Bucket seat conversion using bench seat brackets how to

[Beaumont@]

I've always liked the look of factory buckets so I decided to gut the bench seat interior in favor of bucket seats. After no luck trying to track down a decent set of 1970 buckets seats $$$$, I decided to go another route by using my old 1970 bench seat brackets for the drivers seat and some old beat up bucket seats from a 73 and up truck which are cheaper and easier to find. I was pretty happy with the results.

Before & After 1970 C10






Here's what I started with:


I found a local guy who had around 10 of these 73 and up seats lying around.
Pretty sure they were out of a 1975 truck. Once the brown seat had the nasty cover off there was the little chrome square in the center.

Here is the key to making bench seat brackets work on the drivers side bucket seat. 2 simple easy to make brackets

[Beaumont@]

Here's what the seat frames looked liked after tear down. I doubt GM painted these back in the day judging by the amount of rust that came off of mine. I had to get new back rest springs, they had completely rusted and broke.


and after being sandblasted and powder coated, mocked up in the truck:


The passenger side seat brackets I just ordered from ECE (Early Classic Enterprises) They are direct bolt in.

Here's a good link for bolt hole locations:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=516328

Restored pic after using the best parts from the 2 consoles I had.

[Beaumont@]

More to follow....

[Beaumont@]

Now for the driver' side. As you can see from the pic, the original 1970 bench seat brackets both required some light modification in order to work with the new bracket adaptors. The rear mounts were shortened and flipped "forward" and welded in place. Just use the original bench seat floor bolt holes for the driver's side seat bracket (one closest to the door) New floor holes will have to be drilled for the other bracket (closest to the console).


Pic of what a stock 1970 bench seat bracket looks like:


Pretty good write up of the different types of bench seat brackets by year:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s....php?p=5374820

This what the bracket adaptors look like once bolted to the drivers seat:


I had to mess around to get the right height that's what the wood blocks are for and notched the rear bench seat bracket mounts for clearance issues. I also drilled a new bolt hole on the bench seat bracket mount closest to the center console, again for clearance issues.


and what it looks like once everything is bolted in place. 5/16 holes were drilled and tapped into the bracket adaptors:
Attachment 1276817

[Beaumont@]

For my seat foam I contacted a board member Tim aka "Truckseats" awesome guy to deal with. Good' ol made in the USA seat foam:


I should have got my Truckworld seat covers from Truckseats as well but I made the mistake of going with Classic Parts of America. They assured me that they were sending Truckworld covers but they sent me PUI covers instead . Anyways after they tried to deny it I provided them a transcript of the conversation I had with the salesman when I ordered them online. So they finally agreed to take them back and send me the correct Truckworld seats covers. It took 4 months all said to finally get them but it was worth it. It also allowed me to compare both the PUI cover and Truckworld covers. Glad I held out.

PUI Covers (left side) Truckworld Covers (right side)



As far as I can tell the scrolling on the Truckworld seat cover is more crisp and they use more stitching where needed.

[Beaumont@]

Final product, clean buckets with no hidden rust on seat frames

[VA72C10]

nice work!

[Beaumont@]

Thanks VA72C10! After this little project I understand why buckets seats and consoles bring in the prices they do.

[Lee H]

Looks very nice.

[1969stepside]

can you tell me how and where you decided to drill your holes in the floor to go from bench to buckets? did u use the existing holes on the outside and then drill where the other ones would go?

[CCCC]

Lot of planning - lot of work - well done. Looks very nice.

[Beaumont@]

Originally Posted by 1969stepside

can you tell me how and where you decided to drill your holes in the floor to go from bench to buckets? did u use the existing holes on the outside and then drill where the other ones would go?

It wasn't bad at all. I just used the existing driver's side bench seat bracket holes. I had to drill 4 new holes for the drivers side bracket closest to the console. It was easy enough with the other bracket to reference from.
For the passenger side just a little correction, it was not direct bolt in. 3 new holes had to be drilled. Only the existing outside front could be used.

Here's a good link for bolt hole locations:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=516328

[special-K]

You've done something I have only pondered. Thanks for getting out there and doing it so I can see it can be done! That came out great

[Beaumont@]

Hey no worries special K, thought I'd give back a little since this site has helped me out so much already with my truck. Paying $200 for 2 used buckets and 2 consoles was a lot cheaper than the $600 + for used factory originals I was coming across.

[tommyd241]

Looks great!

[JonnyC10]

That is sweet!

[justin4260]

how did you reinforce the holes you had to drill for the new brackets?

[Husker]

Very Nice
Ron

[Beaumont@]

Originally Posted by justin4260

how did you reinforce the holes you had to drill for the new brackets?

Because the bench seat floor pan doesn't have the bucket seat floor brace I just cut some lengths of c-channel to reinforce the holes underneath.

[tinsoldier]

very nice.

[GOPAPA]

Very good idea ,real good to add to search area ,,, looks good ,,works good ,,and it is good,,thx for sharing with the forum..

[9teen69]

Nice job, they look really good.

[va72longhorn]

Just out of curiosity, is there anything special that has to be done to do the conversion in reverse? Ive got the original factory buckets, that I love, but I'd like to be able to switch out every now and then when I may have two passengers planned. I always thought it would be no more than a 30 minute switch over. I've got a parchment white vinyl with no tears, but I'd like to recover one day in the orange highlander plaid.
Any thing Ive overlooked ?

[mechanicalman]

Nice job, nice truck, nice thread, WELL DONE.

[jjzepplin]

That is one nice job you have done there!
How much did you shorten the bench brackets before you flipped them forward and how did you do such a nice job of flipping them?