How do I remove seat riser?

[MiraclePieCo]

I want to remove the stock seat riser from the floor of my '49 without excessive butchery to the rest of the floor. Anyone experienced at this who can offer advice?

[nvrdone]

cleanest way is to drill out all the spot welds. Fastest way is to use a cut off wheel & cut parallel with the floor.
What ever you do, DO NOT remove the piece between the door pillars. That helps strengthen the cab

[Ricos54]

Chisel air hammer, that is what I used. Drilling out the rivets might be a better way.

[Iceburgh]

I use a long blade on a sawsall that will allow it to bend. Takes minutes, clean it up with a grinder. As noted do not cut the section between the pillars

[MiraclePieCo]

Are you guys just cutting it off horizontally at the floor?

[FarmerSid]

As others have said, don't remove the rear section that spans the cab between the door pillars. My suggestion would be to cut out the riser about an inch or so above the floor with a zip disk on a 4 1/2" grinder or cut off wheel on a die grinder. What ever you have. I have and use both. The 4 1/2" grinder method will make short work of it. This will make it much easier to see the spot welds and get at them with a drill or cut off wheel.

After, take a wire wheel to the remainder of the riser still spot welded to the floor to clean things up and reveal the spot welds. I don't like the drilling method as you will drill into the floor metal before the riser pops free from the floor. I used spot weld cutters with so so success but found that using a 3" zip/cutting disk on a die grinder worked best for me. Easier to control and variable speed.

As you grind away the spot welds, you can lift away the remaining riser as you go. Once it's all out, clean up the spot welds on the floor.

Do as you like as this is only how I have done it and came out with great results with no warping or damaged floor metal.

Cheers!

[Iceburgh]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Are you guys just cutting it off horizontally at the floor?

yes....really no wrong way. Depends on the tools you have at home

[mr48chev]

I'd agree with Iceburg, there is no "wrong" way but some will be a lot simpler and easier than others and leave you less cleanup or finishing.

When I did mine I torched the riser off just above the floor and the took my air chisel and cut the remaining strip off but as few of us have an air chisel in our home garage that probably isn't an option for 8 out of 10 of us and not even for me as my little compressor won't run the air chisel that is in the cabinet.

The simple way with less welding and clean up afterward is to do as the others said and use your sawzall or cut off disk and cut it off close to the floor and cut it away from the back cross piece and then take a hammer and chisel and pop the welds as you work your way around it. Then you just have a bit of grinding wheel /flap wheel cleanup on the spots where the spot welds were and where the base attached to the crosspiece.

That is what I plan to do on the one for my new cab. This is where the 2 lb hammer and bigger chisel comes into play.

[MiraclePieCo]

Awesome - now I'm starting to understand! I want to save as much of the original floor as possible. Thanks guys!

[MARTINSR]

Here is a "Basics of Basics" of spot weld removal showing many different methods. And to tell you the truth often on a project you will use many of them depending on where the weld is. But here it is in the nutshell, it's as simple as "unbolting" the panel!

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/basi...ls-222549.html

Brian

[MiraclePieCo]

Awesome tutorial! I just bought some spot weld cutters, but the seat riser and floor are so rusty that the spot weld are not visible, so no idea where to drill.

I did finally get the seat riser removed using a combination of the suggested methods. First I cut the bulk of the riser away with a plasma cutter. Then I hit the lower flange (the part connected to the floor) with an air chisel. That made amazingly quick work of the job, buzzing through the spot welds faster than I could keep up, leaving the floor undamaged and minimal cleanup.

Thanks to everyone for the help; you all get a ride in my truck when it's done and the beverage of your choice!

[nvrdone]

I want your address. I can make go in about 6.5 hrs from home

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Awesome tutorial! I just bought some spot weld cutters, but the seat riser and floor are so rusty that the spot weld are not visible, so no idea where to drill.

I did finally get the seat riser removed using a combination of the suggested methods. First I cut the bulk of the riser away with a plasma cutter. Then I hit the lower flange (the part connected to the floor) with an air chisel. That made amazingly quick work of the job, buzzing through the spot welds faster than I could keep up, leaving the floor undamaged and minimal cleanup.

Thanks to everyone for the help; you all get a ride in my truck when it's done and the beverage of your choice!

You have just given me a follow up "Basics of Basics" to write on that one!

What you need to do is one of two things (or both). Run an angle grinder with a little 3" 50 grit disc over the piece where the welds at they will usually jump out at you.

The other thing would be to use the panel splitter and slide it under the piece and when you come to a weld it will show you immediately where it is.

The other thought would be to instead of drilling out the welds slice the riser off at the floor leaving the flange welded to the floor.

Brian

[IndyBowtie]

I was surprised to find out that a Very large screwdriver driven under the riser near each rivet popped mine loose with little effort. Out of all of them only had 2 that tore a small hole in the floor, which I welded back. I was prepared to drill each one out but tried the screwdriver first.

[HUSSEY]

I cut mine off first with a saws all and left the lower strip spot welded to the floor. I then took the rest off with an air hammer and chizzel and finally ground down the left over spot rivet material.

Went pretty easy and fast.