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New seat covers are here.. so time to take apart the old ones, clean them up and recover.

Did the bench seat tear down today. Here's the bench. The light spot is not the flash, the canvas is actually worn down:




The back. In good shape, nothing broken or mangled. Just a little rusty because the canvas kept water against the metal:



The clips that hole the canvas to the frame is a bit different from modern clips. Here is a clip in place.



Here's a clip removed. They actually work very well. I had to dig out all of them.. none just poped out.



After the clips and canvas are off, here is the padding. No burlap, just some (I guess its cotton?) and jute looking stuff.



I *think* these are civy seats. Two things I noted were the rear passenger side. The corner is 'cut' in. I think this is to allow the civy fill tube to come out of the under seat tank to the side of the cab:



Also the seat bench and back seem to be hooked, the cover I took off had these cut outs, yet the new canvas I got from New Life did not have these cut outs for the backrest to connect to the bench:



The major work involves sand blasting the metal, painting with gloss black lacquer, and getting new padding.

The padding is held down in two ways.. both a twine string and a 'hog ring'.

There seemed to be an equal number of each, and only along the outer steel rim.



I'll have photo's of the new canvas soon.

Bought 200lbs of crushed walnut for sandblasting ($0.50/lb). The black beauty I normally would use was to aggressive, and left a powder residue (most likely because I have aluminum oxide also mixed in with it).

Plus if you sandblast and its really dry.. the static electricity will really start to annoy you.

DIY Upholstry supply:

http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/upho ... plies.html

Hog/Horse hair is $30/lb? Wow. They list burlap, jute and cotton. Other restoration places sell enough 'stuff' for a bench seat for approx $50. This place may be cheaper.

Found the original style c clips!

http://www.oldchevytrucks.com/cart/prod ... 10833|||||

Verified that my seat is a civvy one. Well, it matches the exact same seat used in the 1950's AD trucks. I can't seem to find a good photo of a 40's Chevy truck seat stripped to the springs, but the cutout for the fuel nozzle seems to make sense.

Rats!

Well, at least I have a seat.

It was 32F yesterday, so with the help of the wood stove I was able to get some garage time in. Spent most of the day taking trim pieces off the 41 cab before I cut it off, but I did manage to get some pics of the recovering material for the seats.

This is what Rebecca from Crazygarage.com sold me. Its 10 yards each of batting and burlap.



Here is what the old an new materials look like. Bottom right is the old cotton batting. The bottom left is the jute padding (I guess they used that rather than burlap.. but since my seat is a civy one and possible had already been recovered I can't vouch for authenticity) and the top is the cotton batting I just got. Looks dead on (other than the fading).



Due to the cold I have not been able to sandblast the seat.... Molasses is out because the water would freeze and it stinks to bad to bring into the basement to keep warm.

Here's a link to a recovering done by a guy on stovebolts.com

http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/120777347

Note the jute was the same as what I had on my seat, and the difference between the clip styles. I think the 'new' style allow you to more easily remove the clips than the old style.