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Seat Removal

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Royal_58

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OK, new to the forum. I'm trying to remove the seats to clean up the floor pans and carpet.

Whats the trick? I have a pretty good amount of rust but can't get the seats to slide out of the track. Any suggestions?
Duke
 
Are you having problems removing the seats themselves or the rails?
 
If it is a TR3... you remove the lower seat cushion, it should just lift out, front edge first. This will expose the nuts that hold the seat pan to the track. Undoing these (or breaking them as the case may be) will allow you to remove the seat pan (attached to the seat back).

You can then undo the bolts (or break some more) that hold the tracks to the floorpan.

Use lots of PBlaster or whatever and patience -- these studs & bolts are pretty small and easy to break if they are rusted in place.
 
Yep, What Geo said. And I can almost assure you, you WILL break some of them off too. New seat tracks can be had through the big three, Good luck getting the lower track off of the floor pan without breaking those bolts too. Lots of penetrating oil, patience and even some heat if you have a source may help.
 
Thanks guys,

Yes its a TR3. I was hoping you wouldn't say that...yes its very rusty but I've been soaking them with Kroll, penetrating oil for a week. I bet the grinder gets a work-out tonight! I assume there are carrage bolts in there, is this correct?
 
There are studs coming off the top and bottom rails. No carriage bolts.
 
Which means that you will need to get new rails, from the sound of it, so plan on not having solid seats until this is completed.

Oh yeah, welcome to the Forum!!!
 
If (when) you break a stud on the rails it can be replaced using a bolt of the same thread and a countersunk head (not a round head or hex head). You drill out the broken stud and secure the bolt with a nut you have ground to about half its original thickness. I used JBWeld to keep it all together but you could just weld the head of the bolt to the underneath side of the track. Either way, you then gring down the head so the track slides w/o fouling.

Wouldn't want to replace many this way but if you just have 1 or 2 broken studs this will enable you to save the rail.

If (when) you break a bolt out in the captive nut in the floorpan you may find you can drill it out, tease out the remaining threads and then run a tap into the captive to clean it up. These are small bolts so they break easily but are also pretty easy to get the broken bit out.
 
Geo,
That sounds like the voice of experience.
( I know it is, cause I was having flash-backs reading it)
One of those been there-done that stories.
Royal 58,
Geo's spot-on. and welcome to the forum from a fellow "Low-door" owner (TR2)
 
Thanks for the help guys,
Its good to be able to gather information before you jump in and tear up more stuff than you need to. I finished removing the seats and upper rails last night with only one stud broken off, thank goodness for that Kroll. I think I'll drill out the broken stud and weld another one in place because the rails arn't as bad as I thought they would be...but the floor pans are another story. It looks like there have been some patches done over time...even some galv. tin screwed down on the drivers side. I'm planning on removing the really bad stuff and getting this old girl back on the road ASAP!

Thanks again for the help

Duke
 
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