Added a double cupholder to my bench seat

[69timemachine]

I found this hot rod cup holder online at classicconsoles.com and thought I'd give it a try. It comes in many colors and costs around $75.
I built a small bracket for it and mounted it on the front of my bench seat by drilling a couple 1/4" holes through the lower seat frame. I unscrewed the floor hump grab ears off of the cup holder and screwed it to the new bracket that I made. It sits about 2" in front of the seat and about 3" off the floor. I'm happy with the way it turned out.
The only mod I had to make to it was on the plastic cup holder inserts. They have a step in the lower half for soda cans and my particular cups wouldn't drop all the way down. I popped the inserts out, put a layer of masking tape on my cup, placed it upside-down on the work bench, placed the insert upside-down over it, and gently heated it with my heat gun. Once the plastic got soft, I was able to get it to stretch on down over the cup. I repeated that for the other insert and they fit my cups precisely now. Depending on your cups, you may not even have that issue.

[69timemachine]

Here are more pics:

[69timemachine]

Here's the last few pics.

[sargentrs]

Awesome!

[cep62]

Sweet , that's better than a roll of duct tape!

[JoshT]

Sweet , that's better than a roll of duct tape!

Quit talking about me like that... How'd you even know about that, my truck left Michigan over 30 years ago. Hey it works though!

If I'm not mistaken these guys are located up around Atlanta GA. They had a bunch of their products on display in their stall at Moltrie Swap Meet when I went down there last year. Things look even better in person than in the photos. Was considering getting one of their products for my truck as well, but not I think I'm going to swap to a later model F-150 bench with the cup holders on the front. Still might end up with one of those though.

Jason, looks good in the truck. I was leaning towards the console/armrest version because I was skeptical about that style staying put on the hump. Your bracket idea looks like a great solution. Also being raised like that looks like a better position than just sitting on the hump or in the seat.

[69timemachine]

Jason, looks good in the truck. I was leaning towards the console/armrest version because I was skeptical about that style staying put on the hump. Your bracket idea looks like a great solution. Also being raised like that looks like a better position than just sitting on the hump or in the seat.

Thank you! Yes, I was going to build a straighter & simpler bracket, but figured if I added some bends, I could get a little more height for less reach.
Also, I realized that the lower seat frame I was attaching to was at a 10° or so angle, so I made a cut/bend/re-weld to my bracket to level the holder out when bolted up.
Another option (and my original plan), was to build a bracket that would slide under the shifter bezel and then you'd put its screws back in, sandwiching the console bracket to the floor. It's good that there would be no extra drilling to the floorboard, but the holder would be sitting on the floor meaning longer reach, and it would be stationary and could get in the way if you were to move the seat forward.
Attaching it to the seat frame means it moves with the seat.

[basketcase0302]

Man this was always my "pet peeve" about the truck!
I can't tell you how many time something sticky got spilled onto the floorboards / or the seat / or my crotch LOL!

Awesome job and suggest you submit for the patent on the frame (which also looks like it slides when the seat would need to slide forward or backward?).

[timachone]

That's a great design - awesome

[69timemachine]

Awesome job and I suggest you submit for the patent on the frame (which also looks like it slides when the seat would need to slide forward or backward?).

Thank you! Yes, it bolts to the seat frame, so it moves with the seat.

[69timemachine]

That's a great design - awesome

Thank you! It was just an idea I had rolling around in the old noggin'. The hardest part was finding a cup holder that was a good basis to start with. The only stuff I found local or on Ebay was just plastic and open on bottom. This one is very finished-looking!