'50 chev one ton seats

[Darren Henry]

So I had a call from a guy last week about re-doing the seat out of a 1950 Chev/GMC truck. he said it had been redone once and was in decent shape. Today his wife dropped off the frames and told me they had thrown out all the padding and the old covers. I remember my buddy's  '51 being sissal over burlap, but cannot remember how it was attached to the frame. I think the back was just a zippered "bag" that fit over the frame and padding. I don't see the usually steel rods that  one would normally hog ring to anywhere.

The customer is only interested in getting a seat in the truck and getting it running so Dad can take it for one last spin kinda thing.

My plan (so far) is to hog ring vintex (herculite, what ever you call it in your area) over the springs and build it up with cotton felt over a layer or two of unideck.

Seat frame top/bottom:





Back frame bottom/top.






As always; any and all help is much appreciated gang.

Thanks , eh.

[MinUph]

Darren,
  It's been quite some time since I've done auto seats but. Lacking the hog ring rods I would probably hog ring the cover to the springs or their frame members. A bag affair seems like it would just shift to much. For a finished underside you could add a flap that would get hog ringed to the rear section under the seat. This is after the main cover is attached. Kinda like cambric on a chair. This seat is done smooth, channeled all the way across or split in three sections . Filling wise I would stitch or hog ring burlap to the top section bringing it over the front and sides and attaching it under. Then a layer of hair pad, maybe an inch of foam and then just cotton layered about 2"-3" thick.If this ends up to thick drop the 1" foam to 1/2". The foam will help dampen the sound of the hair pad.

[baileyuph]

If this has an OEM interest, the specs on padding and cover patterning can be provided plus the clip information that General Motors used to install the covers.

For example the back rest frame was not zipper enclosed.  That cover had the main surface piece plus the boxing pieces all around the seat perimeter which wrapped underneath and held on - not with hog rings - but "u" shaped clips (still available).  The cover face plus boxing components all around were patterned as 5 components.    The padding and support across the springs is not really that thick, rubberized hair and course cotton were used but skillfully to size the top perimeter of the seat frame to the perimeter at the bottom where the boxing is wrapped then clipped to the underneath.

If OEM isn't important it can be done a number of ways but caution is offered on padding and padding oversize across the springs.  I wouldn't padd more than a couple inches and virtually no perimeter overlap.

I could provide information on patterning the backrest frame, particularly where that frame has the two top iron extensions with a screw hole in each (used to facilitate installing the finished seat frame into the the cab frame).

There was on welts (cording) in the original seats.

Actually these seats were not a snap to pattern, had to do a few to understand what General Motors analytical approach was.

Good luck

Doyle

[Darren Henry]

Great points guys,thanks. I'll definitely need some flaps/listings on the back. I had forgotten all about those "U" clips. The vinyl may be too thick, but I'm sure they will be okay with hog rings.Keep it coming folks. Auto is my short suit.

[Darren Henry]

I had a few minutes to start the build up on the seat this afternoon and wondered about putting a draw string in the hem of the seat. The other thought was to have one of the techs weld a hog ring rail in. there are not as many points to hog ring to as I would like. My eyes won't adjust to a mig welder after the accident and my boss will gouge the customer large for the  few  minutes  It will take one of the guys to weld it.

[MinUph]

If you use a stiff welt cord like the plastic type used in marine or a wired welt cord the few hog rings should be fine.

[Darren Henry]

You were right Paul. Once I started hog ringing it on I found more points to attach it than I had thought. It turned out well albeit it somewhat plain. I went with one wrap around panel and a three piece border, top stitched no welt. On the back I ran two zippers from the top down, 4" from the ends to get it on.

For padding I used 2 layers of unideck, then 1" foam.





I put one layer of cotton over the top and sides then covered it. It feels quite comfortable.