RamRodder’s interior will never be considered sumptuous with nothing in the way of creature comforts—we think of it as Gasser chic.
For a variety of reasons, such as budgets, boredom or business, project cars often get moved to the back of the shop where they languish, often becoming just another shelf to pile parts on. This usually lasts until the desire for a finished project overcomes the excuses for not working on it. After its latest hiatus, we’re once again fired up and have focused our attention to Project RamRodder.
With all the welding on the rollbar completed, the floor permanently in place, and the dashboard done, we turned our attention to installing seats and the steering column and wheel. Our first thought on seating was to copy what used to be common with Mopar racers, seats, and sheetmetal pedestals from a Dodge van or A-100 pickup. Unfortunately, the Gasser craze may have prompted others to have the same thought, or there’s more interest in restoring Dodge vans and trucks than we ever imagined. Regardless of the reason, the worst set of seats we found had a ridiculous price tag, and the better the seats the worse the price became. Fortunately our friends at Speedway Motors offered an alternative with brand-new, low-back vinyl seats for a little over $200 each, less than it would have cost us to re-cover a beat-up set of buckets. Available in black, white, and beige, these seats have generous dimensions and adjustable backrests.
Although the goal is simplicity, we still wanted good-looking, comfortable seats. We found new bucket seats from Speedway that are all of that and bargain priced too.
Once the seats bolted solidly to the underfloor braces, our next chore was to mount the steering column. We’re using a basic, straight-tube, competition-type column from Flaming River. The mill finish 304 Grade Stainless tube is 1-3/4 inches in diameter and has a 3/4-inch 36-spline shaft on the steering box end, while on the other end it’s a 3/4-inch smooth to accept a quick-release steering wheel hub. To mount the wheel we used a Flaming River quick-release hub with a standard three-bolt mounting pattern. For a steering wheel we chose a classic vinyl three-spoke from Moon, complete with a chrome dome horn button.
Speedway’s buckets feature reclining backrests—a plastic cover conceals the spring-loaded mechanism.
We spent a few evenings modifying the seat mounts and fabricating steering column brackets and in the end found renewed enthusiasm and a renewed resolve to get RamRodder on the road. Besides, Brennan says he’s done making engine sounds, so we can’t sit in it and pretend we’re driving, now we’ve got to make it run.
