R33 Rear Seat - How to remove ??

[B-Man]

R33 GTS-T

I'm trying to remove my parcel shelf so I can take a look at the strut tower - And to see what's involved in removing standard speakers.

For this, it looks like you need to remove the rear seat - (seat & back) - Now, I know there are 2 x 10mm bolts that hold the seat down, but the damn thing still wont' come out - I'm sure there is a trick to this -

Can anyone help ??

Thanks,

[Zahos]

i think you pust the seat towards the back of the car, before you lift.... HARD!

Seriously, just lift as hard as you can, you wont break anything....

Then the backing of the seat has 2 bolts at the botton, and after you get those off, list the seat, before pulling out towards you. Might be easier if you start on one side (when lifting and pulling out), then do the middle, then the other side rather than trying to pull the thing out in one go...

[Guest]

after removing the 2 bolts you will need to pull as hard as you can from the front, its best if you have 2 people (1 on each side). they are always jammed in. just make sure you dont snap the seat in half.

[Guest barneyrubble]

thanks guys ive tried to pull it out myself with no luck, i got the parcel shelf out but it involved alot of bending.

In taking the shelf off you should also remove the two coves over the pillar as they overlap the shelf and hold it down. There are clips under the shelf and attatched to the shelf which also hold it down, you should push these up from underneath,

I will try to remove the seat because the job will be so much easier and in my opinion the right way to do it. when you've got the seat off you should look into any wiring you hope to carry out in the future cause it will make life alot easier and more likely more professional.

[B-Man]

i think you push the seat towards the back of the car, before you lift.... HARD!

after removing the 2 bolts you will need to pull as hard as you can from the front,

Push or Pull :confused: :confused:

[Zahos]

Here is a crappy pic that will help you understand

[B-Man]

That's a great pic - I can understand it !! And if I can understand it, this means anyone can understand it.

Thanks Man, I'll try tonight !!

[JimX]

You don't have to push it in at all. Take a big lever (I use a bigass shifter spanner), and put it alongside the metal bit which hooks into the floorpan. Then push the lever down at the front, it will pop the metal hook bit straight up and out of the plastic that holds it in. It's just a really tight bitch, but if you lever it off in this manner it's really easy.

I figured this out myself out of pure frustration! I was trying the push in/pull up method which worked on my Commodore and I nearly broke my fingers. I was at the stage where I didn't care if I damaged the seat or not and tried it. I've done it 3 or 4 times now with no damage to the plastic bit which holds it in.

Even if you can do the push in/pull up method (I can't see how it would work) then using a lever is inifinitely easier and you're less likely to hurt yourself.

[Zahos]

You could be right, I don't know...

I just remember when I tried pulling it didnt come out, so I pushed in and pulled up as hard as I could and it came off...

[JimX]

Zahos, you've either got more muscles or less regard for skinning your knuckles than me The thing that twigged me into trying the lever was the fact that when I pushed forwards it didn't seem to move inwards at all. The Commodore seat was a bit tricky but it did move in and up and when you had the seat out you could see the metal hook which you had to push back before lifting it out. With the Skyline it's just a U-shaped bit of thick wire, it doesn't actually look like pushing it back will accomplish anything.

Pushing before lifting might do something, I dunno. Perhaps you are meant to do it this way. All I know is that it's much easier to lever it off and it hasn't broken anything or even started to wear out the clip after 3 or 4 removals.

[Zahos]

Yeah.. 6'4", 105kg, and most importantly NO PATIENCE is how I managed that. Your solution sounds more sensible, but that would have meant that I should have gottern out of the car, grabbed something to lever it with, got back in the car, and tried again. At the time that would have meant more effort, and patience... (I would rather skin my knuckles than do all that.... less effort!)

Anyhow brendanf, did u get it off???

I think maybe try JimX's solution first :confused:

[B-Man]

Haven't had time yet - Will do it tomorrow and post results back -

Thanks guys, for all the feedback !

Cheers,

PS - All I know is that when I first attempted it was a right bugger - and I'm no weakling at 6" and 105kgs.

[doxximus]

you'll soon realise that the entire r33 skyline interior is held together by 2 bolts and a **** load of clips, we ripped out the whole backseat (hard thing to do when ur 6foot+) to take out the pasture shelf to cut bigger holes, and the door panels came out easy if ur thinking of changing those speakers

[skyzerr33]

sledgehammer

[Duncan]

Lift up front, not pull out.

Also, removing seats is a great mod - improves performance coz you can fit a full set of 4 slicks in the back for when you get to the track:lol:

[B-Man]

K People,

Successfully managed to remove rear seat with the help of Big Berth the Blue handled Blade screwdriver. Just slip her between the seat and one good yank and the seat was out of the clips - no damage done.

Managed to rip out the rear suspension - Quite easy really - Cleaned it all and lubed up with some vaso - No more squeaks. Hippeeeee.

One question tho - re Rear Suspension - Is it normal to have metal on metal at the top of the strut tower - Where the shock and spring combo bolt onto the frame/chassis ????

Thanks everyone -

[JimX]

Yep at the top it's just metal, usually there's meant to be a small paper gasket type thing but it's so thin it won't do much anyway. If you're that concerned you can probably buy a pair from Nissan but I don't think it's worth the effort. Once everything's tightened up it's not going to move and you won't be scratching the paint or anything.

Also even though you've already done everything up, take extra care with those top studs. They're really fragile and I managed to snap one off without too much effort. I drilled it out and put a bolt through the hole and it's as good as new. Actually better than new because I could do up the high tensile bolt a bit tighter (well, I could do it up a lot tighter if I wanted but I didn't)

[B-Man]

One problem I did have - when I removed the shocks/spring combination, using spring compressors, I tried to take the top bit off the shocks, to release the spring (basically wanted to test the shock with the spring off) - There's a12mm (i think) nut on the top of the shock - you need a shifter to stop the shock from turning when taking the top 12mm nut off the top of the shock - However, my bl00dy nut was on so tight I busted the top bit (that the shifter was holding) off the top of my shock - Now i'll never b able to take the spring off the shock. (Maybe with an angle grinder). May be a good excuse to get whole new back suspension ???

At least my squeaking has stopped.

[JimX]

Yep that nut ceased up real good on one of mine too, I had to partially angle-grind it off before it would crack the corrosion. I was replacing my shocks so mine definitely had to come out so I could re-use the bumpstops etc, but the thread on the shock is fine so if I want to put the old shocks back for whatever reason I just need a new nut for it.

Btw, not sure if you have factory springs or not but I didn't need compressors for either the old factory setup or the new Whiteline/Bilstein setup. You can push the tops down slightly with your body weight and get the nut started, then just tighten up.

[B-Man]

No I don't have factory - I got Tanabe springs and shocks - They are damn stiff. When I had mine out, I couldn't compress with my weight ( And I weight 110kgs). There still was a little compression in the springs when out of the car - And I know these springs were stiff, so I thought it best to use comressers as I didn't want the top flying off and hitting me in the gob. Also, the strength of the spring is prolly why the top nut won't come off, it has been under compression for so long .....