New life for the '30 Chevy

A few days away from building the house so it's time to have some fun! I been working on making up the seat base which will raise them just short of 8" off the floor. I'll get a bit more done on that to justify pics but in the mean time, these couple of pics were from a handful of weeks ago...

The hood panels are missing the latches which will come later but at the bottom where it's rolled, were sides were smashed/bent/kinked. I originally thought about riveting a piece of flat bar down there but then had an idea which I'm sure most of you guys have done at some point. A super simple fix that made it much stronger than original was provided buy a piece of the original rear brake 1/4" round linkage. Drove in snug but didn't put up a fight which was nice for a change!

earthman said:

Just got around to this. I can look at steampunk style all day. Very inspired by what you have done there OS.

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Thanks much Earthman! I love this myself! Will be very curious to see what kind of attention it gets at runs/events etc. Ever trying to be a bit different!

Pretty much for a while now I decided that I didn’t want my wiring block etc under the dash. Too small of an area and tight of an area (especially with all the pedals going in) and too old to spend time lying at weird angles to work on it down there! (Probably more of the later! )

The next best option was to go under the seats. Wanting to layout the wiring/terminal blocks on the floor I cut in a piece of ¾” plywood. I then played with seat height/placement and after that I fabbed up a small box for the floor to bring in the battery cables and whatever.

As far as seating goes I ended up going with what my buddy has in his ‘66 – forklift seats. (Which are way more comfortable than I’d of thought.) These are not the super cheap ones on the internet, but a better built set from an equipment supply company up north. They have a metal frame that holds the cushions which will work perfect for my mad planning access to the wiring below.

I figure out how I wanted to do the seat platform and scrounged up the right pieces of metal. Happy with the way it turned out. Back to the wiring- my not planning ahead far enough had me modifying the floor framing with a piece of ¾ x 1 ½” tubing for a wiring pathway to the upper console. I could’ve gone back out the box in the floor, then back up through closer to the kick panel but kinda prefer it this way.

I like the seats. Might steal the idea. Framing looks excellent. Good planning.

Fine plan man!

Good ideas, may have to steel some
Looking good

Thanks guys! Another quick chaser-

Got the hole punched in the wood for the wiring, painted up, and temporarily in place. I’m not going to secure it fully until I (1) get my clutch petal setup in and (2) get my interior wall panels cut to fit and installed. That being said, I can now get on the hinges fabbed up so the seats can individually tilt forward for wiring access.

Drink holders??? No room between the seats for anything fixed in place. (Or in front of the seats.) Thinking maybe attaching something that pivots with each seat? Any crazy ideas give a shout!

Pretty happy with how the seats are turning out. I started off by notching a piece of 1” sq tubing (for the hinges to attach to) to the needed length and tacked it on. Wanting to keep a decently solid floor panel (so things wouldn’t drop into the wiring area below) I cut out a piece of 18ga for the passenger seat to start off with.

I like/collect old hinges of all sorts so I readily had a couple of volunteers for the job! What I like about these in particular is, after everything is glued together, not only will the seat tilt forward, but a very simple pull-the-pins action will let the whole seat come out easy if needed.

Test/fit/grind/tack/drink water/listen to music/etc….. The plan is to stack a couple strips of 2” ratchet straps (cut in half) to lay on the square tubing (contact cement or zip ties LOL) to help with vibration control on the seats. Hopefully that idea works to a decent degree!

With a bit of trimming back the seat frame screws and painting (and probably something I've not thought of yet) the passenger side should be pretty close. Now to repeat on the driver’s side. I’ve got an initial idea of how to latch the seats down in the back. Working out the rest of the fine details, cup holders etc as I go.

A fine set up.

Great work Charlie!

bob w said:

A fine set up.

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Thanks Bob. I'm glad I've had some time to get this portion complete. I'm thinking that I can now do some proper thinking for the rest of the interior by sitting in the seat, where I will be positioned.

Couper said:

Great work Charlie!

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Thanks Coup! Mosquitos just drove me in but I had a great day. Hope you did as well!

Seats themselves finished. Latches to come later. Cool drink holders will definitely have to be on the dash somehow. Clamped up and played with the clutch pedal a bit. Man-oh-man that is a small cab...

Well I'm back at it a bit. Have had some electrical things come in with intentions of starting on the wiring, but then chased a squirrel and decided it was time to see if I could push the driver side floor board forward to give me some more leg room for working that clutch. Just couldn't resist with the extra room in the engine compartment since I'm rolling with the V-6.

The first pic is the clutch/brake pedal bracket clamped up to the stock firewall. (Doable but awfully tight) Looking/thinking/checking clearances for everything numerous times I ended up being able to push the bracket out 2 and 1/2" which made a really big difference.

Removing the seats and seat platform to make working inside the cab better (Love those removable hinge pins! ) I started modifying the firewall. Keeping with the bolt it in method in case I ever decide to swap it to automatic trans. Hope to make some more headway on it between this evening and tomorrow and get some more progress pics posted.

Looking good!! Keep us updated!!!

Looks good Charlie! Still no garage or gym time for me, I'm neck deep in the yard. Looks awesome but killing myself. Will post some pictures once the sod it down. Can't wait ti get back on the truck! Hope the rest of you guys are doing well!