T-bucket bench seat build
 

I thought I would share how I built my seats, I still have to make the patterns and seat covers but here is how I made the bases. This is my first attempt at building seats so if you notice something that will cause issues please let me know.

On to the build:

Okay its time to build some seats:

Okay, a couple months ago I had determined my seat rake and height using a stash of 2x4's, 2x6's, plywood and foam. Now all I had to do was make it all work:

First up lower seat supports:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...01.JPG_595.jpg

Then came the base: Lots of tweaks, sanding, more tweaks. Then I finally realized that they do have to be so exact as vinyl, foam and side panels will all take up space, once I figured that out things when a little faster.

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...03.JPG_595.jpg

Since I have no padding on my *** I wanted a soft seat, so I decided I was going to use webbing to make things more comfy, the original cutout for the webbing:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...07.JPG_595.jpg

After showing this it was pointed out that the opening for the webbing was to small as I would be sitting on the plywood and the webbing would not be doing anything, so I adjusted the width and made the openings bigger:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...01.JPG_595.jpg

I then attached the supports to the base:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...02.JPG_595.jpg

Once the base was built I started on the back. The first "design" did not work out as planned, so instead of wasting a good hunk of plywood, I used it to make a template:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...04.JPG_595.jpg

I then transferred to another piece and cut out the back:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...05.JPG_595.jpg

Once the back was in, I started looking a little closer and realized there was a couple inches of wasted space in this design:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...06.JPG_595.jpg

So I took a little from some chair building and decided to make a sculpted back (think muskoka chair), I mean what the hell, if you are going to do it, might as well make it complicated!!

Here is the back with the webbing area cut out, the strip in top is the template for the wood needed for the sculpted area:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...07.JPG_595.jpg

Transferred to some more plywood cut out and glued up. Then came the fun of making it fit as I wanted, which included sanding, sanding, some more sanding, shredding the last belt I had before finishing, and you guessed it more sanding. Here is the result:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...02.JPG_595.jpg

The shape of the cutout mirrors the contours of the body:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...04.JPG_595.jpg

Then came the webbing, I have been told, and I am sure I will here again that I used to much webbing, but webbing is cheap and its easier to remove a belt at a later date:

I had to go out looking for "seat" webbing instead of "back" webbing yesterday, luckily I found some, it has less stretch then the back stuff, anyway, here is the start of the bottom:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...05.JPG_595.jpg

I have a new appreciation for those that do this work a lot, after doing the bottom and back my hands HURT from stretching the webbing out!

Bottom finished up:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...06.JPG_595.jpg

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...07.JPG_595.jpg

Then I did the back, this was a little different due to the curves, but the same result:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...08.JPG_595.jpg

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...09.JPG_595.jpg

Here they are installed:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...11.JPG_595.jpg

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...12.JPG_595.jpg

Even with out any foam, they are pretty comfy. I was told the best way to test them out is to just sit in them for a couple hours, I think I will do that while watching the hawks tonight, should be a good test.

I had to change the lower webbing out as it was to soft when I sat in the seat I was sitting on the floor! So much for "This is what we use for seat webbing"

So after searching for a week without luck trying to find a supplier in Canada that carried the correct seat webbing, I ended up using plain jute webbing. I wish I would have just used this earlier as it would have saved me a ton of hassle.

Once I got the webbing sorted out I started on the foam. I was planning on using 2 inches of C45 foam with 1 inch C45 for the bolsters. I was told I would need at least 3 inches of C45 (Thanks Dan), so that's what I went with. Of course When I originally set up the seats and body wood, I was planning on 2 inches of foam, needless to say I had to do some trimming.

Here is the base foam glued up, I missed a step or two here, sorry.
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...04.JPG_595.jpg

Then I marked out and trimmed some contours into the foam, I started using a flapper disc on a grinder, and it was way to awkward as evidenced by the slip there on the left. I finished up just using the electric knife, turned out to be much easier to control.

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...06.JPG_595.jpg
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...10.JPG_595.jpg

Once I had that sorted out I went a head and tested the fit in the car, this is where I noticed the extra inch....it totally threw off the feel of the seat.

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...11.JPG_595.jpg

So I marked out an inch and proceeded to cut, chisel, swear a bit, and chisel some more to get that wood out.

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...12.JPG_595.jpg

Now the seat back was back in its proper place:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...13.JPG_595.jpg

Next up was the back, for this I used 1 inch of c35 for the base, and another inch of c35 for the bolsters, this shows the contour of the seat itself:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...14.JPG_595.jpg

Next up was to add the bolsters:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...15.JPG_595.jpg
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...16.JPG_595.jpg

I then trimmed the contours and tested the fit:

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...17.JPG_595.jpg

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...18.JPG_595.jpg

Everything looked good, and more importantly felt good, even the wife approved when I drug her out to the garage for a test sitting.

Now I can fit the steering where I want it.

I will start making the covers in the coming week. I will try and take as many pics as I can along the way.

That looks great and probably a lot better then what Total Performance supplied me when I used their "kit". Since I'm tall, that was the least of my worries though as a block of wood would have served me as well for comfort. The only thing you lose is some under seat storage that I did have.

Keep the photos and description coming as there are lots of other folks that have face this whether a 'T' or any other car.

Dave W

Very true on the under seat storage. But I am extending the bed to give me a bit more "storage"

As for the pics, no worries there, I am taking pics of everything! I have learned a lot from this site, figured I could at least contribute what I can.

Very nice,,, :thumbup: Thanks for posting it here.. ;)

I'm confused. Did you keep the jute webbing on the seat bottom or replace the jute with different elastic webbing? If you used jute webbing on the seat bottom it's not elastic and doesn't stretch. If it's natural fiber, like a heavy burlap, it will eventually sag and stay that way.

I replaced the elastic webbing with jute. The green webbing was just to soft, when I sat in the seat I sank through to the floor. I could not for the life of me find a supplier of the correct seat webbing, well I could not find a supplier up here. Everyone kept telling me "This is what we use for seats"

I understand that eventually it will sag, but it is much better than the soft rubber webbing that was in there.

wow great post.

Keeper - I hope you have done a WIKI here about this project

No I have not. I will look into how to do it and give it a shot.

BTW, the bolster areas would have been much easier to cut if you would have cut them first and then glued them to the main seat foam. You used an electric knife, but you could also have used an electric fish filet knife which would be a tad more heavy duty. It's a lot easier to cut firmer foam than softer foam.

What do they say about hindsight? :D Once I had it together I sort of kicked myself for not cutting first. All part of the learning curve.

I "borrowed" my wifes elec knife for this job, I will pick up a filet knife thanks for the tip.

I should start on the covers in the next week or so.

I decided that my bench needed a cover, well that and I need to keep the grinding dust and stuff out of the foam.

I only got some patterns done tonight, but these will be the base for the covers. I expect I will make these covers at least twice so I went ahead and made a full set of patterns. Here is how I did it.

Supplies: (Well what I used anyway)

Carpenter square.
Long straight edge.
Poster board.
pencil, marker
razor
scissors
acetate (clear vinyl for patterns)
And of course the seat.

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...03.JPG_595.jpg

I started with the poster board, I made a few mistakes then realized, I only had to make one side, then copy it for the other....

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...02.JPG_595.jpg

Complete set:
http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...04.JPG_595.jpg

I then transferred the patterns to the clear vinyl adding the 1/2 seam allowance.

http://www.netquickposse.org/photos/...05.JPG_595.jpg

You cannot really see them in the pic...now I can move on to the vinyl.