Take a seat and let's talk about what you are sitting on for a minute. We all have seats in our trucks that come in different shapes, colors, comforts, as well as good or not-so-good looks. More often than not, a stock seat is fine and most don't really question it-it's there and it works. Some choose to swap their old one out for cushy late-model buckets, a split bench, or a slick aftermarket seat with heaters, cup holders, or any number of options. Unless the "new" seat is made specifically for your truck, there will be a varying degree of work needed to make it fit in its new home.
In the Bumpside Build-Off '68 I knew I was going to ditch the stock bench seat for something sassier, but I also wanted to retain the late '60s feel of the truck at the same time as well as try to use something from the Ford family. Well, I was already using a Mustang engine, Mustang-esque wheels, and steering wheel, so I thought about Pony low-back bucket seats from the '60s. About this time I found out while on www.fordification.com (a great all '67-72 F-100 Web site/forum) that they used these same Mustang seats in specially optioned Ranger-edition Bumpsides. A cool discovery, but I also found out that they are quite rare and the brackets to make this an easy swap are even harder to find.
I started searching anyway and found a set of '68 bucket seats from a Mustang, complete with seat tracks, and just decided to make my own brackets. The only problem is that the outside portion of the F-100's floor slopes downward instead of being a flat surface all the way across like many trucks.This meant some sort of riser would be needed to join the outside seat tracks to the floor.
In doing this I tried to keep major fabrication to a minimum as well as trying to avoid welding in or on the truck. I also wanted to make the brackets "bolt-ons", even though I'm making them from scratch in hopes that someone can use this as a helpful guideline and do something similar on a finished truck. I wasn't however totally successful with the no-welding part; I feel like the un-reinforced areas of the floor that now hold the weight of the seat and its occupant need a doubler plate installed to help stiffen and strengthen the area.
Besides a sturdy installation, one of the most important things to keep in mind when swapping seats is that they fit you! It's your truck; you'll be driving it and you need to be comfortable. I'm about 6-foot-3 and very content with the seats low and pushed toward the back of the cab; someone shorter or taller may not find my truck as comfortable. Once you are comfortable, make sure the seats are mounted identically side to side, front to back, and up and down for no other reason than good looks and symmetry. You have just done all this work to install a new seat(s) and you might as well make them look nice instead of being mounted in some sort of hasty/caddywhampus fashion.
Anyway, I hope this helps those kicking "the bucket" idea around until someone re-pops the originals-hint, hint!
 |  Original Ranger F-100s with...  Original Ranger F-100s with bucket seats are tough to come by and many people don't even know they were an option. The seats in the Rangers were the same as the '65-68 Mustang buckets, but there is an extra, hard-to-find bracket that was used to mount them in the trucks. The '69 Mustang buckets can be used as well, but have a headrest on them. As you can see, something needs to be done to put these seats in their places. |  Here's a quick look at what...  Here's a quick look at what needs to happen for the seat to sit level and centered directly in front of the steering wheel. The floor on both sides of the truck slopes downward by the doors and therein lies the trouble in just drilling four holes and being done. |