I need to resolve a leg room issue

flinstone floorpans?

 

Eat a couple of bananas. The potassium will help with those leg cramps.

 

I've had my '32 Plymouth coupe for 51 years. I'm 6'-2" and have always had to stuff myself in the seat. Putting cushions on the bench part to raise my butt up helps some, but I find that getting out and walking every hour or so is necessary. I'm currently building a '32 roadster and I plan to use the thinnest back cushions possible (bomber seat?) and mount the seats as high as I can to still be able to look through the windshield. I'm limited on how far back I can go by structural wood that I want to preserve.

These vehicles were just small by our standards.

 

Agree with raise seat up and thin out the back. Did exactly this on my old 37 Chevy truck. Had the stock seat back that I modified the upper springs at the top to make it so my shoulders were closer to the back of cab. This also gave more lean for comfort. On seat bottom I raised the front of the seat up so it was supporting my whole legs and not my butt only. These mods made it a very comfortable to drive, and it was my daily driver for a couple years until i sold it.

You need to use the cab height and have your legs more down and less out. You have ability to change that brake pedal position to be better as well.

 

I'm 6'2" and well built , I have the standard seat and pedals in my AD, an aquaintance of mine (who is smaller than me) gave me the following tips( and his truck is super comfortable with thick leather covered electric armchairs out of an Explorer???
1 use top hung pedals ( they are really more comfortable)
2 Relocate gas tank from cab,
3 Use a spoon throttle pedal
4 the really sneaky one, was to modify the floor in the cowl area, so the angled bit,was 1.5 inches further forward and the footwell area deepened by a similar amount.Ok a lot of work and unless you knew about it very difficult to spot as modified.

I have not driven this truck but i have sat in it at an indoor show on two different occations with the battery disconnected and the seat about half way on the front back adjuster there was a noticable difference in leg room from standard.

 

I had the same problem in the tight confines of the cab of my 35 Ford PU. I scrapped my 1st set of seat brackets I had made, and made version 2 even more simple. For my own simple brackets I used some angle iron and raised it up about 2 inches to gain some leg room. To determine how high to raise it, I just kept adding 2X4 blocks and sitting inside till it felt better.

Then I had my wife take a picture of me sitting in it so I would be sure I didn't look silly crunched up in the top of my cab (we've all seen the Model T roadsters where they raise the seat so much, it looks like a monkey sitting on top of a football). Don't skip this step or you could end up looking like a clown....... albeit a comfy clown.

Here is the post so you have an Idea.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231909

 

FWIW, most of the older pickup cabs, we taller guys already have our heads against the roof/rear window. There ain't no place left to go.

jack vines

 

Tonight, I welded, cut, adjusted and move the seat brakets... I moved the seat 5 inches back... But now I sit up, straight up.... Really comfortable, but I got leg room. The further I slide the seat back the brackets move down and in, so I am gonna try mounting a 2x4 under the back bracket.

Then I will set the passenger seat even, so it doesn't look goofywhen looking in the back window...

 

If it helps, I'm only 5'9" and the primary reason I sold the 35 was the small cab space. You should've seen three grown adults squeeze into it, almost comical. Three are a squeeze in my 49 now, but 4 fit just fine in my Model A Sedan WITH leg room.

 

I have the same problem with my '41 chev pickup. I raised the seat about an inch and a half and it helped a lot, the seat back is also against the back of the cab.

 

You could take the pedals and steering wheel out and use an xbox controller? Someone will eventually (maybe already have).

 

I can't tell you how many times I have seen tall guys build model A's or 32-34 ford pickups say "It looks cool but Is no fun to drive". I am only 5.7 So I can be comfortable in a pickup cab, But you tall guys need to plan ahead. You want a thin back and thick bottom on your seat to sit you up higher and futher back in the cab. Kinda gives you the feeling of driving a chopped rod when you sit higher, But allows your legs to stretch out more. Also in extreme cases removing the toe boards and using swing pedals helps as well. I see some guys extend the cabs,(which I am not a fan of at all) before I done that I would remove toe boards, sit my motor as far forward as I could and run electric pusher fans on the front side of the radiator. Hell if I was running a hood I may even push my firewall out into the engine compartment as much as possible. plenty of ways to skin a cat...LOL

 

I do wanna say thanks for the responses, some great idea's and pics. So after reading and using some ideas from everyone....

The seat reposition is complete. Sitting slightly erect, but still comfortable, I freed up a few inches....

Peddle still in place, I went from slightly less then 37 inches, to 39 1/2 not quite 40, which is significant....

I am thinkin, Speedway sells a problem solver spoon gas peddle, I should be able to get another 2 perhaps 3 inches at the floor.

Then its on to the brake peddle..... my options are, to

1-disassemble and heat the brake peddle shaft, bending it back2 inches? or

2-cutting and welding on a peddle moving it closer to the gas peddle? or

3- cutting the rod down from the peddle to the M/C.... or leave the rod, and make a new shorter rod, which is probably what I will do incase it doesn't work.

