Rear Seat Delete help - 93 Fox 5.0 (GT)

http://mustang-rear-seat-delete.com/

this site sells them. You can look at the pictures to see how they built it. I'm buying one when I get paid.

1Fast92FiveOh said:

http://mustang-rear-seat-delete.com/

this site sells them. You can look at the pictures to see how they built it. I'm buying one when I get paid.

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That's a bit much for a kit that you can build your self IMO

Three hundred bucks for a friggin' rear seat delete?!? Ouch.

Mine was free; I made it from a big oil drip pan that I simply cut to clear the center hump and inner rear wheelwells, then secured into place with sheet metal screws and sprayed with Duplicolor bedliner (along with the floor, after scraping off the OEM sound insulation). Might cost you about ten bucks in materials to do it on your own.

You could go the route of using plywood/particle board and carpeting, but isn't the whole idea of a rear seat delete to LOSE dead weight? The OEM seat I took out of my notch weighed about 30 pounds; the sheetmetal delete I installed weighs about 3 pounds; the average rear seat delete kit sold in most places probably weighs about 50 pounds. Sure, they look nicer and all that, but if looks is all you want, just leave the darned seat in there to begin with and spend that $300 on some exhaust or traction mods or something.

You need to start by removing the bottom cushion. This is done by pushing backward on the bottom of the front side of the seat cushion. There is 2 hooks (1 on each side) that secure the bottom cushion in place. It has to be pushed backwards towards the rear of the car to clear the hooks. It maybe neccessary to use a large screw driver or pry bar to push the seat backwards. Once the bottom cushion has been removed, remove all of the hatch carpet. There is 4 phillips head screws securing the carpet to the metal flaps on the rear seat. Remove the metal brackets by unbolting the 4 7/16 bolts on the back of the top half of the seat, Then remove the bolts that secure the hinge to the car. Remove the 2 small bolts in the center on top of the tranny tunnel. I think they are 7/16. There is 2 more bolts on each side of the seat between the seat and the rear plastic panels. You will need to use a wrench for these bolts due to lack of room. I think they are 5/8 ot 11/16. These bolts are hard to see. You my need to push on the seat upholstery in order to gain access to these bolts. Once these are removed, the back seat should come right out. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through the above mentioned website, Thanks Keith

P.S. Not every thing is about weight. Some people like to show their cars and dont want to be embarrassed with an ugly rear seat delete. If weight is that much of a concern, then it shouldnt be on the street in the first place. Driver skill will out weigh any weight savings in your car anyway.

kdezines said:

P.S. Not every thing is about weight. Some people like to show their cars and dont want to be embarrassed with an ugly rear seat delete. If weight is that much of a concern, then it shouldnt be on the street in the first place. Driver skill will out weigh any weight savings in your car anyway.

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LOL thats the most retarded thing I have ever heard. Then mr weight expert, why does it take an 03 Cobra more power to run what a fox body does with a lower hp output and similar power curve? It's called weight and physics.

You should stick to your mad tyte speakers and leave the weight reduction posts to people who are actually into racing. Most people do a rear seat delete to get weight out of the car while keeping a full interior look, instead of running a clapped out pos looking car.

If you cant understand that 40-50 pounds can make a difference, well you just dont get it period.

Amen, brother. Again, what's the point of a rear seat delete, if not to lose dead weight? If your answer is "looks," think about that a moment longer. IIRC, the first Cobra R's to come out with things like radio, A/C, and rear seat deletes were not for looks or luxury, but to shed pounds (and save costs, I guess). If you go about deleting the rear seat for the sake of giving it that more "hardcore" look - like, "Hey, my car's got a rear seat delete, too, like a Cobra R!" - but you're also adding 30 pounds of wood and carpeting n' such in the process, you're basically just shooting yourself in the foot (performance-wise) and being a poser (to anyone with a clue about what makes cars go faster). Not that the Cobra R's the only example, that's just what readily comes to mind.

If you install a rear seat delete just for the sake of making room for another 200 pounds of audio equipment (as well as the extra 20 to 30 pounds from that $300 delete kit), maybe it's time to reprioritize your wants and needs. If you want a ghetto cruiser to go bumpin' around your beats and lookin' fly, yo, then do like every other G-money thug out there and buy an old boxy GM car (Caprice, Regal, Monte Carlo, whatever), throw some 20" bling-blings on there, install some hydraulics/airbags, and fill that huge trunk with all the batteries, solenoids, air tanks, and subwoofers you can get that thing to haul.

