Hot Rods A New England Channeled Roadster

Wow You nailed it, straight out of the little East Coast rod books. here is the early 50's box brownie version.

 

Decided to take a short break from the metal work and build a seat for the roadster. I used 3/4” ply with some T nuts glued into the wood for mounting.

Built a simple bolt in frame to help stiffen the body and mount the seat back to.




Used some T nuts also to mount the seat bottoms to the floor bracing. Then cut out some windows and added webbing to finish them out. All of the wedge for the seat bottom will be shaped in foam.

 

Here’s how I did the seat foam. First I take some measurements and how much lean back I have in the seat of my truck. I drive 90 miles a day just to and from work so I know it’s comfortable in that setting. Make some cardboard templates and trace it onto the 6” thick foam.

I used 53lb foam for the seat bottom and 35lb foam for the back rest. To do it this way you must use good glue, I use Weldwood Landau contact adhesive. Cut out the pieces with a foam saw or band saw and glue together.



Here’s a side shot showing how much support there is under the legs.



This has more wedge to the seat bottom then my daily driver truck but it’s needed because when you sit lower your legs rise up also.

 

Most excellent seat design

 

Nice job on the seat. Where do you buy the webbing?

 

Thank you

 

Thanks, I buy most of my upholstery stuff from Albrights supply

 

I bought this speedometer and Tach from the Hamb classifieds a while ago now because they were clean and a great price. My plan was to open them up and paint the needles white so they would match the other gauges.




Instead of trying to get the chrome bezels off and risk damaging them, I used a pipe cutter down near the back and cut through the body itself. This allowed me to paint the needles and then just used a little bit of epoxy and glued it back together.




It worked out great and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again! With those situated, the dash was laid out and drilled. There’s more to come with it but it was great to see it start to take shape.

 

I was cringing at taking a pipe cutter to vintage gauges, but they turned out great!

I may try that on a vacuum gauge that I have been trying to get apart.

 

It was a bit of a gamble but I figured there was no way I’d get the bezel off and on without distorting it or damaging the chrome.

 

You driving that around yet??

 

scoop that seat base foam, you need a leg bolster to keep you from sliding forward. Doesn't need much, your legs and back will than you.

 

I did add some foam around the horse shoe but it has enough wedge and lean back that you feel pretty planted in the seat as is.
I started by patterning and doing the upholstery on the seat bottoms first.




Once those are bolted in, I then match mark the seat back foam to the base so I know the pattern will line up. This seat back was pretty complicated to sew together, although it’s far from perfect I learned a lot doing it and think it looks really neat.



My gas tank finally came in and have been working on building a structure to mount it. Some more updates soon.

 

give me at least another year!

 

Looks fantastic so far

 

Seat look very well done.

 

Your a quick learner on that upholstery deal! That seat came out very nice!

 

My wife has been on my tail to get rid of my running and driving Caddy so I give it to my buddy and what happens!!!! He pulls the engine and brings it back to my driveway. Boy, wait until my wife comes back from working at the truck stop diner for the past 12 hours and see it. Just joking, looks good so far.

 

Also got my switches installed on the dash with these neat chrome cabinet knobs that are a dead ringer for 49 Ford knobs but only about $5 each

 

Here they are next to each other, original 49 Ford on the left

 

Can you give us info on the cabinet knob?

Looks like a dead ringer for 1949.
Thanks.

 

If you punch in Top Knobs 7/8 chrome on eBay it will come up.

 

That is an amazing find, they look perfect.

 

I had found that original one at a swap meet probably 5 years ago but didn’t know what it was from. After some searching and seeing how much nice ones go for, the hunt for an alternative turned these up. Also they are solid brass so have a nice heavy feel to them and the threaded hole is small probably an 6 or 8, so drilling and tapping to fit the switches is no problem.

 

are the tach and speedo both cable drive?

 

Cool cool stuff here.

 

Yes they are both mechanical

 

I have been working on getting the top irons and bows modified to get the look I’m after. The windshield is a 2” chop and is the max I can go and still fit comfortably. So far I have narrowed the middle and rear wood bows 1 3/4” . The top irons are stretched and modified to lower the center bow 1 1/2”.



The wood header is trimmed and lowered 1/2” over the windshield. I haven’t drilled any holes yet, just moving stuff around and seeing what looks best to me.

 

The top looks good.

 

I like the basic back and top profile. Pending on your seat position you may not like the side of the fabric going clear to the Door opening. I've found it sits me back in a cavern making side vision difficult. Found myself leaning way forward to look to the side. I know the mount bracket is in stock location but if I were doing things for looks I'd remove the mount finger and move it back till I could see past the side skirt while I was fully seated and just turning my head. May not be necessary for you pending on where you actually sit and yes it's a lot more work but not that much in the total scope of where you've already been.