HOW TO BUILD A CHEVY TRUCK BENCH SEAT FROM JUNK ! (2023)

Introduction

Using the stock '51 Chevy seat frame, a '38 Ford coupe seat bottom, a '64 Chevy truck seat back and some wire and coat hangers, a sweet bench seat is built!

Content

Foreign, hey guys, how's it going um Monday morning and uh sunny out, as you can see, coming through the windows behind me, um yeah, making good progress on this uh on this truck uh.

Today, I'm gonna concentrate on cleaning up the seat frame and those Springs and see if I can make those Springs fit better um and then maybe sort out a uh, a back for the seat and once I have all that figured out.

Well, I can call the upholstery person and have uh.

Have them come out here and take a look at this thing and see what uh, what kind of magic they could do with it and uh.

You know: I'm gonna have to get door cards made up and stuff like that, as well.

So I just like to get uh get a head start on the interior and see what we can uh get get going on um other than that.

You know it's uh a lot of sanding and stuff like that to do and uh once I get this interior sorted out.

The next big thing, I guess, will be exhaust, so uh yeah.

We've got plenty to do so: let's get after it, man, okay, well, I'm gonna mask up, because this is going to be nasty foreign good thing, I had a shower this morning.

I'm gonna need another one after this Jesus foreign I'm thinking that uh vacuum cleaner might be in order Take, It, Outside and blow it out foreign yeah, that is nasty foreign foreign, foreign, foreign, foreign, foreign, foreign, okay.

Well, as you can see, I think this is going to take a while, but uh I'm gonna carry on getting this thing.

Cleaned up and uh show you what it looks like when I uh when I'm done.

Okay before I finish this up, I just wanted to show this real quick.

You know each each coil is pretty much individually wrapped with uh this burlap um.

That's a lot of freaking work man.

How long did it take to make a seat? That's crazy, and how long is it going to take for me to cut it all out of there anyway, I'm gonna carry on get it out and uh get her cleaned up all right, uh I'm, not gonna lie to you.

I! Actually gave up on this yesterday for a while and got back to it this morning, it's now a Tuesday morning, but uh.

It's all cleaned up, um man, what a pain in the ass but I mean look at the condition of these Springs.

Most of them are shiny, so uh yeah, it's in pretty good shape.

I think I'm gonna have to close it in a little bit here, not a whole lot, though, because you have the seat back coming down here on this heck.

So it's just a small kind of a triangle sort of deal so uh yeah, I'll figure that out and see what I I can do there but uh hard to believe that you know it was that much stuff from one little seat, Jesus unbelievable.

It was you know, I think they did it in Rose and wrapped him up and burlap and sewed them all together and put a whole Rose in I, don't know but uh what a pain in the butt to get him out.

But anyway, it's cleaned up now and uh probably give it a shot at tremclad just to uh.

Keep it in good shape and clean looking and uh we'll go from there.

Okay, so I dug out the back of the seat that came with the truck when I got it.

Um, like I, said I believe it's a later model Chevy, maybe you know 63 64 or something like that, and it's about five inches too wide, so peel off the upholstery and see if I can uh narrow it up a little bit so once I get it uncovered.

I'll have a better idea.

Okay, so I measured the frame- and this is six and a half inches too wide.

So I've marked it all with some tape, I'm gonna cut it out and uh.

You know the the frame itself is easy part.

It's getting all this and hair back together.

After so uh yeah I'm gonna go ahead and start hacking away at it.

We'll see uh we'll see how it goes if I end up messing this thing up, I do have another one um, but I'm hoping to get it right.

The first time so we'll see what happens.

Okay, so I've cut right through you know here and here as well as here and here I'm, not going to just start hacking away at Springs here what I'm thinking is I'm just going to remove one row, you know all the way up and when I go to put the two together this one and this one may overlap just a little bit, but it's better than having too much of a space in between so I'll know more once I cut this out and these little Springs down here they just hook on so we'll detach them and see where it brings us.

So uh yeah I'll keep hacking away at this and uh once we get it almost sort of put back together.

I'll show you where we're at okay, so we definitely have two halves.

Uh cleaned up the ends a little bit so I can weld them bevel them um big trick here is going to be to keep them straight.

So there's the uh there's a one layer row of Springs I took out two pieces of the original frame.

I cut these two pieces of pipe through the exact same diameter as the inside of the seat, so uh I'll tap them in halfway and uh.

You know the other half over there will slide onto onto the pin, and that should help keep it straight.

So uh yeah I'll, set up the camera.

Then we'll put this thing together and I'll.

Show you what it looks like all right.

So uh I've already tapped this one in there, foreign foreign foreign, all right.

So there we go uh cleaned up welded and it stayed straight as an arrow.

It's uh! It's perfect! It's right on So, You Know, no worries there.

Uh the only thing I do have to do is cut these off both of them.

This seat used to fold forward uh the one we're doing is a fixed seat, so it doesn't fold forward.

