Slide on Over, Babe

 

One of the best things about vintage automobiles is the bench seat.  In fact, the band Cake has an entire song called "Stick Shifts and Safety Belts" that espouses the bench seat's superiority over the modern day "bucket" seat.  I did a little research on this topic and it turns out that "bucket seats" first


appeared in small European cars around WWII.  They evolved from the need for a smaller, more compact seating configuration and from the fact that most cars during that era had manual transmissions...which necessitated having a gear box and shifter between the driver and front passenger.  Bucket seats finally penetrated the US auto market in the 50's and 60's when the compact car market gained mass appeal.  The move away from the original "bench" seat didn't occur for trucks and larger vehicles until the 1990's.  Since that time, bucket seats have evolved as the de facto seating configuration for most vehicles regardless of class (compact, sub-compact, truck, SUV, etc).


My '54 GMC pickup has a bench seat...unfortunately, it is not original to the truck.  By the looks of it, someone took out the original and replaced it with some other bench seat from god knows what type of car or truck.  Functional?  Yes.  Better than a bucket seat?  Absolutely.  Suitable for restoration?  Unfortunately not.  Here is a photo of my daughter sitting on this mystery bench:

My initial thought was that this seat would be no problem to replace...after all, you can buy almost any reproduction part for these trucks.  To my dismay, however, it turns out that seat frames for these vehicles are one of the few reproduction items you actually can't buy.  This left me with 3 options:

1. Keep the mystery bench
2. Scour the salvage yards searching for an identicle make/model truck to cannobolize
3. Take to the internet

Option one wasn't really an option in my mind...after all, it doesn't make sense to sink thousands into a restoration when one of the most visible parts of the truck isn't correct (not to mention the fact funky as all get out having been exposed to the elements for the last decade).  Option #2 was appealing, but given that my time is limited I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of spending hours (and most likely days) searching for what might equate to looking for a needle in a haystack.  Besides, who's to say the owner of such a vehicle would even be willing to part with his bench seat even if I was able to find a perfect match.  Nope, option #3 was the way to go.

I started my search at the "Old GMC truck" forum (www.oldgmctrucks.com).  This site is a treasure trove of information and gateway to some incredibly helpful people.  I posted a "wanted" add on the forum and in a few days I had several replies.  One person lived in Arkansas...he had a perfect match but shipping the bench proved cost-prohibitive.  I then got a response from a fellow GMC truck owner named Phil Mixter.  Phil lives in Pullman, WA (home of Washington State University) and was optimistic that with summer break right around the corner, that we could find a cash strapped college student to let us add our bench to his Uhaul for a reasonable price.  After several email exchanges, agreed on a price and I sent Phil a deposit for the seat.  Since I wasn't in any hurry to get the seat, we agreed to let the stars align and wait for the perfect opportunity to ship the bench.  In the interim, Phil took the time to send me photos of the seat and to "test fit" it into his own GMC truck to make sure it would work for me.  Phil is a fantastic guy...someone I would probably hang out with if we lived in the same town.  As it turns out, we ironically had several things in common:

• We both like old trucks 
• We are both from Wisconsin (I from Madison, Phil from Milwaukee)
• We are both doctors (I am an MD, Phil is a PhD)
• We both work in medicine (I practice it and he teaches medical students)
• We share a similar sense of humor

About 3 weeks after we first connected, Phil informed me he was invited to a wedding in Boise.  As luck would have it, I had some meetings in Boise the very same weekend...talk about serendipity!!!  Its almost like the GMC gods wanted me to have this seat!  We decided to meet at the most recognizable landmark in Boise....the BSU stadium.  Here is a photo of Phil and I (I'm on the right) after the exchange:

I must admit, I'm a long way off from actually needing an original bench for my truck.  Clearly, I have more pressing issues to address first--like getting my truck mechanically reliable and finding a place to actually work on it.  That said, items like this don't come along too often and I consider myself lucky to have found an original replacement.  Fabricating a bench seat from scratch would have been insanely tricky and I doubt I could have made it look right.  Besides, this sort of adventure (i.e. traveling to Boise to meet Phil) is exactly what I mean when I say "its not the destination, its the journey."  My only regret is that Phil and I didn't get to go out for lunch...it would have been great to spend some time hanging out with him.  Unfortunately, we both were on very tight schedules so we had to promise each other we would visit the other if we ever passed through each others respective towns.

So by now you are probably asking yourself two very pertinent questions:

1. What does this bench seat actually look like?
2. How much did I pay for it.

Well, I can answer the first question best with a photo:

Just look at it!!!  Isn't it Glorious!!!  I get teary eyed just looking at it...and to think, it only cost me $350!  I know, I know...insane.  But come on people!  Everyone knows that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and that "one's man's trash is another man's treasure."

Truthfully, if I had seen this same bench seat sitting in my yard a year ago, I probably would have paid someone to haul it away.  But my perspective has changed...I see this rusty relic not as it is today, but how it will look when foam padding is added and the entire thing is covered in upholstery.  I can see myself sitting in the driver's seat with my daughter at my side as we take a cruise down to Dairy Queen on a warm summer's night.  Don't you see it?  Just close your eyes and imagine...that's what I do.