Desperate for cash? Remove your back seat!

How to remove the back seat from an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.

The answer to this question had eluded me for some time. Many years ago, when gas prices first went from high to unreasonably high, I took everything I could out of the car to reduce mass. Spare tire, tools, jack, trunk carpet. That got the car nearly 100 lbs lighter. Many small items ended up providing a large contribution to mass.

I tried removing the back seat as well, figuring it was full of plywood and springs, but I couldn't figure out how to remove it. I got that it was somehow clipped to the car body with sheetmetal claws, but I couldn't find the way to get them to let go. My mistake was that I was trying to lift the front of the seat off.

The real way is grab the lower seat cushion from the rear and pull up, pivoting the cushion foward. The anchors on the seat will rotate out of the claws in the bellypan, freeing the lower cushion.

 It turns out the rear cushions come in at about 20-30 lbs each... they're all closed cell foam, fabric and a little formed wire. Not a huge mass contribution. The spare tire weighs more. Of course, mass is mass...

There are bolts holding on the upper cushion that must be removed, then, with some wiggling of seat belts, the upper cushion can be removed by sliding it upward. It is held in place by 3 claws on the back plate, so it's more resistant to coming free. There's an insulation blanket behind the seat that can be removed, provide some access to the trunk cavity. Useful if the trunk lock is throwing a fit. The cross members appear to be structural, so removing them without adding strength elsewhere is not recommended.