So these are just in the way, so I'll cut them off and round it out nice and clean it up, but before I clean up the whole frame, I'm going to test, fit everything together in the seat frame and see what I got to do for the bottom.

Cushion and uh yeah we'll go from there, so uh moving right along we'll get this thing done today.

Okay, so there we go.

We now have a seat.

So remember I said it was tapered here in well.

I did this to widen it up.

Basically, it's uh.

It's coat hangers.

So you know these kind of with these bends in here act like Springs and it's all tied together.

It's solid I mean I.

Can you know I can pick up the whole seat from those uh from those wires.

So I'm not worried about that uh yeah everything seems to be solid.

I kind of wove wove, these uh Kona hangers into the some of the existing uh hog rings and stuff like that, so it's all tied in together and uh yeah there's a room here for padding and upholstery and uh.

You know it fits pretty good at the top as well so uh yeah I'm pleased quite pleased, so yeah we're good to go so I can finish cleaning this up and get it in the truck and uh.

Then, from there I'll uh I'll be able to figure out my steering column position and exactly where my pedals are going to be and uh carry on so uh.

You know this was tedious, stuff and I.

Honestly I, don't know what I'm doing I kind of winged it here, but uh I think it came out.

Damn good um.

You know once it's all covered up with uh with pad and upholstery Who.

The hell's gonna know the difference.

So uh yeah taken a 38 Ford seat, a 64 Chevy back into a 51 frame.

Why not hey well I got a hell of a mess to clean up, but uh.

You know before I get that I I was just dying to try it I couldn't help myself so I I threw it in the truck pretty much where it's gonna sit and uh I sat on it and I gotta tell you man, it's like sitting on your couch in your living room and there's no padding or anything on it.

This thing is awesome.

It's going to be super comfortable and it's just at the right height yeah, yeah I'm super happy with it.

Um I just sat right on the Springs, it's beautiful, so uh yeah super stoked about that it should be uh, like I, said, it'll, be like riding down the road sitting on your couch, so uh awesome these old bench seats, we're always super comfortable anyway, you know uh, that's what I liked about the old cars um I mean just look at those Springs.

That thing is thick man, so uh yeah stoked up.

This is great, so uh I'll take it apart and clean it up and uh we'll call it a call it a day on a seat.

So man that was actually two days work all together, but I think well worth it and I've got a seat.

Now you know I don't have to worry about somebody uh getting a hold of me to tell me that they have one or I, don't have to track them down or drive around or anything uh.

It's done so yeah right on.

So there you have it uh how to make a bench seat out of a bunch of junk really um.

You know that that 38 uh seat 38 Ford seat that I had I I forgot I'd even had it um ended up saving my butt um, you know and then trying to widen it using coat.

Hangers I mean it works um.

Maybe that's not how you would do it feel free to uh leave comments down below and uh.

You can tell me I'm a Madman or a butcher or whatever, but uh hey it works and uh and I'm quite pleased with it.

Uh, like I, said a time consuming process uh.

You know fitting all these fishing, these wires and stuff through old clamps and clips and whatever uh you know, you're always getting tangled up and stuff like that.

But if you take your time you know it's uh, it gets done and uh.

You know, save myself a good Buck, I, think um.

So once I get it all cleaned up and painted and everything else, uh I'll call the upholstery person and see if uh she'll come out here and take a look at this thing and uh.

You know we'll talk some dollars and stuff and uh between me and her.

Not between me and you whatever and I, figured out where I'm at on the interior I'm also gonna have to make up door cards.

Uh kick panels and uh I want her to put a headliner in this thing as well.

So you know we'll see uh we'll see how it uh all pans out, hopefully she's available soon.

I'll give her a call.

You know maybe well this week, I'll give her a call this week and see what uh what she can do for me.

Um yeah, it's uh! It's coming along man, we're tackling things uh and getting them done, and that's uh.

That's a good thing and I'm quite quite happy with all of that uh.

The next big one I think is the exhaust uh getting on that exhaust.

That's that's a big job and I need to have at least up to the Mufflers to uh to fire.

This thing up so I'll probably get into the exhaust next video and uh I gotta make some room in here as well.

So as usual, just she spent half my life shuffling stuff around and making room.

You know uh.

It wouldn't matter, though you know, I could have 20 000 square feet and it'd be full anyway.

So, what's the difference make do with what you got at least I have a hoist and that saved me a lot of Hassle and time so uh new subscribers.

Thank you once again.

Um, you know.

If you subscribe, tell your buddies and uh help spread the word and if you haven't subscribed, Please, Subscribe and uh, you know don't be like I said.

Don't be shy, leave comments down below.

Let me know what you think and uh.

If you have better ideas, I'm open to hear them, uh, like I, said I was learning right along with you guys office, making it up as I go along.

I mean shortening narrowing.

The back of the seat wasn't too bad that worked out real slick actually but uh, the bottom of the seat, making it bigger that was different, so uh, you know, maybe the upholstery girl will look at it and say what you want me to do what anyway uh so yeah, please subscribe and uh.

You know if you're not doing anything else, get out the garage and build something man later guys.