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Hello Everyone,
I am looking for pictures of the front seat and the way that it is put together so I can figure out away to make room to fit my large frame body in front of the steering wheel so I can drive my car. If you have pictures of the padding and the upholstering to give me ideas for making more room it would be appreciated if you can post pictures or make suggestions.
Thank you,
Ken
Is it a limousine? Often the drivers’ seats are not adjustable, or else have limited adjustment because of the bulkhead behind the seat.
Otherwise on a sedan it may simply be a matter of bolting the seat further rearward, and you might have to improvise a tad.
Just some general ideas based on my experiences until you get more specific replies.
Randy,
Thank you for the reply. It is an 80 Series Sedan. I have been told that the
seat is not adjustable. I am willing to try just about anything to be able to
drive it. The seat has been reupholstered.
Below is the a link to a Youtube Video.
This will show the way the car is set up inside and the upholstery.
Thank you,
Ken
The trimmer did a nice job of giving you plenty of padding to make a nice, comfortable seat. Unfortunately, with barely enough room to start with, this nice job takes room away for you to enjoy driving the car.
When I first reupholstered my ’31 phaeton, I added a little extra padding to the front seat. I had to go back and take the padding out, and am almost at the point that I want to take the backrest springs out and just have a thin layer of horsehair/cotton as a backrest.
Your only option will probably end up taking the upholstery off the backrest on the front seat, and reworking the padding and/or springs so you fit. It may not look quite as nice, but it’s better to be able to drive it than just have a 4500 pound paperweight.
Good luck….
Ken,
You should consider getting in touch with PAS Members, Wayne or Marc Hancock, who are Series 80 Gents and who beautifully restored their Series 80 Runabout that won the Weis Award a few years back.
That backrest arrangement is attached differently than is the arrangement in the Sedan, but they can tell you firsthand about having shorter springs installed in the backrest and retaining sufficient comfort and an original look.
I understand your hesitance at digging in to your front seat backrest, but it sounds necessary.
I will do mine when the reproduction – original style upholstery material arrives from SMS, but yours seems to be a stock material that the auto upholstery guys could save while replacing the springs and reducing the thickness of the padding.
I bet that you could easily get another three to four inches of room and still have a comfortable Series 80 that you could actually drive. Maybe even in comfort.
Tall guys have problems that shorter people never consider (bumping heads, standing out in crowds, entering, exiting and driving Series 80 motorcars, etc.). HA!
Peter
Ken, that is a beautiful Car. The Series 80 cars are growing on me, and the dark blue is one of my favorites.
As for the seat, I assume the back is attached to the side pillars and the seat bolts to the floor as well. In general, modification to move it to the rear should be somehow possible. I know these guys can help!
Thank you everyone for the information. I am hoping to that by taking some
of the padding out it will help me fit into the car. Does anyone have a picture
of a Sedan Deluxe with the Upholstery off so I can see what it looks like?
Thanks,
Ken
Randy,
I believe that the front seat backrest on a Series 80 Sedan is also bolted to the “B” column, so moving it rearward is not just a matter of unbolting the seat bottom frame from the floor and sliding the entire unit back.
If it were that simple, people would have written about that ability months ago when this message thread began.
In my Series 80 7-Passenger DeLuxe, the back of the front seat almost touches the stowed jump seats.
Ken does not have that limitation, but his 5-Passenger has a shorter body than that on the 7-Passenger car.
Peter
I believe the solution is not in the movement of the seat, but rather an upholstery/trimmer redesign of the seat.
My ’31 Pierce has an adjustment for the driver cushion, but it’s meaningless in the context of the general body contours of our time, and specifically in the case of my body contour, although I’m on a diet.
I would urge anyone restoring an early car to develop a good relationship with the trimmer involved, and discuss upholstery needs. I do this as a hobby, trimming (early tops and interiors), and can tell you from experience that it’s one of the last things done and thought about in a restoration.
Just a little dialogue with your trimmer, and a little discussion about seating and such, can go a long way…….
Not only could the fastening points of the seat be modified; the steering column could be shortened, if that would help. It might even be less work than moving the seat.
Randy,
The problem for Tall Gents is not the steering wheel placement, per se, but the distance to the pedals.
If one is over 6-feet tall, one needs to pull one’s knees up to one’s chin to place one’s size 12s on the brake and clutch pedal.
While touring, I often use the throttle adjustment on the steering wheel as my accelerator.
For many of we Series 80 Gents, moving the seat assembly is not possible, but thinning the depth of the seat backrest is a viable option.
