HELP!!! questions about 26 Coupe seat adjustment

[Walt Wise]

Hi everyone! I am trying to adjust the bench and seat back on my 26 Coupe since I am 6'6''. With the original "setup", it is not only hard to fold up my legs to get in the car, but I have to bend my head down to see out the front windshield because since the 26 windshield was redesigned and doesn't go to the top of the cab like the 25 Coupes down, my line of site is right in that six or so inches that is not only the visor, but the car's body as well. Hope that makes sense to you?

So...I tried to follow the procedure in the back of Service Manual starting at 1259. I have the spacer board out and it appears you can cut it a maximum of 3 inches, but they sort of suggest 2 inches. I realize if you were to cut it more, you change the angle of the seat back, but that isn't the problem I am having. Even if you ONLY cut it 2 inches, the L bracket on each side of the interior body would have to be moved toward the back of the car or it can't "hold up" the spacer board on the edge of the seat back straight across. A picture of the L bracket below I found on a previous posting:

behind seat riser bracket.jpg (136.99 KiB) Viewed 2429 times

Mine appears to be riveted on the interior body, but it is a tad rusty - not a screw/bolt though. I think I can drill the rivet out, remove the L bracket, drill a hole further back on the interior body there, and re-mount the L bracket so the spacer board's edge directly behind the seat back will have a "ledge" to sit on and bolt it back again. I just don't get WHY that is not part of the procedure in the Service Manual? Maybe my spacer board isn't original? Even if it isn't, that L bracket will still be in the way to put the seat back further back(2 to 3" inches) toward the back of the car anyway.

I understand how to extend the bracket back at the bottom for the bench seat, but then I have a problem there as well - the bottom edge of the front of the bench seat NO longer allows the dowels on the seat riser to fit into the bottom wood frame of the bench seat. Here is another picture of how someone solved that problem - here again NO instructions in the Service Manual about this. See below:

bench seat adjustment.jpg (74.57 KiB) Viewed 2429 times

I realize I am freakishly tall, but I am trying to make sitting and seeing out the windshield better in my car.

Lastly, an additional question about the wood framing on the back of the seat back. Mine is attached to the back of the seat back - is that correct? At the very bottom of the seat back, the three boards across the seat back going straight down are NOT bolted to the angle iron going across in the three bolt holes there. It currently just sits on that railing across there. I know something is wrong there because those three holes is where those boards coming straight down should be bolted, so I don't know what someone did, I just know it isn't correct. Here again, NOT enough info in the Service manual to help me, so PLEASE HELP me someone. Much Thanks for your reading time and hopeful HELP!!! Walt Wise

[Walt Wise]

OMG, I put it in the wrong place! Oh well, I don't know how to move it and I hate to re-create it there.

[ancientseeker]

Hello Walt,
I’m 6’-1” and my wife is 6’even. A couple years ago I finished restoring a 1931 pickup for her and had the same problem. People were simply much shorter decades ago. The seat springs in Model As are similar to Model T’s. With the padding installed they take up a huge portion of the cockpit area. That truck had no other options for seat placement so I had to resort to plan “B”. I went to a local fabric store and purchased some high end upholstery foam - not the cheap yellowing stuff that used to be the norm. I made new back and bottom frames from plywood, sculpted the foam, then installed original style seat upholstery stapled to the back of the plywood. I realize that’s not how Henry did it, but since he was just a little bugger and I’m not, it was a good solution. No one has ever looked at it and screamed “that’s not original” so it ended up a great solution for us.

[jsaylor]

As far as seeing out the windshield trying to see traffic signals for us tall people, there is not much you can do about that. Also be careful moving the seat back too far. I moved mine back so much that when I went to do a hand signal I had to put my arm out the rear window!.

[Mark Gregush]

https://www.macsautoparts.com/ford_mode ... lsrc=aw.ds