A Mustang is a PERFORMANCE VEHICLE - a car built with an emphasis on acceleration and handling. Just the same, cars like Civics and Tercels are ECONOMY VEHICLES - cars built to go from Point A to B with minimal fuel costs and a relatively low initial purchase price (or at least they USED to be cheap). Trucks are UTILITY VEHICLES, and big ol' boats like Lincolns and Caddies are LUXURY VEHICLES. They all have their specific intentions for use in design, build, and marketing. Sure, you can take any one of those vehicles and try to cross-train it, so to speak, to perform other roles by modding the hell out of it ... but WHY? None of those vehicles of other classes will ever out-perform another vehicle of *equal modification* in its original class; you're starting from a point of disadvantage and setting your sights low to just equal another car's stock abilities/benefits, rather than expanding upon a vehicle's original intended role.

You wouldn't take a Geo Metro out to go in a rock-crawling competition against a bunch of Jeeps and Hummers, would you? Nor would you realistically want to take a 5000-pound '72 Cadillac Fleetwood Hearse to a drift competition, right? So, why on earth would you want to take a perfectly good Mustang and load it up full of crap just to make it look/sound pretty? (Please, don't use the "I want to be different" or "expressing individuality" lines. Even Emo kids are resorting to those to explain their goofy antics, nowadays, and it's just laughable. )

Anyway. To reiterate, $300 for a rear seat delete = DEE-DEE-DEE. Build one yourself, or have a metal shop fab up a nice sheetmetal/aluminum one and then paint it to match. It'll look dandy, cost much less, and work far better for its intended purpose. At the very least, shop around a little for a better-made one on eBay or something - I've seen a couple of places online (not necessarily all on eBay) with lightweight delete kits that're NHRA legal and still reasonably priced.

Oh, and to return to the original poster's questions: The rear seat is a two-piece gig. The lower half should just pull out by hand; you might have to push toward the rear on the car a bit to get it to unhook from its base spots, but there's no tools required there. You'll see the bolts that hold the top half in place, once you get the bottom part out. I dunno if they use the same Torx bolts on the top half of the seat for hatchbacks that they use for the seatbelt mounts, or if they're just plain bolts, but regardless, you'll need a big ol' honkin' Torx bit (T-50 size) to remove the seat belt mount bolts. Once those are out, start scraping that tar-like poo out from under there, and spray some rattle-can paint or whatever you desire over the remaining primer to seal things up and make it look nice. Then, proceed to the planning/design/fabrication/installation phases of the rear seat delete portion, itself.

Enjoy!

you guys wine more about weight then the Honda guys. Yes, weight reduction does help but is not everything. If you want a used drip pan for a rear seat delete then so be it, but if you want it to look good and still lose 15lbs then buy the 1/4 in kit. Or buy the front half only in 1/4 and save about 35lbs. Driver still makes a difference. If you are slow of the tree, then saving weight isnt going to help. I wonder, all the guys who are so much about weight, how much do you weigh? Can you lose weight? Just wondering.

SO going by what was said earlier about the purpose of vehicles, the mustang being performance and all or the rice being all econo box and the like would it be safe to assume then that if one wanted to put say a 351 into a ranger to race it or to beef up the 4.0 in the factory ranger for the sake of racing then it would be useless because it is a truck and doesnt belong on the track instead it belongs either in the field or hauling some junk from pt. a to pt. b?
Reguarless of the intended purpose of any vehicle the owner is the last deciding factor as to how it is used. I you want to add 20 lbs. (wouldnt that be the average of the rear seat minus the weight of the delete?) and fill up the hatch with speakers then you are probally doing it for the strength of the delete. Speakers and boxes aint light and you need a good soild platform to mount them to to cut down on unwanted vibrations. If racing is your bag and you want the lighter delete then you to are justified in your choices. Just dont knock someones choice about their own car..... you dont own it.

Nate

kdezines said:

you guys wine more about weight then the Honda guys. Yes, weight reduction does help but is not everything. If you want a used drip pan for a rear seat delete then so be it, but if you want it to look good and still lose 15lbs then buy the 1/4 in kit. Or buy the front half only in 1/4 and save about 35lbs. Driver still makes a difference. If you are slow of the tree, then saving weight isnt going to help. I wonder, all the guys who are so much about weight, how much do you weigh? Can you lose weight? Just wondering.

