I had my shoulder surgery and decided I better start working on some truck projects.

I can't do any heavy lifting, but I figure I can start working on my new seat. The Bostrom T Bar seat I got off Rocco had been sitting outside for awhile. The cushions need replaced and the foam was soaked. Rocco gave me a new bottom seat pan and cushion he had. I pulled the cover off the back pan and have decided to have an upholstery shop make a new one.

Some you may wonder,why replace the driver's seat.  Well , anyone familiar with the Autocar Safety Cab, which was used until 1950,knows it's about the size of a Ford Ranger or S10 Chevrolet cab. The Autocar Drivers Cab which replaced it is much larger. Larger people will find it hard to impossible to get behind the wheel.

Even though my truck was equipped with the Deluxe seat, which gives you adjustment for your lumbar, legs and tilt of your back, I haven't found a position to make it comfortable. I once drove the truck about 120 miles and when I got out, I felt as if someone beat me with a hammer.

The seat has to have a low back,due to the hight of the cab. The T bar seat has a low back,suspension,and ample adjustment. It also looks period correct. You can also gain about 4-5 inches of leg room due to the design of the T bar seat.

Let's start the seat restoration:

 I did my usual procedure when I restore anything. Step one tear everything apart. The seat was stripped down to the last nut and bolt. The ratchet mechanism was frozen and all the grease fittings were plugged up. The small shock absorber,that serves as the suspension was also frozen. The seat also needs new rubber stops and one pivot pin. I ordered the shock from Jack Sell at Sell's Truck Parts in Sarver. The rest of the parts I needed are,Surprise, obsolete. We'll tackle these later. A word of warning. I e-mailed Bostrom and was informed that the only parts available are the shock and some seat cover foam. These will only be available this year. If you have one of these seats or would like to restore one later,I would suggest you at least buy a shock,while you still can.

I next washed all the parts in my parts washer. This is basically a sink with a pump that circulates cleaning solution from a barrel under the wash tank. This dissolved years of old grease and also helped dissolve some of the green Mack paint.

After everything dried, I began cleaning the parts in the blast cabinet. You could also use a wire wheel on a grinder. I don't like to use chemical paint stripper as it tends to hide in places until you paint the part then it oozes out and destroys your new paint. Been there,done that. I like to start with clean metal,especially when I'm doing a color change. The media blasting also broke the ratchet loose, freeing up the adjustment.

The next step is to apply a good primer to seal the metal and help the paint adhere.

Most Bostrom T Bar seat's I've seen were painted black. My seat was painted Mack green. When I restored Big Melvin the first time,I used silver hammer tone paint to finish the dash,seat frame, trim pieces and steering column. I decided to paint the Bostrom frame hammer tone and leave the seat cushion pans and accent pieces black.

Re assembly can be tricky. The best advise I can give you is to take pictures as you disassemble. If you try to use the parts diagram,you'll be scratching your head in a few places.( Like how the tension spring for the back and forth adjustment goes back on. Luckily for me,I had my Dad's seat to refer to.)

I reused the rubber stops. These are a round rubber block that has a rubber nub on the back. The nub goes through a hole in the seat frame. When you pull the stop off the seat pan for your restoration,the nub pulls off. I used a stainless steel sheet metal screw backer up with a flat washer. Insert the screw through the hole and screw it into the stop. It seems to work pretty well. We'll see going down the road.

The pivot bolt's are hollow and have a grease fitting on the end. A small hole lets grease through to lubricate the rollers and bushings. When I attempted to lubricate the bolts, The grease fitting in two bolts stuck in the grease gun and pulled out of the bolt when I pulled the grease gun free. Who would have thought....
These can be fixed by running a tap in the bolt and re threading it. I new grease fitting can then be installed.

Finally the frame and lift mechanism are assembled and the bottom seat pan is installed. The funky thing about this seat is the pan holds everything together. If you take the bottom pan off,the seat separates in half. Every pivot point was lubricated with either gun grease or white lithium grease. I also used stainless steel bolts,nuts, and washers in the reassembly.

Valley Seat Cover made the cover for the back seat and did an excellent job.

Would I restore this seat again. Let's look at the facts: These were thousands of these seats made. Most were put in trucks that got worked hard. The covers are almost always ripped. The seat is designed to have the cover and pan replaced as a unit. You keep a couple in the shop. One gets ripped, slap on a new back or bottom and go down the road. Except The pan's and backs aren't available anymore. Bostrom didn't have any and want ads I posted  on several of the antique truck web pages I frequent failed to produce any. The same can be said for the covers them selves. Not available.

This leaves you with a trip the upholstery shop. Find a good one.Then get ready,they're not cheep. But quality work will last a long time.There's no sense putting time and money into a project,then skimp on the part everyone will see.

Unless your seat was sitting outside,like mine was,it may not be necessary to do a complete tear down. Touch up the nicks in the paint,lubricate all the pivot points,and replace the covers,and the shock and you could have a like new seat. The covers will be the most expensive part.

I rebuilt mine to new. I got a seat that was exactly what I wanted for about half the cost of an air ride seat. It also gave me sometime in the garage and kept me busy with I recuperate. So,I'd say it was worth it.

I attached some pictures. Please leave me some feedback and feel free to ask me any questions.

Here are some before and after pictures. I should have taken some during the rebuild,but once I get started, I didn't want to stop. I'll take more next time.