Seat rail removal

[ChrisTX]

These are the metal rails / tracks that the seats bolted to on the floor. i pulled up the rubber layer and the plywood will be next. However, I am not seeing how these rails are mounted. Does anyone happen to know how they come off?

[Jriddle]

They are welded. I used a 4" grinder and a cutoff wheel to remove mine. It was a long dirty job because they are welded every 4-6 inches on each side.

Good Luck
John

[ChrisTX]

Okay, thank you.

I considered just using slightly thicker plywood that would be the thickness of both the original plywood plus the thickness of the rubber floor, combined. The thinking was it would bring the level of the flooring up to match the seat rails. Not sure if there is any logic to this, other than just being lazy I suppose LOL. I think removing the rails would help eliminate the hot/cold transfer from the frame to the flooring, though.

[Jriddle]

I'm not sure what the best is I removed mine and glad I did but I used a lot of cut off wheels doing it.

John

[buswarrior]

Seat rail removal has been described by some busnuts as the second hardest/physicality job after removing the stock outhouse.

Nothing wrong with shimming the floor surfaces up to match it.

It does present an attachment point on the floor for your various furniture, walls and fixtures, with those T bolts that were holding the chairs.

Heat or cold transmission wouldn't be on my radar, the floor is going to transmit that too, at that small thickness. Some throw carpets on the floor during the cold weather will be in use anyway...

Your bus, your choices!

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[lvmci]

Hi Chris, agreeing with BW, when I was building the second Italian Greyhound, I thought of the bottom and top seat rails and top luggage rail as securing points for my kitchen and bath cabinets and showers glass door and walls and sofa and chairs, even the pole that holds the TV. My thoughts were if MCI and the federal traffic saftey commission tested to see if the seat rails hold in an accident, that's good research, lvmci...

[chessie4905]

Most likely a good floor body stiffener.

[Jim Eh.]

If you do use a cutting wheel to cut the welds protect your windshields from sparks. If sparks land on the glass, it makes the windows really really hard to clean ... 

[Melbo]

What Jim Said Double.

Time for new glass

Melbo

[David Anderson]

I left mine and put another layer of plywood.  Lot less work.
David

[Dave5Cs]

What David Said me too.

[brmax]

Can it be an option for! At least the above bay areas if of course these sections are free of water damage.

I mean it seems a better inspection of this area is available to us all.

Now the same area but very center isle part can be a benefit in using for below deck routing, many say. So its up in the air for choices, it sure seems to gather the most cleaning needs also. 

As I try to listen to others, the wheel well areas can be the higher damaged areas more of the time.

Although it seems to me these priority areas, their plywood is still damaged from inside or above area ceilings, hatches or bathrooms, not below.

Besides that I guess every window area is a potential so every bus can have its own perfect decision.

Just some thoughts
Have a good day

Floyd

[Jim Blackwood]

My floor is solid, (even the linoleum is pretty decent) so I decided to keep the seat rails. It turns out that there is strip lighting that will fit the slot, which makes for an interesting option. It would need a spacer below the light strip so it doesn't just fall into the bottom. Not very expensive, the biggest issue is finding one that is low intensity, as the trend is towards more and more light. Ebay.

Jim

[Jriddle]

We removed the floors to clean this out.

John

[peterbylt]

I removed the seat rails, I did not want to lose any headroom.

I needed to replace the plywood floor anyway due to deterioration.

It was not a fun job, the rail was welded to the bus, about an inch of weld every 7 or 8 inches, after the plywood was removed I started in the back and wedged a pry bar under the rail.
 
Then using an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel, I cut the weld, the pressure exerted by the pry bar would cause the rail to popup when the weld was cut.

I was happy I pulled up the floor, the air ducts were very dirty and it allowed me to run conduit and wiring under the floor.

I also spray foamed a lot of the area under the floor as well.



Peter