MTFCA Forum

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:
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:
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

Dear Walt: Here is an old post with numerous '26 Coupe seat pics. http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/33 ... 1386704070

Don Booth and Lorenzo Leon posted a number of good pics, Don helped me sort out seat issues with my '26 coupe. Some of the photos show seatback features that are not the original Ford construction. The original Ford design allowed the seatback to be removed by removing the 3 bolts at the bottom, one bolt at the end of each of 3 vertical slats that secured the slat to the metal channel at the bottom, and then lifting the back vertically to clear the lip at the front of the wood package tray. My coupe has one metal tab (1 inch wide by 1/8th inch thick by approx. 1-1/2 inch long) that engages a pocket in the top of the back edge of the package trap lip. As you indicate, Ford suggested cutting several inches off the front of the woos package tray and re-attaching the lip to move the top of the seatback rearward, and as you also indicate, the bottom metal rail can be adjusted rearward, not much, but there are several holes in the body frame support to make some adjustments.

If your seat to package tray connection is different I suspect someone modified it along the way, some photos in the link show non-Ford modifications, I believe the early and later '26-27's all had that feature at the top whereby the seatback could be lifted up to decouple it from the package tray lip and there was only that one strap iron tab that engaged the backside of the tray lip. The 3 vertical slats rest against the front of the package tray and lip at the top, but these are not fastened to the tray. And some package trays were all steel which greatly complicates the process of moving the seatback rearward at the top.

The pic you show of the seat bottom sitting rearward of the front edge of the metal seat bottom support is clearly a custom modification, but something you might find necessary of you want the cushion further rearward than the 'dowels' and holes in the seat cushion base allow. Adding a sheet of plywood to the seat bottom will, unfortunately, make you taller in your T. Hope this is helpful, if you have other questions on this, pm me to jab35 at cornell dot edu and I will try to assist. Good luck, jb