40 chevy truck, neighbor hood find

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got the steering column mounted. had a column out of a 70 chevy truck. I shortened it about 6" then another 4. made an upper mount from an old con rod,and used the clamp that was at the bottom of the column to make a floor mount.
 

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in this pic you can see the piece of angle iron I welded across behind the dash to support the column. there is support built in above the mount. so it is rock solid.I will also use that bar to build off of to support some pedals.
 

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my Rube Goldberg steering linkage

got the column connected to the rack.this set up is probably temporary,as are these headers. at some time I am going to attempt to build some headers that go out and over the frame.then I will be able to run the shaft in a better position thru the header. for now it works surprisingly smooth and easy to turn lock to lock even with the small wheel I have on it.
 

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trying to figure out some seats. I want to have the steering wheel and seat position before I do the clutch and brake pedals. I have 3 sets of seats but none of them really work. the problem is these trucks dont have a lot of room in them, most seats are too thick in the back part. so I went looking for ideas. came across some nice bomber type bench seats.like this one. I am going to make one some thing like it out of wood and steel tubing. mocked up a seat to get a feel and some measurements .
 

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I feel your pain trying to gain some cab room over what "stock" seats offer. The pic below is a 48 chevy truck bench seat that I modified. I tossed the springs and made steel seat pans that were covered with foam. The curved shape works a lot better than a angled, flat seat back. The deepest curve lets your shoulders get as close to the back of the cab as possible. The flat section below the curve creates a pocket for your butt cheeks to fit. When you sit in it, you are comfortably reclined.

I gained probably 8" of cab space with this seat modification.

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My dad trying it out the first time.
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thats a cool modification . I came across a pic of your seat when I was serchin. them AD trucks have a lot of space compared to mine. that is partly why there called AD, bigger cabs.
 
thats a cool modification . I came across a pic of your seat when I was serchin. them AD trucks have a lot of space compared to mine. that is partly why there called AD, bigger cabs.

I'm building a similar seat for my 41 Dodge (smaller cab truck). The seat will sit a little higher so that my knees are bent more in the Dodge, but the really thin, comfy seat back will be used.

Also, the value of a "butt pocket" cannot be overstated. It really helps with leg room and comfort.
 
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seat fab. bomber bench

went off into my wood shop and built the seat frame. then I pulled some slides from an old seat I had and then built a frame .I was going to bolt the two frames together but decided to hinge the seat to access the area under and behind the seat. I will probably mount the fuse block, MSD box etc. under seat.
 

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Nice seat.
I just used a stock 3rd row seat from a Suburban mounted on 4" risers in my 39 Ford PU. Gained enough room to make it work with my 6'3" frame. Very little work involved and only about $50.
 
thanks guy's . yea the suburban seats fit good. I found some nice ones for around $50. just couldn't get past that it looked like a seat from a suburban and would end up spending more to fix it than to build build one to fit.right now I have less than $10 in it. I want to re do the interior of our 39 sedan too. my wife and I are talking about buying a sewing machine and doing some of it ourselves.
 

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