Cutting swivel seat base out of donor van

[shenan-agon]

I found a junkyard donor van that I want to pull the seats out of to swap into my Westy. The donor has a swivel on the passenger side, which I'd really like to swap over as well. I haven't taken a close look yet, but I'm going to assume it's a factory install with the lower piece welded in place.

What's the best way to cut the base out of the van? I can borrow a cordless sawzall...just not sure what the easiest cut location is going to be both in terms of getting it out and reinstalling later.

I have a wire-feed welder, so will be using that for the install.

[a914622]

I found it a little easer to use a cordless drill and a centerdrill bit and drill the welds. Then with a flat chisel breaker loose. But Iv also found one that was instaled with Alum. rivets?? I was able to give that one a few good yanks and out it came.
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87 gl powerd buy 2.5subaru
75 914 getting 2.2t subaru scratch that SVX subaru

[danfromsyr]

no way that's easiest, they're NOT spot welds, they're bead welds..

what I do is a cordless sawzall (plenty of spare batts in car)
I make a cut down one side only (the outside) thru the sheet metal and then via the wheel well cut the outside totally free. cut the thin metal the thick stuff wastes precious battery life.

then I hinge/lever it up against the welds on the inside edge (do have to score a little weld that goes side to side so it'll crack)
but I lever it up & down and it stresses and fatigues the weld to crack.
so that I can deal with cleaning it up at home.


Best of luck they're worth it and not side specific.
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[edgood1]

I second dans method. Cut one side free then bend he whole sucker until it breaks free... Way easier to clean it up on the bench
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1987 Syncro Westfalia powered by Subaru
1963 Panel to Deluxe Bus project :::: (photo album)
'65 Westfalia

[shenan-agon]

Hmm, so you actually go from the outside of the van through the wheel well? Having a hard time picturing where to cut (though would probably make more sense if I had the van sitting in front of me)...

[edgood1]

[a914622]

Let me clearify. I took the hole rail off. I drilled out the spot welds from the factory rails. then chisel under the rail. Sorry.
I bought one off C/L that was cut off inside the welds and there was not enough left to reweld it in. Thats why i would take the rails and then grind off the welds when i got home. There are a lot of wrecking yards that dont let you grind or flame cut in the yard.

jcl
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87 gl powerd buy 2.5subaru
75 914 getting 2.2t subaru scratch that SVX subaru

[VR Fox]

A cordless angle grinder with a waffer wheel is the way to go. You can cut directly on the welds inside of the stock seat rails with no harm to any of the surrounding metal.
BTW, a cordless grinder and spare batts are an invaluable junkyard tool. I've used one for everything from cutting heads off of stuck bolts to salvaging entire quarter panels.

[Robw_z]

Just adding my experience from the junkyard today...

I think using a sawzall SUCKED, and I mean SUCKED. I rented a 1000W generator($20 for 2 hours) and brought it to the yard. A grinder with a cutting disk would have been 10 times easier, and I had one, BUT the yard has a no grinding policy so I had to leave it in the car.

I went through all kinds of angles and approaches and cusswords to get one side cut(side to center of van) then levered it up and broke the welds on the other side.

PS: A 1000W generator is NOT sufficient, it barely did the job.

[tencentlife]

When I wanted some swivel bases out of a van at the wrecker's a few years back, Trey brought the van over near the shop on the forklift, and went at them with a sawzall. I politely waited and watched him trying to find an angle that would work, and getting very little purchase with the blade, before I said what I was thinking before he even started: "dontcha think an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel would do a good job on that?" He tried for another minute with the sawzall and went off the fetch the grinder. Took about two minutes per base to make nice clean cuts thru the welds, no damage to the bases at all, no crazy contortions involved. Sawzall is a great too for demo work but this is not the kind of cut it's any good at.
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Experience is kryptonite to doctrine.

[danfromsyr]

heh, yeah well I've sawzalled many.. like 4 sets and it's fast and easy..
but most of the u-pull pick-n-puls here will NOT ALLOW a grinder in. and trust me I have a very nice 18v Dewalt grinder with a very thin titanum grade cut off wheels.

the dewalt sawzall still gets the job done easily. just not on the welds,
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[Robw_z]

[danfromsyr]

yes parallel to the outside rail then under the track along the "secret space' and connect the 2 parallel cuts to free the outward side.

I do cut thru the plastic expansion bottles, it is not reverseble.
and I use a BFH to cave the panel some to make the connecting cuts easier.
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