Victoria Seats

[Jerry Kzoo]

I am helping a friend on his Victoria. It is a project that came incomplete and we are trying to get it back together. It is a non-indented firewall Steelback. The front seats he got with the car do have curved backs, but they are both the same width. It seems the Victoria's came with a wider drivers front seat??

We were at a Swap meet yesterday and he was able to pick up a wider "Drivers" seat. It has what I would call a beaver tail at the bottom of the back part of the seat. The other two seats that came with the car do not have this sheet metal extension.

Does anyone have dimensions of the seat wooden bases and/or the steel frames to try to come up with what we have and what we should have/need?? Any pictures that you could post would help as well.

He has new Snyder's seat springs and also a L/B interior kit to put on top of these frames. This will not be a fine points car, but the hope is it looks great when completed.

Thanks, Jerry

 

[Capt Quahog]

Somewhere along the way . . . recall hearing that the adjustable driver's seat of the 1931 "DELUXE TUDOR" sedan is the same as the unit used in the VICTORIA Bustle Back sedan. Installed a pair of regular TUDOR front seats in our car and pulled out the driver's seat that was in it. The material of the original seat was dry rotted and in tatters. By the way the seat was "double" upholstery covered, it was thought to be some kind of mongrel thing from an oddball car. That seat assembly, which was with old installed rails mounted underneath which match sliders on the car floor, is now sitting on a table out in the garage. Upon later examination, it was realized that the seat was most likely original to the actual DELUXE car. Measured the bottom cushion width and it is at least a couple or more inches WIDER than those standard TUDOR sedan front seats. So it looks to be a late 1931 DELUXE TUDOR driver seat that's stashed out there.

Was just poking around on the LeBaron Bonney site and found the following info on the driver seat cushion spring . . . .

Description: S934 - Driver cushion spring for the following: (FORD) June 1931 to end of 1931 Victoria, 1931 Deluxe Tudor, 1931 A-400 Convertible

Would seem that on at least the indented firewall editions TUDOR DELUXE and VICTORIA, the adjustable driver seat assembly was likely the same. After all, we're talking about massive mass production automobiles so same components were of course used across different models.

 

[Jerry Kzoo]

Capt,

Thanks for the reply. Any chance you could take some pictures of it and post them?

I am interested in the width of the wooden base at the bottom in the back and also at the widest part. If you could also get the distance between the mounted tracks that would be great.

Jerry

 

[art ebeling]

These are pictures of the seats out of my early May 31 Steelback. This is the passenger seat. Do they help?

 

[G Baese]

Art,
Are the dimensions of the plywood bottom of the driver's seat the same?
If they are different could you please photograph it with the tape?
Thank you,
Geary

 

[art ebeling]

This is the drivers seat wood bottom, It appears to be the same, but this is how I got them. I think there was a drawing of the seat bottoms with dimensions in a past Victoria association "Bustle". I can try to find it tonight, maybe someone can find it sooner.

 

[G Baese]

Thank you for the photos Art.

It seems generally understood that the earlier, seats like your May car Art and my flat firewall Vicky had seat bottoms with plywood bases and the later were fabricated from ash or soft maple on the ones I've seen and shown in the attachment drawing.

There are other changes too, such as a wider and perhaps taller drivers seat, the flap between the backrest and cushion, hinge style and adjuster changes. There are scattered old threads about most of these variations.

At some point the drivers seat was wider than the passenger seat as evinced by the later seat bottom in the attached drawing. These have been said to be used for the mid-year to end for 400A, 180A, 190A and perhaps Deluxe Tudor production. Are there further variations and what's the consensus?

Best regards,
Geary

 

[art ebeling]

Here are two more pictures showing the measurements across the rear of the seat bottom wood. The pass side is 17 inches and the drivers side is approx 18.5 inches wide.

 

[G Baese]

Thank you!

 

[Terry NJ]

Jerry, Go to album "My A" there a few pics of my front seat and the wood. I have a 30 Town Sedan. It's the # 3 pattern shown in Snyders catalog. I duplicated my old one from the old pieces . My apologies for the lack of order. The pics got scattered and you'll have to look around somewhat. But all of the seat wood was made by me.
Terry

 

[Jerry Kzoo]

Geary and Art,

Thanks for the replies. I am glad to get the drawings Geary posted. I thought though that the drivers seat was about 1 1/2" wider and the drawing shows a full 2" in the back.

Art, your first batch of pics threw me off as it appears a part of the plywood base has broken off in the front.

I am not sure where the beavertail came into play on the backs of the seats, but it is in the drawing on page 2 of what Geary posted.

The wider seat that we have has it in there. Does anyone know where to get the bent pieces of tack wood around the beavertail?? Maybe you just piece together replacements.

Thanks again, Jerry

 

[G Baese]

From what I've gathered, the fabricated wooden bottom is wider than the plywood bottom, just didn't know how much wider. There are half a dozen leatherbacks in N. Colo., all with the fabricated seat bottoms, but mine is the only steelback I know of. The broken down Victoria drivers seat in my car was replaced with a standard Tudor seat in about 1970. The passengers seat still has the plywood bottom.

The upholstery tack strip on the lower end of the metal flap seems to be a composite material like stiff dense cardboard with a metal keeper that was rivited on after the upholstery material was attached. Another example had slots and tabs to hold the fiber piece. Looks like Murray may have done their own thing as these cars evolved.

Jerry, do you want a file with lots of Vicky seat variation pictures? Check your messages.

Geary

 

[art ebeling]

Here are some more pictures of my seats. The second picture shows the two seat bases against each other to indicate the difference in the width. Geary, Would you send me the Victoria seat pictures also?

 

[Capt Quahog]

I am interested in the width of the wooden base at the bottom in the back and also at the widest part. If you could also get the distance between the mounted tracks that would be great.

re: DELUXE TUDOR sedan adjustable driver seat: Try to get out there tomorrow to check things out. Maybe the factory installed rails on the driver's side floor can be measured too. We took the tracks from the original 1931 DELUXE seat and mounted them on the bottom of a STANDARD TUDOR sedan frame. Now, the driver seat slides back and forth for comfort though the locking mechanism components are long gone.

If there was more passion or interest on my part, I'd clean up and reupholster that original wide DELUXE seat and re-install the thing. Figure to just give the original correct seat with the car when it moves on one day to a new owner.

 

[Mike V. Florida]

Keep in mind that there were early seats and late seats. They are different. The photos above are the early seats and the file is of the late seats.

Which do you need?

 

[G Baese]

Jerry and I both are trying to reproduce the early, flat firewall style.

Not only is the file I posted of later seats, they were presented based on my faulty notion that the 400A had seat boards in common with the later version of the Victoria. Sorry guys, and thank you to the courteous folks that pointed out my error.

Check out the re-enlivened 2014 thread, it dove-tails into this one and provides clarification and good examples.

Best,
Geary