School bus seat removal is actually a lot tougher than you might initially think. Many of the bolts that we removed from our bus had lug nuts that were basically welded with rust. Despite using penetrating oil and wicked strong leverage, we found ourselves unable to remove the stripped bolts and lug nuts. So we used a grinder to remove the immovable bolts.
Seat Removal Gets Serious
Today we get far more serious about the seat removal. We start by getting the easy stuff out of the way. The part of the seats that you sit on is easy to take out because they have a mechanism that you just turn and you pull the seats up.
The bolts that are inside the bus never experience a whole lot of rust so it’s easy to pull those bolts.
The Tough Bolts
We used WD-40 to lubricate the bolts that went through the floor and connected with lug nuts below the bus. These bolts were the ones that have had the last 16 years worth of water, dirt and salt sprayed on them.
Not to mention, the lug nuts were hard to reach. I’m assuming that the body of the bus was lowered onto the chassis after it was assembled.
We made a mistake by using a ratchet wrench while removing these bolts. By the end of the day, we had destroyed the ratchet. I wish we hadn’t killed it. But it’s gone.
Bon Voyage.