Seats for '65 A body???

[65GS]

Just wondering if anyone would have any ideas for seats to replace the stockers in a 65 skylark,,the stock ones are similar to what came in chevelles and GTO's,,I would like a more modern seat,with more support,,but nothing too wild!!! I would like to find a seat that is close to the size of the original seat,,and could be recovered to match the original interior to a certain degree!!
I was looking at corbeau sport seats,,wondering if anyone has tried them and what their opinion of them is?? Thanks

[BobB66SS]

Just swapped out the stock buckets in my '66 Chevelle for FloFits that I had custom upholstered. Went with them because they're not too wild but have great lateral support and dropped right onto the stock studs using the brackets specific to the car (although the 'direct fit' brackets did take some massaging). I like stuff that's more subtle and makes you do a "is that stock or not?" double-take when you see it so I looked at a lot of seats before I pulled the trigger. Had the centers done in suede and the rest in vinyl (with stock seam pattern) to mimic the original look and match the door panels. Had the headrest corners eased a bit too, don't like the 'cat ears' look. Even had the rear seat recovered with suede inserts to mimic the fronts. Put the stock emblems back in. They look great and feel even better. They do sit a bit higher than stock and I may have to shorten the brackets a bit but will put some seat time in first to make sure. Seatsource.com carries them.

[65GS]

Thanks for the reply!!! What you have done is exactly what I want to do,,just a subtle change that makes you look twice to figure out whats done!!
Do you think you'll be able get the seat down far enough?? Im almost 6'3", with the stock seat and no headliner and feel like im about to bump my head,,,i also would like to move the seat back a few inches just to be able to stretch out!!!
Your chevelle is an awesome looking car,,,do you ever make it over to the Woodward cruise??

[BobB66SS]

Thanks for the compliments. I haven't taken the car to Woodward the last few yrs. DSE had my car in their 'booth' in front of the U-Coat-It shop the last time I went and having a guaranteed parking spot made it easy for me to go over. Personally I've gotten to like the Gratiot cruises, you get to drive more without the logjam and parking is a bit easier to come by.

I think you could get the seats down another 1.5-2" or so by modifying the brackets that attach to the floor (the others that attach to the seat have the fore/aft tracks and can't really be changed). The problem I have is my stereo head unit is under the passenger seat so I can only drop it maybe 0.75" max unless I move that unit. The slider brackets have 3 vertical adjustment holes and I'm in the top one already, so to make them lower would take changing the height of the tabs that mount the bracket to the floor, not a big deal if I end up having to do that. The new and old seats actually measure the same height at the seating surface, but the new springs and foam have way more support than the 40 yr old stockers.

If you needed to move the seat back, modifying the brackets shouldn't be too bad. They're basically only drilled, bent tabs welded to the cross braces. You could easily modify the tabs to move the whole bracket rearward. The whole mounting bracket itself is pretty crude by design. 2 pieces of rod running frt-to-back with tapped ends to attach the slider mechanisms to, connected by flat stock cross braces with more bent flat stock for mounting tabs. Nothing you probably couldn't really do yourself. I had to move my tabs because they were off 2" on center from side to side and it was faster to do it myself than ship them back to Seatsource.

I agree with you 100% on the subtle/sleeper stuff. I even had the stamped steel seatback panels reproduced on my new seats and had the chrome trim/piping around it put on as well. I also made a new 6-spd shift pattern emblem that looks exactly like the 4-speed one and had DSE graft the stock shifter handle onto the T-56 with the stock console moved fwd 2" to accomodate it. Looks completely stock as you can see in my gallery pics. Can't tell you how many double takes that setup has gotten.

If I can help let me know. I can give you the upholsterer info if you want. Very reasonable for recovering the seats as rec'd, prices go up for custom stuff as you'd expect but I couldn't be happier with how they came out.

[65GS]

Are the seats in the pics of your car the flofit ones??
I went to the seat source web site and only found one style of seat,,is that the one you had modified or is there other styles??
Any info you could give me would be great,,,the name of a well respected interior shop would be great also!! My car isn't ready for interior just yet,,but hoping to have all the bugs worked out of it and ready for interior by fall/winter!!!
What mods are you planning to do on your car in the future??

[BobB66SS]

I'll PM you.

[bertmac]

http://www.geocities.com/bertmacland/

check this out

and here for pics done follow the GTO link

http://www.geocities.com/bertmac1111/