Factory seat options

[Los_Control]

Still puttering away on Molly the 49 b1c flatbed. And have been thinking about the bench seat. It has the custom ordered "air ride" seat? I cant remember the correct name of the option.

But it has a tin tag riveted to the cab above the wind shield with operating instructions. Move the lever to the left for a softer seat or to the right for a firmer seat.

I am trying to find any info on restoring/recovering a seat like this. The seat still has the original covering on the bottom, so cant see inside to the springs.

While the lever is actually on the base of the seat that is part of the cab.

Just wondering if any have insight or a link to the construction of these seats.

Thanks in advance.

[JBNeal]

additional information - Air Ride Seat Anatomy 

Edited October 18, 2019 by JBNeal
revised link

[Los_Control]

thanks for the photos there JB, proves I once again forgot and the seat has the lever and not the frame.

I am thinking about my seat options, because I now have two choices. Honestly what I really want, is bucket seats with a center console.

And I need to claim a pair of bucket seats if I want them, they came out of a custom 1972 dodge van and mounted on pedestal and swivel.

Or I have a set of ford seats from same early 50's era with new brown fake leather. I think I can just remove the hog rings that hold material to the frames, and modify to fit my frame.

And am trying to figure out what would take to restore the comfort selection of the original seat, vrs throwing it out and just go with buckets like I want.

 

Is all pointless anyways. I cant stop thinking about. We are only caretakers for a little while. Just keep it as is and when we pass, A new caretaker will step in.

So bucket seats are out. Will just recover what I have, honestly a old horse blanket over it and would not be bad. I imagine is just some sort of wire that stretches the springs taught when lever is moved.

[jmooner3]

I think the lever you mention is just a vent that simply meters the air out of the seat base, giving the illusion of soft or firm ride.  My seat became a hotel for vermin and they chewed through the cover so I'll never know if it worked or not.  I am going to recover mine and when I do I'll pull all of the horsehair and such out and replace with modern foam rubber as it now smells awful... I will have to replace the cardboard base and the cover as it all has the mice perfume going for it now.  I'll post pics when I pull it apart for our members to see the internals.

[JBNeal]

I did some work on the money pit recently, and had thought about doing a write-up on seat variations that I observed and findings that I had researched, but realized this is not a high priority topic for such in-depth analysis.  The brief summary is that there are 3 basic seat designs that vary on seat spring design, bottom and back mounting, and the Air-O-Ride option, with optional seat padding, and upholstery colors that Bunn has adequately described.  I could not find the part number in the parts book, but the seat control tag appears to be a B-1 / B-2 only application as the B-3 / B-4 cabs do not have the mounting holes in the header..

 

The 1948 Dodge Pilot-House poster shows the variety of improvements made for the B-series...here is the advertised seat detail:

 

 

I have a few busted driver side coil springs that need repair, but studying the seat anatomies shows that there may be a way to fix these by moving coils around on the frame, kinda like flipping a mattress over.  Oddly enough, coil spring design changed between seat designs, so I cannot really rob a B-3 spring to fix a B-1 seat or vice versa.

 

Another small detail that changed was how the seat covers were held onto the frame.  I made the mistake back in '05 by having a local upholstery guy recover the seat in the '49; he tossed the original cover remnants and used hog rings in place of the original frame clips.  Apparently, the '48 bone seat cover was a kit from 1968 installed over the original brown; both have experienced excessive rodent exposure and need to be burned.  Their anatomy of burlap and cotton padding match the advertisement and can be replaced with modern synthetic materials.