Center Seat Origins.

IVSVS

IVSVS

Born Ignorant
Interesting conversation copied and pasted from Facebook
It started with a Gen-1 guy posting a pic of a nice center seat he found locally.


Jim Cope:
Man did we roll a bunch of those out the door at Full Effect.

Bill Thomas:
 Yes we did!

Matt Fisher:
Full effect made these as well?

Jim Cope:
 Matt Fisher yes


Matt Fisher:
 Jim Cope how many would you say?

Jim Cope:
 Matt Fisher I really have no idea. But a lot of them while I was there.

Matt Fisher:
 Jim Cope thanks

Matt Fisher:
Any special markings?

Jim Cope:
 Matt Fisher no. Nothing to my knowledge. We had a Full Effect card in every one of them when delivered to customers.


Matt Fisher:
 did you guys sell them to other people besides full effect truck owners?

Jim Cope:
 Matt Fisher sure we did. But I'd say they were F150 owners at least.

Bill Thomas:
 Yes, we sold them retail to customers, and to Downs Ford wholesale ( typically 20 at a time ). Probably over 300 of them to downs, if not more!


Matt Fisher:
 Bill Thomas so you guys produced all the seats for down ford?
Manage

Johnny Selman:
Bill Thomas Jim Cope All these years we Lightning guys have been referring to this seat as the "Downs seat". When in fact we should have been calling it the "Full Effect seat" lol. I guess we just didn't know who was getting it from who back then! It's cool to have you guys around for info like this!
Thanks, Johnny
 
My first purchase back in the day was a center seat from Bill @ FullEffect! The shop was a 90 minute drive from my house and after that first purchase, I was hooked! Made a trip out to see them every couple of weeks
 
Was that the seat that had cushion down both sides of the armrest?
 
RYANAZ said:
Yes
Click to expand...

00a3468a91a8f1c1403ec54634362ec7.jpg




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I bought one back then, thought it came from Jim D’Amore because he was cheaper than Downs. Sucks to get old, can’t remember for certain now.
 
Oh yea, it’s more comfortable with your arm resting on it while driving and it has a storage compartment under the bottom seat to put your stuff in and on top of that it has a lever so you can move it forward and backward.
 
Pretty awesome how all the full effect guys / builders are on the Facebook page. I asked them if had any old pics

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
They were nice seats. I bought one when I got the 94 but didn't get it installed before the Ford buy-back. I sold it to a buddy with a 93. He loved it.
 
lightn95 said:
You like the look of those over the factory center seat ?
Click to expand...

My vote is opposite of Jamie's. I have two of the Downs seats, one in the Yellow Cab (duh, you'd definitely think there would be one in that truck !) and one in the CrewCab L. I find the factory center seat nicer personally. The Downs seat back folds back, there the seat bottom that will fold forward uncovering a storage area. The storage piece is a plastic piece that lifts out which reveals the three mount points (same as the center console of 1993 and 1994) and the mechanism for sliding the seat back and forth.

Word I have is that Cerullo actually made them, though I don't know who designed them. Full Effect sold them and possibly retained rights to retail sales and distribution of the center seat. have been told Full Effect had a long shelf of these seats in their showroom area. Don't know either if they had only Lightning upholstery or if some were done in the other interior colors of F-150s.

Scott
 
So some photos of the Downs Center seat. Took these for another person that was on that same thread Jim posted. These photos are of the CrewCab Lightning seat.

Photo showing the seatback folded forward providing for 3 cupholders and the padded sides Jamie talks of.

44411417094_7e8e59534d_b.jpg


Photo showing the seatback folded up.

45083084322_2a24eab0b6_b.jpg


Photo showing seat bottom folded forward to reveal storage area underneath.

44411415414_161e3c118d_b.jpg


Photo showing plastic storage piece partially removed.

44411414084_2cd4b76b15_b.jpg


Photo showing the mount points for the seat and the lever (silver rod at top of photo) for adjustment of seat. Yeah, it's REAL dirty under there. First time I opened it up that far and the interior has not been deep cleaned yet.

45083083012_4e51f7453f_b.jpg


Scott
 
While I'm at it I might as well shamelessly toss up an article on the CrewCab Lightning conversion. This one is NOT ours, it's the other one.

37029458272_afbdcf0fdf_b.jpg


36364497734_6e39b6c5db_b.jpg


37029457062_9ebc4ec2c7_b.jpg


Scott
 
Great info, ordered one form Downs for our Black 93. Looked great if you didn't have the OEM seat, couldn't sit in it for a long time though. It was tough on your bottom!!

Alex
 
Last edited:
Skritch said:
My vote is opposite of Jamie's. I have two of the Downs seats, one in the Yellow Cab (duh, you'd definitely think there would be one in that truck !) and one in the CrewCab L. I find the factory center seat nicer personally. The Downs seat back folds back, there the seat bottom that will fold forward uncovering a storage area. The storage piece is a plastic piece that lifts out which reveals the three mount points (same as the center console of 1993 and 1994) and the mechanism for sliding the seat back and forth.

Word I have is that Cerullo actually made them, though I don't know who designed them. Full Effect sold them and possibly retained rights to retail sales and distribution of the center seat. have been told Full Effect had a long shelf of these seats in their showroom area. Don't know either if they had only Lightning upholstery or if some were done in the other interior colors of F-150s.

Scott
Click to expand...

I agree with Scott here....i just don't like the looks of it....it kinda looks "homemade"....but what ever, to each their own....still some good info here, thanks Jim!...
 
I like the looks of the stock center seat better, but the functionality of the downs seat better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top