Leg Room

[bornn55]

What is the easiest way to increase legroom in a 55 chevy pickup with original bench seat?

[mgchevyparts]

Make it into an extended cab

[jackson]

raise seat. get different seat with thinner back

[Mac the Yankee]

Move your gas tank.

Gotta ask, how tall are you? I'm 6'6" and fit into my '56 without any mods. Just for reference, I am going to use a 90's Suburban 2nd row seat and move the tank.

[mr48chev]

I think it is an individual comfort zone thing as I know guys who are 6' 3" or so who think those trucks are real comfortable and a couple of guys about 5' 11" who complain about the lack of legroom.

As far as raising the seat, you could throw an inch thick pad on the seat and see if that gains you the room you need before doing anything. Your legs will let you know real quick as to if they like or don't like the change.

The 88/92 or so bench and split bench seats seem to have a somewhat thinner back that lets you get a bit more leg room in an older truck. At least the split bench in my 71 works that way. Don't go for the base model almost flat cushion bench seat though as they have little support and are like sitting on a wood church pew when you drive down the road. I had one out of an 88 in my truck before putting the split bench in it. I gave the 88 seat away just to get rid of it.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by jackson

raise seat. get different seat with thinner back

this is pretty much all you do without extending the cab
moving the tank doesn't give more leg room as the seat hits the window or back of the cab either way
up until age 50 i never had a concern with leg room in truk @ 6'5''
i'm older and 1'' shorter now, but the legs don't work as well and i needed to raise the seat to get some additional leg room
i also set up my hydroboost so that i could cut 3.5'' off the brake pedal



if you use newer style high back seats you lose more leg room because of the high seat back
i used newer seats and kept legroom by removing the headrest and chopping 6'' out of the height of the seat
here the pass seat is chopped, the drivers seat is marked where to chop with green tape

[bornn55]

6'5", thanks for the ideas. Just got the truck and will not do anything until I drive it for a few months.

[User Error]

I added some room in my 50 by unhooking the bottom slide in mounts of the back rest, and letting them rest cushion to cushion... the bottom of the back can slide back 3-4 more inches this way... once in a great while it's slide thru and I just pull it back into place... once my painter gets it in to shoot the interior I'm going to fab up a speaker box for behind the seat that will double as a spacer so it can't slide thru to far... hope this helps...