47-55.1 Seat frame removal. How is it connected?

[gigamanx]

Quick question while I'm tooling in the garage. How does the seat frame that is mounted to the floor attached? Is it welded or are there hidden screws I'm missing? I have the seat and upper frame out. Just trying to remove the lower frame that has the sliders on it so I have a flat floor.

Thanks!

[mongocanfly]

Are you referring to the seat riser?...mines welded in

[mongocanfly]

Or this?

[joedoh]

bare floor... as in flat floor? mongos help will get the bottom of the seat frame out, but the riser will still be spot welded to the floor. if thats what you are after there ya go.

to get the riser out you can use a spot weld remover on the flange that is bent and welded to the floor. what I normally do though is use a long bimetal sawzall blade and cut it off flush, or close to flush, and anything that isnt flush I pound flat, job done. I start the cut in the front corners and pull back to the rear brace, then across the front, then down at the rear brace. the sliders bolt to the rear brace with two nuts, and then you can just slide it all out. dont take out the rear brace if you can avoid it, its a nice stiffener and doesnt get in the way of new seat sliders.

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by joedoh

bare floor... as in flat floor? mongos help will get the bottom of the seat frame out, but the riser will still be spot welded to the floor. if thats what you are after there ya go.

to get the riser out you can use a spot weld remover on the flange that is bent and welded to the floor. what I normally do though is use a long bimetal sawzall blade and cut it off flush, or close to flush, and anything that isnt flush I pound flat, job done. I start the cut in the front corners and pull back to the rear brace, then across the front, then down at the rear brace. the sliders bolt to the rear brace with two nuts, and then you can just slide it all out. dont take out the rear brace if you can avoid it, its a nice stiffener and doesnt get in the way of new seat sliders.

I think you guys have the right idea after pondering it last night...The circled item is what I'm trying to remove so I can start working on new seat mounts for my F150 donor seat.



This is with a flat floor and I seem to see a lot of pictures of those. Maybe people are replacing their floor panels and I thought it was easier.



I'm afraid of trying to drill out spot welds and drilling through the floor since my floor is pretty solid. May try the sawzall suggestion or get a cut off wheel in there

[joedoh]

a sawzall works fine, should take about 3-4 minutes. if you are like me it takes longer to find a good blade than it does to cut it.




on one truck the floor was pretty wasted, I needed a lot of repair, and that had compromised the spot welds too, I was able to pop them with a screwdriver. still had to cut at the rear wall but worked.

[edgeleycanuck]

I'm a bit challenged using my phone to post a picture so I'll try to put in words what I used.
Picture a flat lawnmower blade(I have an old leaf spring, ground to a knife edge). Sharpen the one edge with a long taper, it will slide under the riser where there are no welds and then just strike the backside of the blade. It worked quite well. Just a thought.
On another note, I think that riser is also there to support the floor, so I think, and I'm interested in what others think, one should provide some form of support across the floor approximately where the front edge of the riser was.

[gigamanx]

Originally Posted by edgeleycanuck

I'm a bit challenged using my phone to post a picture so I'll try to put in words what I used.
Picture a flat lawnmower blade(I have an old leaf spring, ground to a knife edge). Sharpen the one edge with a long taper, it will slide under the riser where there are no welds and then just strike the backside of the blade. It worked quite well. Just a thought.
On another note, I think that riser is also there to support the floor, so I think, and I'm interested in what others think, one should provide some form of support across the floor approximately where the front edge of the riser was.

Good thinking. I actually have a nice big metal chisel just for this sort of thing. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Should be able to semi-drill the welds and then use the chisel.

I don't have a sawzall. Someday I should probably invest in one.

[Tempest67]

I removed the seat frame from mine to replace the floor, and when I was done, I needed to add another cross brace to keep the new floor from flexing.

[gigamanx]

Took all your advice. Was a much easier job than expected. I used a large steel chisel and just pried along the spot welds to pull it out. To keep the rear support as JoeDoh suggested, I used a cut off wheel and just made a cut right between the side supports and rear support. Popped right out

Thanks for the tips all!