Front seat removal

[flutes]

Morning guys, quick question  ... is front seat removal a practical job for one person or does it require two?

[CraigS]

One person can do it, but don't follow the manual and DON'T remove the spring underneath. It is not necessary and you cannot - at least easily, get it back on by yourself. Don't forget about the seat belt anchor bolt. Remove the rear bolts first (pull the seat forward), then slide the seat back to expose the front bolts. You will need to use the raise/lower lever to do this, so if it is broken (common), then attach a pair of vice grips to it and you need to be on the seat at the time to move it up/down, forward/back.

[flutes]

Broken it is.  I'll start with the passenger seat - I've seen other posts about the number of bolts on the height adjustable vs non-height adjustable.

Thanks Craig,
Matt.

[nathan]

dont do it! craig probably has guns of steel. but for meer weaklings like myself, these bloody things are big, heavy and awkward. trying to do it by yourself ends up with you snapping some o fthe plastic aorund the seat or scratching something of the interior as you struggle to get it out by yourself!  by two man operation, i do not recommend the technique employed by major Tom whereby he sits on the chair and watches TJ do all the work!

[flutes]

Hmmm, words of warning.  Nathan you've seen how muscular I'm not so I'm leaning towards your advice...

Anyone care to estimate how much one of these seats weighs?

[TJ 450]

I would estimate several tens of 'kilos (30-40?).

It's very easy to gouge paintwork or trim like Nathan has mentioned. I do it myself and that's probably why my back is stuffed now.

I'd rather remove a transmission in-situ than remove front seats.

Tim

[flutes]

Tim, you've talked me out of it.

Next question - the reason I want the seats out is to get rid of the cracked tar matting and coat everything with Dynamat - anyone done this before?  It seems to go under the front seats but I haven't studied it closely yet.  Can I do this job properly with the front seats in-situ?

[13B]

Don't think they're that heavy, maybe 25kg max each, a bit less for the ones which don't have height adjust.

If your car is an SEL, pull the seats out through the rear doors, but be mindful of the seat runners they can be a bit sharp and gouge or scratch things. 

It was a big job putting sports seats on the original seat runners in the race 450SE but it was possible.

I.

[TJ 450]

Unless you're just doing the front floor area, you'll need to remove the seats to do it properly. You could always give it a go with the intention of aborting the mission if it gets too difficult.

Tim

[flutes]

Backwards and forwards.  I think I should give it a shot....  And Ian you're right - it's an SEL so I can pull them out the rear doors.

[Janse]

I am a crappy handyman and I removed the front seats of my car with ease. The problem was installing them again. It was really hard to adjust the seat when it was not fastened to the floor so I learned a couple of new swears when I was doing it. I took them out the rear door too.

[flutes]

Not as hard as I thought it would be...I removed the rear bench seat as well, which made it quite easy to get the front seat out on its side.  Nothing broken,  nothing scratched!

[nathan]

smart arse!

[flutes]

You need to hit the gym Nathan!

[Big_Richard]

by two man operation, i do not recommend the technique employed by major Tom whereby he sits on the chair and watches TJ do all the work!

If i remember correctly, you also sat on the other supervisory seat too while work was being done on my car 

By the end of that activity 50 litres of petrol was gushing out the tank and you were throwing buckets of it on the lawn and TJ was rushing to put some of it in his car.....

backyard banana's or what