Standard Issue Seat Delete (plus bonus)

I wasn't actually planning on doing a rear seat delete in my access cab, but one bolt led to another and you know how it goes; 30 minutes later you're in too deep.

The seats themselves we pretty easy to remove, 3 bolts each if I recall, under some easily accessed velcro flaps. Once the seats were gone, I thought, these headrests need to go. The headrests were a bit more of a pain to get out.

I don't think you need to pop off the blue boxed stuff (I removed that first looking for a way to left the headrests without more work), just the three red squares. I ended up breaking a bunch of clips on them, which made me think it should be illegal for manufacturers to make these clipped in pieces that brake so easily. Also, the ones at each edge near the doors are different from the one in the middle so make sure you put them back in the right place.




Once the three bolts are unscrewed from behind the plastic squares are removed, gently pry the seatback panel from behind the driver seat first, starting at the door edge and work your way towards the middle; do the same for the panel behind the passenger. One additional thing I did, but didn't take pictures of, was I also removed what I'm assuming are some child seat clips at the base of the seatback panel. Unscrew two (or maybe it was four) bolts per seat and from the back of the panel squeeze the plastic clips where the metal protrudes to separate the metal clips from the seatback. All the bolts that I unscrewed from the seats headrests, and child clips, I screwed back into where they came from so I didn't have to keep a baggy of screws.




Ok, pop quiz time...what are these black plastic panels for? Are they for drilling through in case you want to run wiring of some kind into the bed?




Once all that stuff was off, I added some 3M Thinsulate SM200L that I have a roll of for other stuff I'm going to be working on. That space on top and bottom of the bar seemed like a good place to shove some in so I cut two strips, cut out some squares where the seatback panel locks in and put stuff back together.




Like it never even happened

 

Hello again. The two black boxes on the back wall are air vents. Nice job on the platform for your pooch.

Now - take it all back apart. This is where the those sound damping sheets would really help out. Check out a few stereo/speaker threads. Sound proofing the back wall seems to help quite a bit. ( I bought materials, but haven’t installed yet. )

 

I'm lazy.

 

How could they be air vents if they’re solid plastic and don’t let air in/out? unless maybe I didn’t see openings in those plastic pieces.

I thought about putting some sound dampening sheets in there while working on it, but there’s not much flat space to stick them; it’s very ribbed(?). The thinsulate was supposedly developed as a sound dampener but also works as insulation so I don’t think I’m ripping it apart again (for now). I’ll check out some sound threads here, but from what I’ve seen elsewhere, there’s only so much you can do to lessen the noise without adding a significant amount of weight and ripping apart the entire interior. I’ve been listening to my ticking manifold in my ‘08 4Runner for the past 8 years so anything is an improvement really.

The platform is a temporary solution; goal is to make some drawers that fit into the foot space with a hinged top portion that can swing open to reveal the stock storage space.

 

There’s little flaps in them. The open when for example you shut a door to equalize the cabin pressure

 

Oh I definitely missed seeing that when I took one out to look at it. Probably a good thing too cause I would’ve been tempted to “Fix” them by sealing them up.

 

Hello! I would love to purchase those seat parts, or trade for the back paneling!
I've got a 2019 Access cab without rear seats

 

I'm going to keep them, since I assume I'll want to put them back in when I sell the truck or just need them back in for some reason.