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Old 06-13-2004, 01:26 AM   #1
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On a regular full size bus the bolts go all the way through the floor. So I would imagine that would be the same case for a van bus. Some people use a impact wrench and some do it by hand. Others will just cut the heads of the bolts with an angle grinder. I guess it all depends on what tools you have and how much rust you have.

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Old 06-13-2004, 04:26 AM   #2
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I recently removed the seats from my full size bus, and the bolts going through the floor had nuts on the underside of the floor. They weren't difficult to remove, just required an extra person to hold the nut from under the bus. I used hand tools to remove them and had no problems.
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Old 06-13-2004, 02:58 PM   #3
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Seat removal was one of the most miserable "projects" i encountered when transforming my skoolie. I tried using an impact wrench to remove seats but there was enough rust to keep them from turning. Some of them broke, some of the heads got stripped off. After about 3 or 4 seats, i went to work with an angle grinder and cut the tops off of all the bolts inside the bus. The angle grinder is my preferred method. you can purchase one for realitvely little money if you don't already own one. Even if the only thing you use it for is removing the bolts for the seats, it's worth every penny.
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Old 06-14-2004, 10:20 AM   #4
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Sounds like I got off easy taking the seats out of my bus! All it took was a couple of socket wrenches and two of us had all the seats unbolted in about 2 hours. I don't know if the fact that my bus was undercoated or kept parked inside or even low mileage made any difference or not.
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Old 06-14-2004, 08:35 PM   #5
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Yes, I had one person hold the nuts from underneath, while I turned them from inside the bus. My bus came from the interior of Alaska, so it's not subjected to the salt air around the ocean, so it has very little rust, if any.
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Old 12-07-2004, 11:39 AM   #6
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Seat Removal

I am surprised that so many have had a difficult time removing the seats. My son and I really had a fairly easy time removing seats from my Blue Bird and his Ward. One bus was used in Idaho and the other in Utah. Both places have snow and salt. Oil the bolts a few days before you start might help.

But, I have an idea that is related to seat removal. I've seen the question about what to do with the holes that are left when the seats are out. I plan to use some of the holes for holding on blue-board insullation. Think about it. Get some long bolts (cheap grade will do), some big, fat washers, the boad and you are on your way to a warmer (or cooler) bus. I have to plan this around my tank installation. I'm not sure what order this will be done in.

Herb in Utah--
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Old 12-08-2004, 10:04 AM   #7
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with a large enough impact wrench the bolts will either come of normally or break off, either way they come out fairly easily with the right tools.

not a wal-mart special impact wrench either. get a decent brand name.
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Old 01-26-2005, 09:01 AM   #8
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With a rear engine bus I'm finding that a majority of the seat bolt nuts are inaccessible behind fuel tanks, air tanks and other hardware that is all mounted between the frame rails since there is no drive shaft there.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - the area between the skirt and frame is absolutely vacant - installation of tankage will be a piece of cake!

I am having trouble with the angle grinder though - I've been breaking cut-off wheel at a high rate. The bolts in my bus have a forged flange around the head so there is a lot of material to get through. Tonight I'm going to try using the grinding disk to remove part of this flange and then switching to the cut-off wheel to cut the bolt.

Since I'm always working in the dark, one tool thta has helped me greatly is my Black Diamond Xenix IQ LED headlamp - this thing is amazing, the LED is easily as bright as a 2 D cell MAG light and lasts 10 hours on it brightest setting with 2 AA batteries.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&v=glance

Cheers,

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Old 02-06-2005, 09:39 PM   #9
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Ok....

I will be picking up my bus this friday and propably as soon as I get back I'm gonna be looking for tools to take those seats out. Using a grinder sounds like a great idea. However, I will be really the only one working on the bus.

What kind of tools will I need other than a grinder to remove all but two seats?
In fact what basic tools do most skoolies use in conversion?
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Old 02-07-2005, 07:40 AM   #10
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In fact what basic tools do most skoolies use in conversion?
Simple answer - all of them! Over the past week or so more and more of my tools have migrated from the garage to the bus.

The grinder trick worked well. I affixed the grinder disk and then proceeded down the aisle grinding off the front 1/3 of the bolt heads, 2 on the forward leg of each seat and the front bolt on the back. I then turned around and ground off the back 1/3 of the rearmost bolt on each seat. Then I switched to the cut-off disk and cut the the bolt heads. With this method I used 6 or 7 cut-off disks to get all the seats out. The key with the cut-off disk is to take your time and push only directly side-on, any lateral pressure and the disk is in danger of shredding. Oh yeah - wear eye and face protection and ventilate the bus. I wore a respirator and was glad for it.

The outer bolts were clean and accessible so a 1/2" Socket and 1/2" box wrench were all I needed. My bus had seat belts and the seat bottom hinged up for access after turning a latch on the bottom - this made getting to the bolts quite easy.

My angle grinder is a smallish 4 1/2" DeWalt that I bought for about $50 several years ago. A larger grinder would have worked better, you might consider renting a 7" grinder. Be careful with it, use the guard and keep it the hell away from your clothing.

Many years ago I got my shirt caught in a big grinder and it climbed my chest, wrapped itself up in my shirt with my hand still clamped to the switch. It ended up at my throat, jammed and humming evilly, straining as though alive and eager to bite into my flesh - um sorry, I'm little too into the Dean R. Koontz novel I'm reading I think!

Cheers!

Jake.
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Old 02-08-2005, 07:36 AM   #11
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The taking out the seats process in our last was a total nightmare which took 3 days to complete…
I got underneath with a socket setup and screamed For Gawds sakes Millie…stick the vise grips on the bolt head that’s moving around a bit…not the other one you pinhead…

When I picked up our newest Bus ,,,,I asked Millie to help take out the seats…she promptly told me to drop dead…and stormed back into the house..
So I got civilized about this and picked up a little Dewalt Angle grinder.

It worked great…and I highly recommend it as the right tool for this type of job.
One detail I did notice , was after grinding on the bolts heads for awhile…the bolts would get really hot and the rubber floor would starting smoking…
So I’d stop and dribble a bit of water on it , just to be safe.
Once the Bolt head was cut off ,
I took a beat up Phillips screwdriver ,held it on the bolt and whacked it with a hammer…to knock the bolt out .

For filling the holes …I used exterior caulking. I figured since the holes were going through rough plywood the caulking would expand enough and stay in place.
I did think of using wooden dowels for filling the holes…but decided to keep things simple.

I completely agree with Jake !!!! Wear some sort of respirator or you’re going to hacking up black sooty bits for a couple of days.
Eye protection is a given here too….

Michael
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Old 01-08-2018, 10:34 PM   #12
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does anyone know how to remove the disk that held the wheelchair straps to the floor ?
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Old 01-08-2018, 10:38 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by freedom65 View Post
does anyone know how to remove the disk that held the wheelchair straps to the floor ?
It's a big ass bolt. On mine, pop off the little black rubber cap to expose the bolt..

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