My father always used these tacky hard plaid seat covers in his NEW cars in 70's and 80's so he would not cause any wear with his 120 pounds. They almost appeared to be hardboard covered in thin foam and fabric. One piece for your butt and one for your back with a fabric "hinge" in the middle. It folded up so you could toss in the trunk.
Interesting idea and definitely worth considering.
A friend and I were able to remove the seat covers to replace all the padding and burlap which had seen better days. He got the materials at a local upholstery shop. One thing we added which really made a difference was a layer of 1/2" closed cell foam. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to re-install the covers. I expected them to just fall apart when we stretched and stapled them to the wood frame.
I had only planned to do the seat base but it felt and looked so good we did the back also.
Just about any type of blanket or sheet works fine, I used a bed sheet in my '39 and it stuck to the mohair fine and stayed in place. Also easier to slide on than mohair.
Hey Rusty, joes37 here. After reading this post, on the seat covers, I was wondering how you managed to re-attach the buttons without tearing the covers?? I was going to do just what you did, but stopped everything because of the buttons. Any help will be appreciated. Thank You, Joe. By the way, thats a nice looking 37!! Did the headlite conversion come with the car?? I've been looking for a seal beam conversion kit.
Yes, the buttons were interesting to re-install. There were a couple of simple things we did that made it pretty simple.
First of all we took lots of pictures of where the cord on the buttons attached to the springs as well as measured the length before we cut them.
The real trick was that my friend had a special long needle that upholstery shops use to install buttons. It is almost like the tool you use to install a plug in a tire. After the seat cover was fastened in place we pushed the needle through the original hole that was in the seat cover. We made sure the needle was heading in the correct direction to reach the point where the chain would attach to the spring. Once the needle was far enough into the underseat/spring area we attached the button retainer clip that was on the chain to it and pulled it back into the seat. Then we were able to attach the button to the retainer on the chain and pull it back down. The key is that you do not want to pull the retainer chain through the seat cover. You want enough of the retainer exposed so you can attach the button to it.
Hope this helps. I can try to get a picture of the needle if you want. It might take a few days
The sealed beam conversion was done long before Doris bought the car from her uncle's auction. I could not find any manufacturer or supplier's name on it. I do have the complete original headlight assemblies but I doubt if I will use them. I need the light from the sealed beams. I did some rework of the mounting tabs so the retainer was better aligned in the bucket. The real limitation is that the '37 generator can barely keep up with the load on low beam and does not with high beams.
Hey Rusty, thanks for the reply. This really sheds the light on it for me. Although my front seat doesn't look as nice as yours, I'm hoping I can build it up as far as the padding go's. Now, you said you used 1/2" closed cell foam, does it come in black sheets?? And did you put the closed cell foam on top of the rest of the padding as you were layering up? or in-between some where? I bought seat covers for it years ago at Fleet Farm, [ farm supply ], their for a chevy S-10 seats but work just fine on my 37. Yes, I think I know what that tool looks like. I used to work in a garage years ago changing tires and re-pairing flats. It was our families gas station-garage up in Emmetsburg Iowa. Anyway, about the seal beams. I have a set of extra buckets with the seal beams in them but, the glass is resting on the metal of the bucket. Also, My car came with a 1952 chevy generator and voltage reg. so they light up nice but thought I would try to find a better way. Anyway, I'll ask at the fabric store here if they have that needle before I get started on this agin. Many Thanks Rusty, Joe.
I purchased a seat cover from one of the local stores. I believe it was for a pickup truck. Not a perfect fit but works real well for driving. I just drape it over the seat backs and tuck it between the seat and seat back. It drapes over the front of the seat.
Thanks for the idea to use a more generic seat cover from a truck as an over-cover.
Joe,
Let's start a new thread about the headlight conversion. That way it will not get buried in a seat cover post. I will take a few pictures to get things started.
The closed cell foam we used was a white sheet material. It is fairly dense. The upholstery shop did not stock it because it is relatively expensive. Most people do not want to spend the extra money especially for home furniture. I spent about $100 in material and feel that it was well worth it. The seat looks great and sits very well.
We reused the original burlap to cover the springs. Then we put all of the old upholstery stuffing on top of and around the perimeter of the burlap. We trimmed the close cell foam so the length and width matched the perimeter of the springs. Then we added another layer of new upholstery stuffing and draped it over the edges.
We fastened the back lower edge of the seat cover in its original position. Then we pulled the seat cover up and over the fully padded spring assembly. We moved the upper layer of stuffing around to get the right height for the back fold of the seat cover and to make it a uniform line. Then we pulled the cover forward and eventually down so we could reattach it to the front edge. We just worked slowly and were constantly moving stuffing around to getting things full and level over the whole surface.
We did the ends last and then placed the whole assembly back into the frame. It really was a lot easier than I expected especially after we figured out how everything was assembled and the sequence to take it apart.
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