Road race and significant other bench seat

[j par]

Last winter I literally cut the roll cage out of my four-speed Duster. I wanted to put the full interior back in and purposely put a full bench seat so my wife could sit close to me. We're very much the team and love to be with each other. But here's the funny ironic thing LOL remember it's a 4-speed duster stroked with a dual quads LOL she's never came close to me yet she's always over there holding on for dear life with her seatbelt as tight as she can get it. Quite often closing her eyes instead of screaming at me....
I tried my absolute best I mean even put myself on a mission to drive this car normal! I've considered it just can't be done....

 

[DionR]

I'm fully on board with the bench seat business. I am blessed with the most amazing GF on the planet, and she (and me) can't think of anything better than going for a drive with her sitting in the middle right next to me, where she belongs. Count your blessings Dion, you are a lucky guy - coming from one who is living the dream.

Hard to describe how blessed I am with my wife.

 

[DionR]

Have you checked with....

Home
or
Rich's Custom Seats

Second link specializes in bike seats but I have seen pictures of 4 wheeled rides on his Facebook page

Thanks Doug.

This was more just an idle thought when I posted it, so I hadn't even started thinking about getting one built or where to do it. Wasn't even something I had searched to see if anyone else had done it.

 

[DionR]

How easily that can be done will depend on the seat's construction.
If the upholstery support comes from the metal springs, then to get anything laterally supportive by dropping the middle will require cutting and welding.
If the support is just done by building up, your position in the car be altered. The seat center can not be built up. Same with the back middle. Otherwise your helmet will be in the headliner, and the seating adjustment further back so your feet will fit in. The bolsters may hit the armrests when the seat is folded forward.
One solution will be to lower the whole seat, but this will require notching and boxing the center to clear the transmission tunnel.
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Is that your seat? Looks like you put some bolster's in the seat back?

Been kind of daydreaming on this after seeing the image Ddaddy put up. In my mind, I would almost see it as integrating a true bucket spring and bolster setup into the bench on the driver's side, on the bottom. Leave the back alone other than adding bolsters. But the bottom would be the tricky part in my mind. The rest of the bench seat bottom should remain as stock, but stopping where the driver sits. Not sure how easy that would be.

Part of my thinking is, it seems like most bench seat bottoms are kind of bouncy and give too much. So it seems like the bottom would have to be rebuild to give real support.

Ddaddy probably has this all worked out, though.

 

[Mattax]

Is that your seat? Looks like you put some bolster's in the seat back?

Been kind of daydreaming on this after seeing the image Ddaddy put up. In my mind, I would almost see it as integrating a true bucket spring and bolster setup into the bench on the driver's side, on the bottom. Leave the back alone other than adding bolsters. But the bottom would be the tricky part in my mind. The rest of the bench seat bottom should remain as stock, but stopping where the driver sits. Not sure how easy that would be.

Part of my thinking is, it seems like most bench seat bottoms are kind of bouncy and give too much. So it seems like the bottom would have to be rebuild to give real support.

Ddaddy probably has this all worked out, though.

Yes. That's the seat in my car going from the first attempt to the second attempt.
After that photo, the seat backs were redone again. This mostly addressed the problems I mentioned.

If the construction of the bottom is the same type as mine (used through '70 after that I don't know) then lack of firmness may be a broken of disconnected spring. There are clips that tie the springs together. Original uphosltery used a burlap type material and dense cotton batting. Seating support should be quite firm. Latteral support is of course minimal.

Might be better off starting with a pair of buckets and having a fixed middle 'seat' section made with matching material.

 

[DionR]

Might be better off starting with a pair of buckets and having a fixed middle 'seat' section made with matching material.

Like a buddy seat. That crossed my mind.

Funny thing is, the buckets I have in my Duster came out of a 4 door Valiant. It that configuration, they locked the seat backs so they couldn't fold forward, and added a standard buddy seat. I didn't grab the buddy seat because I didn't want it. Now I am thinking it would have been nice to at least try it.

Would have required grabbing (or fabricating) some weld on clips, too. Part of the reason I didn't even try.

 

[DionR]

Not sure this is exactly what I was thinking of, but close. Still like Ddaddy's idea better.

 

[spl440]

Pictures of the set up I posted before. Yes, car is dusty, knee's bad and it is a standard. does not get out much.