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I weigh 140, so losing weight is not on my priority list, as far as the tree goes, not everybody runs at the track and a tree doesnt matter even if you do because on any given pass, you would have gone faster with less weight period. I dont think anybody wants a raggedy rear seat delete or a big open space where the seat used to be on their street car, which is why it sucks to see a nice kit like yours but find out it weighs more than stock and the owner of said business appears to look down on people actually wanting something more than a glorified space maker for speakers.

I have a serious question though, do you lose 15 pounds total with the 1/4 inch kit from just removing the seats and putting that in? I have never had the entire seat out of a fox body, so I wouldnt know what the uppers weigh but I do know the seat belts weigh a good bit total. Are you including that in your totals?

Any pictures of just the front kit installed in a hatchback from different angles? Is the 35 pounds reduction with that kit including seat belts?

The kit from customrearseatdelete. Is around about 40lbs the owner said. I dont think the seats in my standard interior coupe weight that. The bottom seat is the heaviest part in my coupe. I do like the look of the kit and it gives some functionality to the backseat if only it was lighter. I dont think weight is that big of an issue. People complain about the IRS weighing too much and its proven to provide better weight transfer/distribution.

1Fast92FiveOh said:

http://mustang-rear-seat-delete.com/

this site sells them. You can look at the pictures to see how they built it. I'm buying one when I get paid.

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wow they have some nice kits available. thanks for the link.

I am refering to the weight of a fox hatchback. If you take out the entire seat (1 bottom cushion and the 2 top cushions), the metal brackets for the fold down, the seat belts and the rear carpet with the 2 layers of sound deadening the entire back seat is about 50 -55 lbs. The 1/2" kit is about the same weight as the seat. The 1/4" kit will save you about 15lbs over the 1/2" kit. If you dont want the piece of the spare tire, but wanted the front piece only, it would save you about 30 - 35lbs depending if you were to remove the sound deadener from the hatch area. The sound deadener is quite heavy by itself.

The coupe is a different story. I have not weighed the rear seat of a coupe, but it is not more then 20lbs. Like I told bditty50, the current coupe kit weighs more then the rear seat. I can make a coupe kit out of 1/4" rather then the 1/2" and redesign the back board in a one piece design. The one piece designed back piece would not be curved such as the current piece. This kit would still retain all of the same fit and finish and storage door. This kit would be less expensive as well due to the flat back piece. It would resemble the 05 kits found on the above mentioned website. If someone is interested in a kit like this, then it will be specially made for you.

Although some of the kits are heavy, the weight of the kit will help with traction. Losing weight is a great thing, but it still has to be removed from the right areas to help performance. If you are going to remove weight from a Mustang, it should be from the front of the car rather then over the rear axle. You will gain much more performance installing a tubular k member, coil overs and or tubular control arms over removing the weight of your rear seat.

I do not look down on people for wanting to take weight out of their Mustangs, but if someone likes to do other things with their Mustangs rather then race it, it shouldnt be called "ghetto cruiser to go bumpin' " just because someone likes to listen to music or show their car. Thats what makes our beloved Mustangs so awesome, we can make them what ever the owner wants due to all of the aftermarket parts available.

I, as well as all of you, love the Mustang. Everybody loves them for different reasons. I am just trying to give Mustang owners more reason to love their cars. If my kits dont serve your needs then that is fine. You cant please everybody, but I know I have pleased my customers with the best looking, best fitting, best made kits on the market. All of my customers have never complained about the price of my kits after they have received them and have installed them. If my kits were not as good as they are, then 5.0 Mustang and Muscle Mustang magazines would not want to publish them in their mags. I wouldnt be getting phone calls from companies all accross the country and Canada wanting to sell my kits to their customers.

Anyway guys, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask here or through the website. I am not trying to put down anyone. We are all Mustang owners. I am also glad to hear that you only 140lbs. There is this guy locally ( I am sure everybody knows someone like this), who drives new Cavalier SS who runs at the local strip and he is concerned about making his car weigh less. This guy probably weighs 350lbs, that is why asked the question.

Keith

You wouldn't try to use a meat cleaver to fillet a fish, would you? Or try to play a percussion solo with a Gibson SG guitar? Or try to hammer in a nail with a screwdriver? Most things are generally made with a specific intention - that is, they're made to accomplish certain things - and, sure, you can use different a different means to accomplish the same end, when it's absolutely necessary. Doing so entirely for the sake of "being different," though ... I just don't get it. Really, why make things harder for oneself than they already are?

