best bucket seats for a 57 Belair

[sgreg831]

I am new to the forum and recently acquired a 57 belair 2-door poster. I am redoing the interior and am looking for suggestions as to what bucket seats would work best with a minimum of modification. Let me know what has worked best for you. Thanks in advance for your help

[chevynut]

Welcome to the site sgreg831!

Personally I like the late 90's to 2002 Cadillac Eldorado buckets. They are little larger-looking than a lot of other bucket seats, have 12-way power (with lumbar) and heat (if you want it), and fit well in these cars. There are a few others here who have used them too. I tried using a pair of Lexus seats, but they just looked to small in the car so I'm keeping them for another project. I built my own seat mounts that you can see in the pic below. I had a few other guys who wanted them, so I made several sets of them that I'm selling as a kit. The seat tracks need to be modified slightly, and only two holes need to be drilled in the floor for the inboard mount to make sure the seat is secure for safety reasons. The outboard mount is a bolt-in. I have a couple more sets left if you're interested. They may actually work with other seats with some modification.

Here's the 2000 Eldorado seats in my Nomad.

20120407_0006.jpg

[chevynut]

Here's a pair of the Eldo seats in a trifivechevys member's (races14) car:

http://www.cruisenewsonline.com/1956Chevy/1956ChevyFeature.html

[JT56]

Welcome to the site. My car is a bench seat, but have seen trifives with the Lexus and GTO buckets in them.

[NickP]

Welcome aboard!

[Rick_L]

I think most like a seat that has a squared off top (no integral headrests). Just doesn't fit in with the car's lines, especially a hardtop. A seat with a separate headrest can always have it removed.

You might be surprised at how similar all the late model seats are as far as width, height, and cushion thickness. Throw away the extreme 10% as far as small and big, and there's little difference in the rest.

If you have a 2 door car, you generally need seats from a 2 door. But that's not mandatory, especially if the seats have power and adjustable backs. I have some Chrysler 4 door seats for mine, the back seat is accessible from the passenger side if you slide the front passenger seat all the way forward and tilt the back cushion as forward as possible. Maybe not ideal but it's going to work for me.

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

hi sg and welcome. good to have you here. lots of good info from everyone. I would keep away from any of those high headrest type seats (like rick said), they just don't look right in these cars imo. those Eldorado seats do look nice c-nut.

[chevynut]

Personally I think the newer GTO seats look too "sports car" for these tri5s. They have large bolsters on the sides, but could be re-done by an interior shop to reduce them somewhat. Plus, every pair I've seen say "GTO" on them, so they would have to be re-done. The GTO is a pretty small car and I wonder how well the seats would fit in a tri5. I know some guys have used them.

[willis]

hey chevy nut are those seats in the yellow 56 out of a 2000 caddy ? if so what years are they the same?

[chevynut]

Willis, yes those are Eldorado seats in Allen's 56. I believe 1992-2002 Eldorado seats are essentially the same basic seats. I just sold a pair of my custom seat mount brackets to a guy who's using 1997 Eldorado seats in his car. I think I only have 1 or 2 pairs of bracket kits left.

[Maddog]

If you're going to do buckets you need to do extensive interior work to make it all "fit", otherwise the original bench seat would look best.

[markm]

Nothing looks better to me than 62-65 Impala SS with that chrome band.

[chevynut]

Nothing looks better to me than 62-65 Impala SS with that chrome band.

Yeah, but you're also the guy who is stuck on old school 14 or 15" Cragar wheels with balloon tires. LOL!

[chevynut]

If you're going to do buckets you need to do extensive interior work to make it all "fit", otherwise the original bench seat would look best.

To me, bench seats are a thing of the past except in trucks. Not many cars have bench seats anymore, and they're horrible for a performance car because they have zero support. They're not very adjustable, and imo buckets look a lot better. There's no need for "extensive" interior work with buckets. You don't even really need a console, but it allows you to use one. And even that is made easy with aftermarket consoles.

Allen's 56 above uses a fiberglass console and valence available from the guy who did his interior.

I guess we all have different tastes...mine is to modernize. You're going to hate my interior. LOL!

[markm]

Yeah, but you're also the guy who is stuck on old school 14 or 15" Cragar wheels with balloon tires. LOL!

Never owner owned a set of Crager SS wheels in my life, I do however three pair of 15x3.5 Cragar Supertricks and a pair each of 15x7, 15x8 and 15x10 Supertricks with Slicks fo my Camaros.