Custom Seats & Center Console Build - Get Shorty

Next, I grabbed one of the duplicate outer perimeters and set it in place, which is running alongside the center console.

With the perimeter of the seat in place, the front perimeter of the seat could be shaped and welded in place.

Now that the shape of the seat has been squared away, the inner structure is all that is left. Once again, one of the duplicate outer perimeter pieces made earlier is used. This time it runs down the center of the seat. By the way, I also placed this piece down 1 1/2 inches below the outer perimeter of the seat to create some shape to the seat.

The last step is to link the outer perimeter of the seat with the inner vertical brace. Now that one side is finished all that's left to do is duplicate that process on the passenger side.

Next, I used 1 1/2-inch conduit for the legs of the seat. The legs were brought down to the seat brackets built earlier. I also built a bracket with a conduit leg that supports the inner perimeter of the seat.

Now that the seat is finished, I can remove the center console and skin it. The console is going to have to be skinned in three pieces; I started by covering the cylinder portion of the console with 20-gauge sheetmetal.

Skinning the bullet shape of the nose is going to be a little bit different; it will have to be done in two pieces. I began by using my Eastwood beater bag and mallets to shape the nose. I pounded on the piece of metal until it began to take the form of a bullet tip.

Because I'm using mallets to form the bullet shape, the metal is going to look a little crude and banged up. Therefore, I took my piece over to the planishing hammer (a dolly nestled in the vice; oh yeah, can you believe this sucker gets 60 beats per minute!) to finesse the metal by working out the divots and creases.

In order to get the sheetmetal to form such a sharp bullet nose I shrunk the outer edge of the piece using my Eastwood shrinker. Doing so will allow the piece to hug the conduit skeleton.

Here's a close-up look of how things are shaping up. All that's left to do here is a little bit of trimming.

Here's how the finished product turned out. Not bad for banging that nose out with a set of hammers-more or less.

Originally I had planned to install my Electric-Life billet aluminum power windows switches up under the dash, but now that this center console has entered the picture it serves as a perfect mounting point.

And that's all there is to making a custom one-off interior that you can be sure is exclusive to your truck. Actually, at this point all that's left is to do is lay the expanded metal in the seats and weld them in place. That way the upholstery shop can lay the foam atop the metal and do their thing.