Remove 64 Impala split bench seat backs.

Posted by Carl King - 20/04/09 at 11:04 am

Here’s a job that’s pretty easy.

I got a set of buckets for my 64 Impala and now with limited space, I’ve got to clear out some of my classic car stuff to make room for all the parts I’m gonna have when I start to strip the car down for restoration this summer.

I posted the split bench on Craigslist and a guy from the Philly area responded. A few emails went back and forth and we discovered we would both be at Spring Carlisle on the 25th of April. So now I have to get this seat in my Neon somehow to take it up to Carlisle. The 64 Impala seat is 5 feet long, and the back seat in my Neon is only just over 4 feet wide, so I really need to remove the backs to get it in there. I’ll need to remove the lower part of the rear seat.

If he doesn’t buy it, no big deal, I’ll just take it back home.

I’m going to Spring Carlisle to pickup some 64 Impala ads to scan and put up on my website for trivial interest, and one more floor pan support I need. It’s not a major parts hunt since I’ve done rather well for the majority of the 64 Impala parts I need.

So anyway, onto removing the seat backs.

The backs are only fastened at one location. The hinge arm at the end of the seat. The hinge at the center of the seat is just a pivot pin with a key at the end to keep it from coming out.

A hole in the outside hinge arm fits over a pin on the edge of the seat base with a snap-on cap with fingers that grab the ring groove on the pin. Once you see it, you’ll see how self explanatory it is. The only gotcha is that you risk damaging the fingers on the retainer cap cause the only way to remove it is to forcefully pry it off with a screwdriver.

I needed to use an old knife to slip under the edge of the retainer cap in order to get enough clearance for the screwdriver tip. Tapping on the screwdriver a couple of times against the edge of the cap made me realize I’d only destroy the retainer cap if I hit it any harder trying to get the tip under the edge of the cap. Slipping the knife edge under it gave me just enough room to push the screwdriver tip under it without being forceful.

Once you get the cap off, move the seat back back and forth a few time while pulling it away from the seat end and the hinge arm comes rioght off effortlessly. Next with the seat back laying forward, lift the outside edge of the seat back up to about 60 degrees from horizontal and pull the center hinge pin out of the center support. This will allow the key at the end of the hinge pin to clear the pivot hole.

Repeat for the other side.

You may be able to reuse the snap on cap by straightening the inside fingers. Other wise you could just use a heavy duty C-clip, the choice is yours.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under Short How to's. The entry is tagged under 64 Impala split bench. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.