What have you guys done? and how much room is under the peddle when the peddle is pressed?

 

As long as the master cylinder sees full travel before the pedal bottoms out on the floor/mat/carpet/whatever, then you are good to go. Any higher is up to your preference.

 

check your speedway catalog, they have mc rods that might solve that problem too

 

Thanks

That is awesome... You just made my day.... LoL its the simple things. I was thinkin titanium? threaded? Thigs that make you go Hmmmm...
I love speedway to.

 

Think about the modern seat design. The front of the seat squab is higher than the rear by a bit and then the seat back is wider at the base than at the top.

From what I read, this is to allow the driver to sit at about 100 to 110 degrees angle (think capital L but leaned back a bit) - shoulders should be further back than your hips as its more comfortable.

Now knowing those numbers, it shouldnt be to hard to make a seat that still looks "age appropriate" to the vehicle, but is still is still "age appropriate" for us old larger guys to sit in for a while.

OT for a moment, I climbed into a GT 40 replica today with its Gurney bubble and the guy couldnt close the door, so I too suffer from being too big to fit into small spaces.

 

I'm glad I saw this! Do NOT buy the problem solver gas pedal. It's epicly shoddy, even feels janky in your hands and to top it off the 'throw' of the pedal is like an inch! If I floor it it doesn't open the carb even half way.

I'd go with one of the spoon pedals that alows you index the pedal/lever so you can get full range. I'm just waiting till I have some down time to replace mine. Wish I'd seen all the bad reviews before I bought mine :/ even look on there website and the reviews are all bad

 

Thanks for the info on the space saver spoon

 

They have ones similarly priced like I described that should be much better. I'm actually considering driving down there to hold one before I buy one this time around


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You're going to have trouble getting the seat back farther with highback buckets. The higher the back, the more the seatback angle will restrict as it hits the cab. If you went with lowbacks, or a bench you'd be able to get the seat back farther.
I'd also suggest you go to a newer bucket with headrests, as the newer buckets allow the backrest to adjust angles, so you can "tune" the position to get the seats back farther. If you stay with the Nova buckets, you'll have to raise the rear mounting point to enable the seats to go back farther.

 

As Far as your brake pedal goes, there are a couple of way to do this. The first thing I would do is to have someone sit in the seat and step on the brake pedal while I looked up at the rod going into the master cylinder. Is there any extra straight rod hanging out on the inside? Or, is the adjuster right up against the boot? If the first answer is yes, pull the rod our and cut/grind a bit off the end. Remember, because of the geometry involved just a bit will do ya, I'd start with about a quarter inch. Bet that helps.

Still not enough? just after the pushrod pivot, does your brake pedal make a forward sweep? Right where it does, make a cut about 7/8 of the way across the depth of the pedal. Grind a small amount out to create a "V" shape, say an eight of an inch or so, push together, tack weld, reinstall and try it. Better? Still have room for more? Open up the tack, grind a hair more out and repeat. All good now right? Good! Your not done yet! Pull it back out, grind your cut lines edges into a deep "V" shape and weld the living hell out of it! This is a brake pedal... Penetration counts!

Feels good now, but the pedal pad is at a weird angle? repeat the process just above the pedal pad to bring it into alignment again.

Now two things should have been accomplished by the above. 1. Your pedal should be much more tailored to the truck and where it belongs instead of where it should have been in the donor car. Plus, since you didn't cut all the way through the pedal it stayed in alignment and retains it's metal's grain to some extent making almost impossible to break, depending on your welding skills of course.

2. Your probably damn good at taking that damn pedal in and out of your truck by now! Matter of fact, you could probably do it while blindfolded and standing on your head - which is pretty much how you have been doing it anyway! Probably have one hell of a neck and back ache as well... Now would be a good time to coerce the missus into a back rub that could lead to even better things from this day...

Oh, for a throttle pedal, look at small and medium sized Gm and Ford cars from the seventies and early eighties for some good adaptable stuff that can be made to look right. My roadster pickup has the pedal out of a Ford pinto with the plastic pedal thrown out and a spoon made from a steel freeze plug welded on. Looks right at home in a Model "A"...

 

Those trucks were made with risers under the seat. You put a bucket seat low to the floor and you change the comfort level of the driver. If you have the head room,put a riser under those seats and you will see the difference. Had the same problem with my 40 Ford p/u. good luck

 

My chopped and channeled 32 ford pickup was too tight so after driving it that way for a couple years, I cut the frigin thing in two , extended the cab and frame 12 inches.Then it was comfortable on long trips.

 

Read the article in Street Rodder magazine from a few years ago about the guy that drove 49 states in 9 days in a '32 roadster. He did conditioning exercises to get his bod in shape for the drive. I drive a slightly channeled '36 Ford pickup and it's hard on me early in the driving season, too. After a 1000 miles or so it seems to get better.

Blue