Hey guys,

My project truck is coming along nicely. Check out my gallery if you are not familiar with it. I am at a point, however, that I need input on a couple of items.

First, I need bucket seats, and want to get something that has high back, 5-point harness slots, thigh bolsters, etc... Do any of you guys have experience with any seat manufacturers that you recommend, or even recommend against?

Second, do any of you have experience with any pre-bent roll cage kits for 73-79 Fords? Recommendations for or against?

Also, just to toot my horn just a little, I took it out a few days ago and did my first real full throttle rip in 4 wheel drive. I had to lock it in because it just spins in two wheel drive. Daaaannngg! Anybody who says a 4x4 has to be slow is badly mistaken. Even though the frame is twisting (which is why I need a rollcage) this thing flat gets with it. I am going to replace the NP435 with a Richmond 5-speed so I can keep the shifts closer together, and replace the 4.11s with 5.38's, then see what it will do. It should REALLY wake this thing up. Here Chevy, chevy, chevy.

-Scouder

 

Dude your truck is the beast!! If you ever need cars to crush, tell me. For seats try summit racing or Jeff's Bronco Graveyard. JBG has Beard seats, i dont know if there are any good or not but they seem to be along the lines of what you are looking for. As for a roll-cage, i have never seen one that was a kit. Let's hope you wont need one, but i guess its better safe than sorry.

 

i have a set of Corbaue (sp?) TRS's in my mustang. They recline and allow the use of 5 point harnessess. I have matching Corbaue harnessess too! I love the seats and they are cheap for what you get. I payed $760 shipped with mounts.

 

Nice! I haven't heard anything bad about the pre-bent kits, but I'd consider buying a good bender. It would be money well spent, in my opinion. Are you already handy with the mig? I couldn't say which bucket seat to recomend, but I believe we had a recent thread in the offroad forum about this. I can say when you mount those five points make sure the shoulder harness fasten at or above your shoulders. Don't bring them around and down as that can compress your spine. I like an interior cage design with a rear lateral bar behind and slightly above your shoulders for your upper harness to connect to.

How much are the richmonds rated to handle? I had never thought about using one of those in lieu of a np-435 when I swapped out the C-6. Partially due to $$$ of course.

Also, I responded to your pm with more info

 

I will definately be putting a spreader bar about 2" above my shoulder level to mount the shoulder straps, even if I use a kit. The physics of having them mounted below shoulder level are plain to see, and bad. I will be using a 12-point design so I can tie everything from the motorplate to the rear axle area together as a unit. It should, if properly triangulated, make the frame very stiff in all axes from front to rear. Obviously, I can't see it happening, but my wife said she could see the frame twisting pretty bad when I got on it in front of the house. That is just wasted time and energy, as well as being tough on components. I guess I'll get me a piece of tubing and see if I can bend it with a borrowed bender, if not I'll have to punt. I would like to fab it all myself so it is just right. Sometimes I'm not happy with "store-bought" quality.

As to the Richmond. They are not rated high enough for my application, but they will likely handle it OK. I don't think the 435 is rated for what I'm doing to it either. I will not be doing high RPM launches on asphalt with sticky tires like a drag car. But they seem to hold up for those guys. The reason I selected the Richmond 5 is gear ratios. Off the shelf they have a gear setup that looks almost perfect. They start off with a 2200rpm spread between shifts and get closer with each shift. The 4th to 5th shift is only 1200rpm apart, as opposed to my NP435 which has a spread that starts at 3200rpm and ends at 2900. I just can't keep it on the powerband with the 435 or C6.

I appreciate your input. Keep in touch.

-Scouder

 

It sounds like you have a handle on the cage design. A few extra tubular crossmembers bolted between the frame rails would aid in rigidity a good deal too. I won't suggest boxing since it adds so much weight.

Keep us posted on what you end up doing to make that Richmond work. Sounds interesting.