Shortening one’s legs is out of the question unless one goes Full Bionic.
Peter
I understand, being 6’2″ myself. The ’29 Chevrolet I used to have was very tight. Hence “used to have”.
people were shorter/smaller then, or else they just lived with the inconvenience I suppose.
We installed a battery shut-off switch in our ’36 sedan.
Rather than drill a hole for the switch through the front seat base, we added a 1″ thick by 1.5″ wide piece of wood on top of the front of the base and drilled the hole for the switch through that.
The additional 1″ height at the front causes the seat cushion to tilt back at a slightly increased angle which has, as a bonus, added noticeable legroom for me on the driver’s side (I’m 6’3″).
The ’36 also has the adjustable steering wheel for a double bonus.
Adding to what Stuart said, on our ’28 Series 36, I had an upholstery shop firm up the lower cushions. I am not sure exactly what they did, although new, firmer springs were discussed beforehand. It gives me about 3″ more sitting height which made a big difference in leg room. (I’m 6’4″”).
Dave”
Gents,
Tomorrow, I am going to put a 1-inch thick board under the front edge of the base of the seat bottom of my Series 80 to test out Stuart’s concept.
I will report on the experiment.
It would be a wonderfully simple solution.
Also, David White,
When you write that you got your guy to FIRM UP the lower cushion, was there a difference in the height of the seat cushion (shorter) when it returned from the shop?
Did he replace the springs with shorter, firmer springs, or bind your springs into a shorter stance?
Peter
Peter,
I will be waiting with open ears to hear what effect it has on leg room.
I hope it works. That would be an easy fix.
Ken
Peter,
The uncompressed seat cushion height is the same. The seat compressed down 5 inches or more when I sat on it. It now compresses no more than 2″. As a temporary test to see if decreasing the compressed height would help, I opened the bottom of the seat cushion and put a couple of 2″x6″ boards between the spring frame and the wood frame of the seat cushion. The 1 1/2″ pre-compression made a enough of an improvement that I went and talked to the upholstery shop. While I had the cushion open I noticed that the springs were quite rusty.
The first suggestion the upholstery guy made was to put the covers on a firm block of foam which I quickly vetoed. We discussed new, firmer springs and longer springs that would be partially compressed as well as putting blocking between the coils of the existing springs. The guy that did the work was not there when I picked the cushions up so I don’t know exactly what he did. The result was very good and changes the angle of my legs and makes it easier to operate the pedals.
Dave
Good evening Series 80 Gents,
Well, what an interesting experiment!
I went to my Series 80 today with four 1X2X6-inch pieces of pine.
First I sat in the front seat to reference how easily I could lift my left and right foot to reach the pedals.
Then I inserted one (1) 1X2X6 between the seat cushion frame and the base, one on the driver’s side and one on the passenger side (balance).
There was an interesting difference; a seemingly improved ability to lift my legs to move them on to the brake and clutch pedals.
I then repeated the process using two (2) 1X2X6 pieces stacked one on the other.
This also provided an interesting and seemingly improved ability to lift my foot off of the gas pedal and move it to the brake, likewise to lift my foot from the floor and reach the clutch pedal.
Note that the distance between my knee and the steering wheel diminished slightly with each lift, but that was not a problem as my knees sit on the outer edge of the wheel.
This whole process caused the seat bottom to not “seat” properly to the rear, but I whacked it a few times and it moved rearward, even if it did not lock into place because of the increased gap between the seat platform frame and the seat frame.
I think it is worth further investigating.
Soon, I will buy two (2) 1X2X48-inch pieces of wood and see how it works when driving.
Of course, I will attach the wood to the platform frame and add a restraining piece on the front of the frame so that the seat bottom does not shift while driving.
WOW, what an interesting concept, but enacting it will require creating a angled piece of wood to fit along the driver side and passenger outboard edge of the frame to fill the large angled gap that this intervention produces.
Again, interesting.
If it proves effective we all need to buy Stewart Blair a Scotch or two.
Peter
As an engineer, and a trimmer, this is embarrassing. I always looked at the problem as a horizontal issue, thus the backrest was the issue. Never thought that the solution might be a vertical one, raise the seat (or, more hidden, make the seat cushion much more firm) to cure the leg length versus space issue.
Interesting!
Peter,
That is a lot of great information. I am wondering what the measurement is
from the floor to the top of your cushion with out the 1X2’s? How far are the
pedals from your seat?
I know I am still going to have to loose weight to get my legs in. I am
motivated.
Thanks,
Ken