It's just this: the original idea of a rear-seat delete was to LOSE WEIGHT. Period. Some rocket scientist later saw such a setup and decided it would help make room to plug in a bunch of ghetto boomer stuff, and that the best way to go about it is to build that rear seat delete in the same way they would build a subwoofer box - out of the thickest, most dense particle board or plywood they could realistically use, and then cover it with carpet.

Seriously, if you want more room in the back of your Mustang to load it up with subs and amps n' crap, then you need to get your priorities straight, first. If you NEED to delete the rear seat just to make room to dump in about 200 lbs. of audio gear, then you obviously don't own a Mustang for the sake of its purpose (as a performance vehicle), and chances are then that owning a Mustang is not going to suit your needs/interests. What you need is something with a lot of rear-end room like an SUV, a station wagon, a mini-truck, or at least a full-size sedan - NOT a tiny little Mustang notchback or a marginally roomier hatchback. 'Stangs were not built to be luxury or cargo-bearing vehicles of any sort at all, so they honestly suck for a chassis to go plunking big stereos into, anyhow; they're designed and marketed as sports cars for the everyday Regular Joe that can be affordable, and its performance upgraded cheaply.

If the rear seat delete is done simply for the sake of looks (and/or audio) and no regard for its performance value, then chances are you're a poser - making it look as though you have a fast car, but degrading its performance abilities by loading it up with look-at-me junk. (Quick review: This concept is known as "rice" when applied to imports, and I dare say it might as well apply in such cases as this with domestics, as well.)

FWIW, the loss of the rear seat will not adversely affect your ability to hook up at all on the simple basis of its location on the chassis. If traction is your biggest argument against not removing the seat (and trying to justify adding dead weight to the rear, instead), then buy a pair of drag radials and some rear suspension mods (LCA's or lift bars and torque box reinforcements), and fugeddaboudit. Adding weight to the rear of a car is only something I'd recommend in the dead of winter, and even then (on a car like a Mustang) a pair of knobby or winter-specific tires would be a pretty good idea. Adding significant amounts of weight to the rear just adds undue stress and wear to the springs, slows you down, changes the way the car rides/handles, makes the whole car sit funny (people in the oncoming lane will thing you're driving with your brights on), etc.

Essentially, adding a rear-seat delete kit that weighs almost as much as (or more than) the OEM seat it's replacing is about as effective (and silly) as using whipped cream as a means of birth control.

I guess I am lucky, my rear seat delete was free. The mice ate them

I Like rear seat deletes if they follow the lines of the interior, have function, look good and subtract weight. For my notch I think I'm just going to keep my seat because it weighs like 20lbs. I picked it up the first time and I was like wow, its weighs nothing.

89Notch said:

I guess I am lucky, my rear seat delete was free. The mice ate them

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We need an applaud icon, that made me giggle.



Anyway, that rear set delete certainly looks good. It feels a little bit on the pricey side to me, but opinions are only opinions. I havn't even seen the product.

I am in the camp where I want something that doesn't look hideous, but is also as light as possible. Kdezines, you may want to consider using your templates to make something from fiber or sheetmetal that is lightweight, inexpensive, but consistantly fits like consumers would want it to.

And on taking any critcisms in stride and keeping a professional and level headed manner. Too often I see those who have a decent product generate an inflated and pompous attitude.

Even if I didn't like your product or your price I would now still point people to you if someone were looking for something you offered because of how you conduct yourself.

I have considered making the kits out of something other then wood, but I have found nothing even close to the price of the wood. Sheet metal to have any strentgh would have to be at least 1/8 thick and at that thickness it would weigh more then the 1/4 kit. Plus the cost of cutting the metal is more labor intensive. I looked at plastic, but then again, plastic is even more expensive.

If someone has any suggestions on what material that would be light weight and inexpensive, then please tell me. I'm happy to consider all options.

If you take one of your wood kits, you can lay some fiberglass overtop of it. Then you have a form. Take that, line the inside with cloth or something, then lay fiberglass inside of that, when it sets, you'll have a replica of your wood piece out of fiberglass. Laying fiber is real easy and not expensive when you're purchasing materials in bulk. Granted I don't know how many units you move a month.

With sheetmetal, you don't use thickness for rigidity. Again, marketing this to people who are interested in racing their cars and not showing them, you can rivet in some L beam bracing. These things won't be supporting any weight, they just need to be stiff enough to hold their shape, so it wouldn't take much. Even that super thin stuff sold at home depot or lowes for drywall corners would be enough to keep thin sheetmetal rigid under it's own weight.