Now that I have the steering column, brake pedal and gas pedal installed I can set the driver’s seat position to allow a comfortable driving position. Once the driver’s is placed, then the passenger seat can be mounted so that it is in a complementary position. But 1st, I have to remove all the remaining tar sound deadening tar like material from the floor. Based upon my observation and experience, over the years, this crap has created more major rust issues than any other single cause. Over time, the material dries out and cracks, it also becomes more porous than when it was applied. Water condenses, or in this case the interior was flooded, and is trapped between the tar and the floor covering. Over time the water will seep down through the cracks until it reaches the sheet metal, then it is only a matter of time…

Removing the Coating From The Floor

My tool of choice for getting rid of this crap, is the pneumatic needle scaler. I have a large 17 pin version and a smaller 11 pin model, the larger model worked very rapidly on the flat open areas, while the smaller tool was useful in the tighter nooks and crannies.

Fitting the Front Seats

Once the front floor area was reasonably clean, I hooked up a battery to the seat motor so that I could adjust it’s position while I finding the best location to mount the seat. After I found and marked on the floor a comfortable position for me, I had Michelle sit in the seat and adjust it so that it was comfortable for her. After a bit of tweaking we found a mounting location that would work for the both of us. I then positioned the passenger seat so that it matched where the driver seat was, and then set about fabricating mounting brackets for both seats that would secure the seat tracks to the floor.

Prepare Backseat Area

In order to mount the modern rear seat from the Durango, I first had to remove the mounting brackets and seat base from the old split bench seat. To remove the base pieces I had to drill out all of the spot welds holding it in. After some cutting and grinding it was time to fit the rear seats.

Fitting the Rear Seat

This actually went fairly easy, I placed both the driver and passenger seats to the rear of their travel and then adjusted the back rests as far back as would be comfortable to sit in. I then placed the rear seat assembly in the back of the wagon with all three seats tumbled forward so that I could establish the farthest forward position. My intent is to use the foot well area for the third seat as a concealed storage area. The stock third seat backrest became the floor when it was not in use as a seat, so I fitted the rear floor piece in to cover the foot well and establish the furthest back the seat could be placed. As luck would have it, when the seat was as far back as it could go, it would provide a couple of inches of clearance to the front seats when it was tumbled forward. It was almost as if it was made for the ’56.

Rear Seat Mounts & Spacers

Since the Durango is based upon a truck chassis, the floor area where the rear seat mounts is relatively flat, where as the wagon was based upon a car chassis and it has a rather tall drive shaft hump which required spacers to be fabricated for each of the mounting feet on the seat. Another issue was that the two outer seats needed floor loops made to receive the seat latches that are released to allow the seat to tumble forward. These were made from some 3/8″ steel rod that I bent to match the loops on the rear seat mounting feet. The loops were welded to 3/16″ plate that had been drilled for the loops and for the mounting studs.

Rear Seat Mounted

Once all of the pieces were fabricated and welded together, I bolted the seat into the car. Michelle had walked out to the shop around then and we were sitting in the rear seat checking it out when my daughter dropped by after work. The shop door was open and she walked in and saw us sitting in the back seat of the wagon with all of the doors closed. Needless to say she was rather curious as to what were were doing…

Attaching Seat Mount Nut Plates

After all the excitement of trying out the seats, I replaced each of the nuts that I was using to temporaily hold the seats in with nut plates that I had made from 3/8″ fine thread nuts welded to 3/8″ flat washers. Once I was sure everything was aligned and positioned where it was supposed to be, I welded the nut plates to the bottom of the floor. This allows me to install and remove the seats without having another pair of hands holding a wrench on the nuts under the car.