1931 Buick rumble seat back cushion/frame pictures or drawings needed

[Str8-8-Dave]

Hello to all;  This is a desperation posting at this point, I posted this in the Buick Pre-War forum and so far haven't gotten anything useful.

 

I finally took the interior front seat of my 31 Buick 8-66S to an upholsterer so that is under way.  I'm still trying to figure out details of what the rumble compartment seat back assembly, that attaches to the rumble lid, consists of and how it mounts to the woodwork on the lid.  Today I was able to verify with Dave Dunton that the seat springs mount to a wood frame that then mounts to the woodwork on the lid.  His seat back is mounted on the lid and I don't want to ask him to take his seat back off to show the frame.  I'm looking for anyone who has or knows where I can get Fisher Body drawings to work from OR has pictures of a 60 series 1931 Buick special coupe rumble seat off the lid.  Even better pictures  would be of seat back frame and springs without the upholstery on it.  Second choice of subject cars would be any series 31 Buick special coupe, I.E 8-56S, 8-86s, 8-96S.  Any pictures of the wood seat spring frame also would be very helpful.  If I can get this figured out and fabricate the wood frame I can give the rumble seat cushions to the trim shop as well and then finally have a complete drivable car.

 

Thanks in advance 

 

Dave

 

Dave Dunton is restoring a 1930 Chevrolet rumble seat coupe and this is the seat back springs/frame/upholstery removed from the rumble lid of the Chevy which is same concept but different design.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Str8-8-Dave (see edit history)

[J.H.Boland]

You might try "29buick.ca" . I don't know if '29-31 are similar, but Bill McLaughlin has amassed a huge photo album on '29 Buicks. Once on site, open photo gallery and go to the information section ,then on to wood and also the separate section on upholstery. 

Jim

[Str8-8-Dave]

2 hours ago, J.H.Boland said:

You might try "29buick.ca" . I don't know if '29-31 are similar, but Bill McLaughlin has amassed a huge photo album on '29 Buicks. Once on site, open photo gallery and go to the information section ,then on to wood and also the separate section on upholstery. 

Jim

Jim- Thanks for identifying this treasure trove of information on 1929 Buick cars, I never knew it existed.  There were indeed pictures of a restored rumble lid and pictures of rumble compartment upholstery but the wood frame approach to support the springs was quite different for 29.  There is a partial frame on the 29 that is attached to the lid woodwork before the upholstery is added.  For 31 there is a wood seat spring frame that surrounds the springs on all 4 sides.  This is likely so they could separate the upholstery process into a more workable arrangement, I.E. the 1931 upholstered back can be completed on the bench, then the upholstered springs and frame can be simply attached as an assembly by sliding the top hooks on the seat spring frame into recesses on the lid woodwork and driving 2 screws thru metal brackets attached to the bottom of the seat spring frame assembly.   That's a different concept compared to having to tack the upholstery right to the lid with a partial frame to tack the upholstery skirt to.  

 

Thanks.

 

Dave

 

The arrows point to pockets on the rumble lid woodwork that upper seat spring frame brackets slide into to secure the top of the seat back/frame assembly.

[Str8-8-Dave]

This turned out to be quite a project.  First- I had no idea there was supposed to be a wood frame between the rumble lid and the rumble seat back springs of my 31 8-66S rumble coupe.  Second, there was no information, no pictures of a seat in process of re-upholstery, no pictures of the bare wood frame, either from other car owners or the AACA library who did a search and came up with nothing except the Fisher Body manual illustrations I already had.  There was nothing in the illustrations of this frame. 

 

Dave Dunton came to my rescue on this one,  Dave is busy restoring a 1931 Chevy roadster right now and I didn't even wat to ask if he could remove the seat back assembly from his Buick 8-66S.  Dave didn't even hesitate- he removed the seat back, took a ton of pictures and fed me measurements from his original seat back frame. 

 

After I understood what this part was I had to buy a band saw to be able to reproduce the curved profile of the side frames.  The 4" wide side rails of the original seat back frame were steam bent and finger joined, both of those processes were beyond my reach.  The work around was to cut 4 laminations of the curved side rails from 1" thick ash lumber and glue them together.   Here are a few pictures of Dave Dunton's original seat back assembly and the frame I was able to fabricate from Dave's pictures and measurements.  This is just a teaser post for a future detailed post on the "Me and My Buick"/My 1931 Buick 8-66S project- the saga begins"  thread...

 

This is just one marked up picture of Dave Dunton's original seat.  Dave patiently took cell phone

pictures from angles I requested, then using 3 marked up drawings like this one, reported

dimensions of lumber and feature locations.  Note the fancy finger joint right of C and below the 3.

 

This is my reproduction seat back frame under construction shown on my car.  

Edited November 13, 2021 by Str8-8-Dave (see edit history)

[EmTee]

On 11/13/2021 at 9:54 AM, Str8-8-Dave said:

After I understood what this part was I had to buy a band saw to be able to reproduce the curved profile of the side frames.

 

That's one of side benefits of working on old cars - an excuse for new tools! 

[Str8-8-Dave]

2 hours ago, EmTee said:

That's one of side benefits of working on old cars - an excuse for new tools!

I know- I keep thinking I need a South Bend heavy ten lathe and a Bridgeport but I just haven't found the right excuse yet...