Best seats in an early Lark I’ve ever seen

[Bob Andrews]

These seats really wowed me. It’s a ‘60 Lark. I’ve never seen non-factory seats I like better. I’m thinking early 70s Thunderbird. I wonder if they’re original size or if they were cut down, they look like they were born there! Well, except that Studebakers never had anything that fancy.

[8E45E]

They are 1978 Cougar seats.

Early '70's Thunderbird seats are too wide; and the rear seats were still the 'wraparound' style, and would take a lot to work to look "right" in an early Lark.

Craig

[skyway]

Nice!

I once saw mid-60’s T-Bird seats including the rear wraparounds, buckets & console in a 55 or 56 Chevy 2dr. That looked good too.

[gordr]

Speaking of Lark seats, will seats from a '63 Lark 4-door fit a '60 Lark 4-door? Pretty sure the front will, what about the rear?

[Bob Andrews]

It’s looking like those seats are late 70s T-bird or Cougar. I remember them to be low in the car, which would work good with the Lark floors. I wonder if that rear seat has been narrowed? Doesn’t appear to be. Good to know.

In one of my early Larks I put seats from a Plymouth Acclaim. Those cars always had wonderfully comfortable cloth seats. They just never seemed right in the Lark. And the rear seat was a bit too narrow. These seem almost made for the car.

As for Gord’s question- I can’t see why they wouldn’t fit, the basic tub was the same for many years.

[64V19816]

They look HeAvY

[what huh]

Some fronts on eBay. They do look very good in that lark

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1972-1973-1....m46890.l49292

[candbstudebakers]

They look very nice, but in a lark if not all done up to almost a full custom they might look out of place, my 2 cents.

[6hk71400]

Speaking of Lark seats, will seats from a '63 Lark 4-door fit a '60 Lark 4-door? Pretty sure the front will, what about the rear?

I did swap a front seat from a 63 into a 59 I had. I sat lower in the front seat that I swapped verses the seat that was in there. I would have been better off fixing the seat in the 59 instead of the swap.

My 62 Lark sits like my 59; higher up and firmer seats. Just guessing, the changes on the 63 interior were to make the car appear newer even though the exterior changes did not make much of a difference from the 62. 64's benefited from the 63 changes but it is too bad that sales were down so much that the plug was pulled.

Bob Miles

[SScopelli]

Great looking if you're expecting De Nero and Pesci to be riding in the back to help fill some holes in the desert.
If you are going full pimp, I think velour would be better than leather. The buttons would look nicer.

Stock Buckets and console really fit the car just right

[Bob Andrews]

Great looking if you're expecting De Nero and Pesci to be riding in the back to help fill some holes in the desert.
If you are going full pimp, I think velour would be better than leather. The buttons would look nicer.

Stock Buckets and console really fit the car just right

It depends on what you’re going for. Stock buckets do fit but the problem is they’re stock buckets... meaning low back, tired materials, and little to no support. We have customers that are aging and can no longer feel comfortable for any distance in stock seats; yet they’re not yet ready to give up their prized car. So, they look for comfort upgrades: P/S, P/B, A/C, F/I, and better seats. Yes, custom seats can be built at high cost, but for most the solution is seats from a newer car. The originals can be put away for future owners.

But, the challenge is to find seats that sit right and fit in the car. That can be very challenging. It’s hard for most to get access to multiple seats to try. I wonder how the subject came to find these seats; probably trial and error, and got lucky. I didn’t post the rest of the car because it is a modified car and nitpicking the rest of it wasn’t the point, but the seats do fit the overall theme.

In the end, I can appreciate unmodified cars. What I can appreciate even more is, cars that get get driven because the owner finds it safer... and more comfortable.

[6hk71400]

Looking at Post #1 all I can say is hmmmmmm.

1960 Studebaker V11 | eBay

Looks like a ringer to me. They do look comfortable. Still trying to wrap my head around 10K for a Lark. I guess on perspective of a new rice burner, that is not so bad. Having a V8 and overdrive is great. My concern would be that when it went for a 60S to a 60V the brakes and springs were not upgraded.

Bob Miles

[jclary]

Looking at Post #1 all I can say is hmmmmmm.

1960 Studebaker V11 | eBay

Looks like a ringer to me. They do look comfortable. Still trying to wrap my head around 10K for a Lark. I guess on perspective of a new rice burner, that is not so bad. Having a V8 and overdrive is great. My concern would be that when it went for a 60S to a 60V the brakes and springs were not upgraded.

Bob Miles

Bob, looking at the underside pictures, I agree with your concerns. I was enjoying this thread 'till I visited the eBay link and looked at the pics. For me, there are other cautions visible enough to cause me to enjoy the car best when owned by "others." Looks to me that someone had a very extensive and possibly enjoyable project that concentrated on cosmetics over foundation! In addition to the underside looking like it was rarely visited by enough wrenches to make it solid and tight, certain pictures make me think that the car is best viewed at twenty feet away or more! Some painters paint to buff. Good painters paint to avoid buffing. The wrinkled covering on those door panels has me wondering what's behind them?

This car could be either a fun grab bag or a pig in a poke...for the money, I'll remain risk-averse on this one. I will agree that the seats look great and fit well within the color scheme.

[8E45E]

It depends on what you’re going for. Stock buckets do fit but the problem is they’re stock buckets... meaning low back, tired materials, and little to no support. We have customers that are aging and can no longer feel comfortable for any distance in stock seats; yet they’re not yet ready to give up their prized car. So, they look for comfort upgrades: P/S, P/B, A/C, F/I, and better seats.

I have found stock Studebaker seats to be amongst the most comfortable of almost any car I've either ridden in, or driven; both for short trips and 800 mile, full-day driving on the highway. I've ridden in many mid-size Fords of that era, and don't find they are any improvement over stock Studebaker seats.

Craig

[Bob Andrews]

Bob, looking at the underside pictures, I agree with your concerns. I was enjoying this thread 'till I visited the eBay link and looked at the pics. For me, there are other cautions visible enough to cause me to enjoy the car best when owned by "others." Looks to me that someone had a very extensive and possibly enjoyable project that concentrated on cosmetics over foundation! In addition to the underside looking like it was rarely visited by enough wrenches to make it solid and tight, certain pictures make me think that the car is best viewed at twenty feet away or more! Some painters paint to buff. Good painters paint to avoid buffing. The wrinkled covering on those door panels has me wondering what's behind them?

This car could be either a fun grab bag or a pig in a poke...for the money, I'll remain risk-averse on this one. I will agree that the seats look great and fit well within the color scheme.

This is why I didn’t post the car or any other information, my post wasn’t about picking on the car, it was just about how the seats fit in there so well. I know that on this forum once people see it it’s only a matter of time before they start tearing it apart. But I guess the cats out of the bag now, everybody can/will go nuts on it