The Lotus Grand Tourers

I might be having a senior (41yrs old) moment, but I cannot figure out how to take out my front seats. They appear to be held in by a 13mm bolt, but I can't get a socket or spanner on the head as the seat guide frame is tappered and so there's no access.

Please advise me how to get them out, as I want to get them re-upholstered next week.

Cheers guys n gals

I have those moments as well, most embarrassing, I just used some needle nosed pliers and wedged them in, it did the trick, when seats replaced weld the bolts to the frame job done, makes life much easier. Keith

Hold Bolts from above inside,using screwdriver/pliers as a wedge,undo nuts from under car.
a second pair of hands will help.

excel tel wrote:Hold Bolts from above inside,using screwdriver/pliers as a wedge,undo nuts from under car.
a second pair of hands will help.

royal wrote:I have those moments as well, most embarrassing, I just used some needle nosed pliers and wedged them in, it did the trick, when seats replaced weld the bolts to the frame job done, makes life much easier. Keith

Cheers guys. It really was a senior moment as I didn't even think to look under the car for the nuts. My other classics have always had the thread countersunk into the floor pan.....guess that could be a little challenging with a composit body.

Right time to get on with the job!!!

And before re-fitting add a couple of blobs of weld to new bolt head to make sure it never rotates again.

Could also use Allen head bolts instead. No problems with getting an Allen key in there.
Ted

Having just tried to get my seats out I thought I'd tell you of my experience.

Working alone I started on the passenger side and, not being able to wedge the runnners up so that the bolt head stays trapped, or hold the bolt head, I resorted to grinding the nuts off from underneath. This took me over an hour, grinding a bit at a time to avoid a build up of heat and even through the car was on a lift, it was not a pleasant experience. It would also be very easy to damage the fibreglass with the grinder but thankfully I didn't. The two rear nuts were easier to get to than the front due to easier access with the grinder. Access to the front two nuts was not as easy and to avoid the risk of damage to the fibreglass surrounding the inside front nut, I drilled upwards after grinding a flat surface onto the bolt/nut with a 6mm drill and then widened the hole will an 8mm drill until the bolt was free from the car. A real pain in **** and over an hour spent.

However, not wanting to repeat the process on the drivers side, I decided to have a re-think and came up with the following (if I'm teaching grandma to suck eggs I apologise).

Slide the seat fully back to expose both front bolts. Undo the nuts from underneath until the bolts start rotating. Then get a pair of mole grips and grip the bolt head across the flats with the mole grip set as tight as you can manage. Keep undoing from underneath and the nuts should come off quite easily as the bolts will not turn.

Take the front bolts out of the runners. Then pivot the front of the seat towards the outside of the car and slide the seat forward as far as it will go. This will expose the rear bolt nearest the tunnel and use the same process and the nut should come off as well. Then slide the seat forward again and the outside rear bolt head will be exposed enough to get the mole grips on. Take the nut off and hey presto the seat can be lifted out. Less than 15 minutes from start to finish. I have sprayed the nuts with WD40 several times over the past week which will have helped.

I'm going to be using hex head stainless bolts when reassembling.

It all makes sense having done it but didn't when I started.

Some photos for those who wonder what this thread is talking about : http://www.lotusexcel.net/phpbb/viewtop ... f=8&t=3863

I found the easiest way was to clamp the bolt from the top with a small pair of molegrips, as you turn the nut underneath they will jam up against the seat rail and you can then make progress. Using this technique it took me about ten minutes per seat. IIRC, you don't even have to jack the car up.

Shaun