being pretty thick head room was a problem for me. I remover the gas tank and tossed the seat, I then fabricated a structure to support the seat that was made from plywood and foam, this gave me about 10 extra inches of head room. I also made the back of the seat very thin and used more padding in the lumbar area,HRP It was a snug fit but I got every inch I could when designing the seat. HRP
In my sons ‘38, not chopped but 6’4” driver, we originally used a modified Dodge Caravan seat. After a few years we had it re-padded with recesses in the seating areas to gain more room and so he could sit lower.
Back of the seat bottom down, front up. Having your knees up and supported will do a lot for the little room that your going to have.
I chopped a '34 pickup for a guy in '60. He got drafted, and asked if I'd buy the truck for $100. Sure, so I dropped my '46 sedan flattie in it, with the column shift trans, and a '40 steering column. Truck was straight, had some rust starting, but ran well, so I could use it. I had just experienced a summer growth in height (18 yrs old) so the 5" chop was noticeable! (while driving!) I just 'hunched' a little, my bud Teddy DeMello said, "Why don't ya chop the seat down?" I said, "Naw, it looks more 'chopped' this way." Real 'hot rod'. (grin)
Don't kid yourself, 6 inches is a hard chop, anyone with that hard of a chop has to deal with what you're dealing with now. Dropping the seat down is a requirement. In my 30 Ford pickup, it's been chopped about 3.5". I just recently finished up a project of redoing the seating in it. If money is no concern there are a ton of seats available to get your butt down lower and gain some headroom so you aren't hunched over. But if you want to watch the budget your choices are limited. After a lot, and I do mean "a lot" of research, I finally found some fork lift seats at Northern Equipment for less than $1oo ea, including slides. I installed those onto some universal seat bases from Speedway, that I cut down, I think 3" out of the back legs and 2" out of the front legs, to get a little bit of a backwards angle in the seating position. And I've very happy with how it turned out. For the money I think it turned out tits. I don't have any pics yet of the finished install, I'll have to get some. But check out those fork lift seats at Northern.
Thanks for all the replies! I drove the truck home tonight, about 30 miles or so. I definitely do need to lower the seat a few inches, but it's not quite as bad as I originally though. The only bad part is when I can't see traffic lights when at a stop. At night I can see the lights in the reflection of the radiator shell, but during the day I have to hunch over to see the light. I think lowering the seat a few inches, and thinning the back of the seat a bit will do the trick, at least for the time being. Thanks again for all the replies I'm sure I'm going to have more questions about this truck soon, haha!
Second 46Caddy above. I don't have advice beyond that, I've got the same problem in my '35 Ford! Plenty of head room, but the top of the damn windshield is just so low. It really keeps me from seeing "down the road" like I prefer. I hadn't thought about it until coming across this thread, but I might just cut the bottom seat frame down a bit in the rear for a more bucket seat feel. I personally prefer the original coil spring style seat than the later 60's S-curve springs, so I had my original seat recovered. It's comfortable as anything I've ever put my backside on, but definitely a bit high. I'm curious to hear what you do when you decide to do it!
I have a chopped and channel sedan and going to use bucket seats out of a 1957 TR3. I have found out that you can buy aftermarket seat frames, pads, and upholstery through a aftermarket English supplier. I have an old set they fit well but the sport car guy's say they can be uncomfortable after awhile.
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