Junkyard tale
 

Ok, so on Saturday morning we got on the ferry headed for a trip to the mainland and the 1 1/2 hour drive to Seattle to spend time with some family. As we approached my favorite mom and pop junkyard I mentioned to the little woman that I'd like to stop by and see if they had some kind of inside rear view mirror I could adapt to my '59. Well they said go out back and take a look. We headed out into the muddy yard in pouring rain, dressed for the city ( my cleanest work clothes). Score! A '62 unibody sitting there with no front wheels on it's belly in the mud. Good mirror so I went and got a phillips from the boss. Upon returning to the cab I noticed how amazing the seat was. I asked in the office and he said 25.00. It was a later seat, cloth maybe 80's pickup. I've never been a fan of newer seats in old trucks, but work has been a bit slow and my truck budget is getting squeezed and the seat was just like new. Now we gotta get this thing out..... It is so close to original specs that its 4 feet are bolted into the captive nuts in the floor. The boss sends his kid out to help us and he forklifts the truck to just behind the office. The kid has an ancient impact wrench and a tray of beat up chinese sockets. I'm trying to be polite and not tell him what to do, but he stcks a 9/16ths on there and instantly rounds the corners off the rear passenger side bolt. He shrugs and says maybe it was metric. I looked at the business end of his socket and it is basically round inside, totally worn out. I backed out all the others with a 9/16ths box end. He tries every other socket to no avail. Duh. He goes in and asks his dad what to do. I'm thinking torch but the dad says he's too blind to use one and the kid doesnt know how and all they have is a propane torch and the trucks gas tank is an inch away anyhow. They produce a chinese air chisel which the dad goes back in and sharpens 3 times as it continues to round over. No luck. By now I've been kneeling in the mud trying to see the captive nuts etc. Kid says he's gonna try to go after the captive nut with a die grinder. Did I mention it was 'her' sister's birthday and we were now running a bit late? :-rollBack inside I see a sawzall. I ask the boss if I can use it and he says sure. I'm not giving it to the kid.....Of course it has one blade and it's dull. I made a brief attempt at the bolt but the floor rises just beyond it so I couldn't get a clean shot at it so I cut the foot off the seat frame and I'll just weld a new piece on there later. Went to dinner with dried mud on my boots and knees, but nobody seemed to care. The seat is in the living room now because it was pretty wet, but I went after it with the 409 cleaner and we vaccumed out the mouse nest from the bottom. I figure it will be dried out by the time I get my floors finished.........

You can't beat the price. I paid $30 for mine and then had to pay $350 to have it recovered...:'(

nice looking seat gb, i prolly would have gave up on the dinner and just kept looking in the boneyard. glad it worked out for ya

Man, you had better watch out or that thing might turn into a full time love seat in the house. :-X0A6

Definetly a 83-85 seat, nice condition for the age, and price was right.

You might be a redneck if your best piece of living room furniture has slots for the seat belts.......

Really man, just cut off the back end of a Fridge styleside box and slide that thing in there. The box sides will make perfect armrest for setting things on! I sure wish I had an extra box to make one out of! Of course, I fall asleep as soon as I sit very long so it dosen't really matter what the couch looks like!:D

Great Story!

Yesterday I drew a sketch of the fridge couch on the back of a drawer box I was assembling. It had a beer bottle on the 'arm rest'. Later I got to thinking It should have a couple of swing away TV trays that plug into the stake pockets. The guy that works for me asked what I was gonna use for a coffee table. ???

Hey, just weld a few old rims to one side of the tailgate for the coffee table.

In the furniture business we call that a pedestal base. Finally a use for the old widowmakers. :-jammin And if used with the correct side up, a tailgate could contain most spills.......Very good idea!

If the unit were built high enough, the tail gate could be left hanging down behind you feet to act as skirting! It could also be padded and when needed it could be raised to accomodate the reclining posistion. Instant footstool! I certainly wish one of the Photoshop guys would do a mock up for me. I could park it in between Havi and Steve's dream machines! :-X04

Awesome. Seats out of 90s Chevy or GMC work well although you have to drill 4 new holes.
My old one recovered.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/p...ctureid=276835

Finally installed the seat today. I used the seat rails from the '59, so it bolts to the original 8 floor holes. Made some spacers out of 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 heavy wall rectangular tubing. The later model seat was about an inch lower so this put it up a bit. The side to side centerline was exactly the same on both seats, so this made it easy. I offset it front to back by an inch, but in the fully back position it clears the fuel tank by about an inch. If I did it over, I would make it clear the tank by 1/4", giving the operator an additional 3/4". Or he could go on a diet.....