VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 The Doodlebug Gets a seat and bed

I’ve been really torn on what to do with this Doodlebug now that I got it running. The thing is rugged and ugly but runs and drives like a champ. I tossed around the idea of building a seat on buggy springs but decided to do a solid bench with storage for tools and what not. Since we’ll mostly be taking it to tractor shows I doubt I’ll ever hit the top of 3rd or 4th gear. Bet it would be a wild ride with the axle bolted to the frame, a solid seat, shabby brakes and a steering box that turns right if you turn too hard left. I posted a few pictures below of what I’ve been working on the last few days. Oh and a video because I love listening to it idle. The wood work is far from pretty but that is more or less what I was going for. I was hoping to make it all out of oak but I ran out and had to piece together everything I had. So now it has oak, poplar, pine and walnut. I guess after all thats the idea of a doodlebug, make do with what you have.

Looking good GHarless!

Something you could do for upholstery, is what I did for Lurch, my '27 one ton truck. I made a bench seat bottom from the ends of a twin bed box spring and covered it with an old jeans skirt of my wife's. That was 25 years ago and it still is holding together.

For seat backs, I took one of my pair of old jeans, cut them in half (along the side seams) and stapled them to pieces of plywood with some foam for cushoning. So, the driver's seat is the front of the jeans and the passenger's seat back is the back of the jeans.

Crowd pleasers wherever I go.

Cheers, Dean