Sixpaksteve
Well-Known Member
I'm posting this today for 2 reasons. The first is to publicly thank two B -Bodies members here who helped me score [in near museum piece condition] rear seats for my 1964 Dodge Polara convertible last weekend. The second reason for my post is to maybe give others restoring these cars some hope that sometimes things [eventually] do work out when searching for original parts.
Patience. My car came from California but it had been left outside under a tarp for far too long. The rear seats frames were not salvageable, especially the bottom seat since most of the frame had fused itself to the rear floorpan. I had been looking for decent rear seat cores for a looooong time and without any luck. My many trips to Carlisle each summer only resulted in me crossing Plymouth seats off my list, and also other Dodge years other than a 64. NOBODY was bringing 64 Dodge convertible seats to Carlisle. I was also searching online for decent seat cores, posting here in the WTB section and doing nationwide Craigslist searches using a site called SEARCHTEMPEST. Jim Kramer was also keeping an eye out for me....
Persistence. Then 2 weeks ago, after not being on SEARCHTEMPEST for awhile, I did another search for rear seats. This time, I noticed that not only was Craigslist being searched, but Facebook Marketplace [FBM] as well. The FBM search results are divided by regions of the country, and when I opened the results for "Southeast" I saw a photo of 'my' seat advertised for sale by a private party in Tennessee. The seat looked brand new, but only the bottom seat was shown.
I'm not a member of Facebook, but my better half is so I quickly enlisted her help to reach out to the seller and request more pics. An hour later, those photos arrived and I now could see both pieces, inside and out. Both pieces looked brand new and the seller was asking $100 apiece for them, but it was a 'local pickup only' sale.
Here's where my two new best friends from B Bodies Only come into the picture. The seller of the seats was agreeable to a 3rd party inspection/verification by someone local before I did a 7+ hour drive one way from Maryland to pick the seats up. I posted an ad here asking if someone in the Knoxville, TN area might be willing to look at the seats for me, and DAVEK answered that post. While Dave did not live in Knoxville, he said that he had a friend from New York currently visiting that area to do some motorcycle riding and that his friend might be willing/able to help. I gave Dave my contact information and he passed that onto his friend - TJ.
TJ, I learned, is a B Bodies member too. After explaining what I'd like for him to do and where the sellers wanted to meet, he agreed to travel about 40 miles north of Knoxville to put eyes on the seats for me and to take/send me some additional photo's. I believe that TJ was the first person to use the expression 'museum pieces' after he sent me the photos of these seats. "Buy them if you can, nice condition, solid frames" is what he texted me, and how right he was! Without TJ's and DAVEK's help to prove this was a legit sale, I likely would have passed driving 7+ hours for what could have been a scam. DAVEK and TJ, once again thank you both very much for your kindness and for your help!!!! Please let me know if I can ever return the favor.
Luck. The seller turned out to be a really nice retired gentleman who has been doing upholstery and convertible top work on the side for 30+ years [god I wished he lived closer to me!]. He said that all of the 64 Polara convertible seats were given to him when the owner of the car paid him to do a custom interior for the Polara that included front bucket seats. He sold the original front seat fairly quickly on FBM last August, and he said he's been trying to sell the rear seats since then too [at $100 each] but has had no takers. This is definitely where the 'Luck' part of this story comes in.
I just happened to see the right 'for sale' ad at the right time.
Steve
Patience. My car came from California but it had been left outside under a tarp for far too long. The rear seats frames were not salvageable, especially the bottom seat since most of the frame had fused itself to the rear floorpan. I had been looking for decent rear seat cores for a looooong time and without any luck. My many trips to Carlisle each summer only resulted in me crossing Plymouth seats off my list, and also other Dodge years other than a 64. NOBODY was bringing 64 Dodge convertible seats to Carlisle. I was also searching online for decent seat cores, posting here in the WTB section and doing nationwide Craigslist searches using a site called SEARCHTEMPEST. Jim Kramer was also keeping an eye out for me....
Persistence. Then 2 weeks ago, after not being on SEARCHTEMPEST for awhile, I did another search for rear seats. This time, I noticed that not only was Craigslist being searched, but Facebook Marketplace [FBM] as well. The FBM search results are divided by regions of the country, and when I opened the results for "Southeast" I saw a photo of 'my' seat advertised for sale by a private party in Tennessee. The seat looked brand new, but only the bottom seat was shown.
I'm not a member of Facebook, but my better half is so I quickly enlisted her help to reach out to the seller and request more pics. An hour later, those photos arrived and I now could see both pieces, inside and out. Both pieces looked brand new and the seller was asking $100 apiece for them, but it was a 'local pickup only' sale.
Here's where my two new best friends from B Bodies Only come into the picture. The seller of the seats was agreeable to a 3rd party inspection/verification by someone local before I did a 7+ hour drive one way from Maryland to pick the seats up. I posted an ad here asking if someone in the Knoxville, TN area might be willing to look at the seats for me, and DAVEK answered that post. While Dave did not live in Knoxville, he said that he had a friend from New York currently visiting that area to do some motorcycle riding and that his friend might be willing/able to help. I gave Dave my contact information and he passed that onto his friend - TJ.
TJ, I learned, is a B Bodies member too. After explaining what I'd like for him to do and where the sellers wanted to meet, he agreed to travel about 40 miles north of Knoxville to put eyes on the seats for me and to take/send me some additional photo's. I believe that TJ was the first person to use the expression 'museum pieces' after he sent me the photos of these seats. "Buy them if you can, nice condition, solid frames" is what he texted me, and how right he was! Without TJ's and DAVEK's help to prove this was a legit sale, I likely would have passed driving 7+ hours for what could have been a scam. DAVEK and TJ, once again thank you both very much for your kindness and for your help!!!! Please let me know if I can ever return the favor.
Luck. The seller turned out to be a really nice retired gentleman who has been doing upholstery and convertible top work on the side for 30+ years [god I wished he lived closer to me!]. He said that all of the 64 Polara convertible seats were given to him when the owner of the car paid him to do a custom interior for the Polara that included front bucket seats. He sold the original front seat fairly quickly on FBM last August, and he said he's been trying to sell the rear seats since then too [at $100 each] but has had no takers. This is definitely where the 'Luck' part of this story comes in.
I just happened to see the right 'for sale' ad at the right time.Steve
