Seat in a chopped car

So I chopped my roof, Now I've got this seat issue. I want to use my stock seat, has anyone got any suggestions as to the best way to whittle this down. The car is a '56 Olds. I would like to take 5" out of the base of the seat. I was thinking of cutting the brackets in the bottom and pushing them up and rewelding them... any suggestions?

 

Chopping the seat brackets will help IF the seat brackets have enough vertical height to make it worth while. You may end up with the tranny tunnel hitting the seat if it is a bench seat.

The other option is getting the seat reupholstered using seat springs that are less thick or by modifying the existing spring height. You might have to combine this with modifying the seat brackets.

Another option is swapping out seats with something less tall, but nearly everything newish has high backs nowadays, this doesn't typically look right in older traditional cars.

 

There should be at least 5" in the brackets. Remove the hog rings, cloth and cushion material to get down to the framework and springs so you can see what's goin' on with the seat in place. No big deal if you have to radius the framework for the tunnel. Might be a little rougher ride in the bitch position, but hey, if she can't tough it out, find one who will.

 

I just did one for my boss' truck. What I did was set the seat up with the most headroom and leg room for comfort, and tried to keep from cutting the bench into buckets. I got rid of the stock mounts and used angle iron for the actual floor mounts. This gave it about 6". I had to trim the front and back for the tunnel. I left enough room between the cushion and the tunnel so that someone light wouldn't be sitting on the tunnel( like one of his kids). This is a stationary seat though, but the same theory should work for you. I don't have pics, but can get some tomorrow if it would help. As FND said, it is much easier to work on with all of the upholstery removed!

 

When my 55 got chopped we went with 67 pontiac low back bucket seats. They work very well. Good luck finding a set these days.