Rear seat floor brace removal

Okay I have rusty floors as most Xj's do. I have a mig and I am planning on welding in new pieces. My problem is how do you get the vertical seat braces on ether side of the hump off?? They put all that seam sealer crap on it and it is in the torx bolt for the front of the rear leaf springs that go through the floor?? The floor is rusted mostly just over the frame rails???? Not sure why but the floors in front are perfect no rust at all just behind the front seats and a bit in the back. I want to replace the metal from where it curves up the back to just under the front seat, but I need to get the rear seat braces off, cause the rust goes underneath the brace over the frame rail.

no one has done this??

You have three options.

1) You can drill out the spot welds and salvage the brace.

2) Cut the brace out, by cutting the sheetmetal around it.

3) Remove the whole thing with the floor you are replacing and see if you can get a new one from the dealer (check that first).

Like I often tell others, if you poke around on the XJ floor, you WILL find rust at just about every single seam, trying to clean it all up will drive you insane. Just take care of the rotted out portions and pry they rest doesnt rot out before you can get the carpet back in.

Seam sealer in all XJs is rather porous (I suspect its due to bad appllication techniques which aerate the rubber substrate, thus laying it down in an almost foam fashion), and it is applied where you dont need it, on the inside, rather than the outside, so as you know, its only a matter of time before rust starts, and the metal is so thin that in no time there are holes.

To get the crappy seam sealer off, grab a heat gun and a stiff putty knife, heat it up and start scraping. Final residue can be removed with a wire brush or Scotch pad attatched to a drill/airdrill.

XJguy

if you are talking about those 2 pieces of "metal" (flimsy as no other) then yes, ive removed them. Just unscrew and wala! Thats all I had to do, The screws are too small to be attached to anything else so no worries there.....that is, if we are talking about the same pieces.

Well I have tons of time so that is not a problem. Just wanted to know what the best way to get the seam sealer off. I do have a heat gun so I will try that route and see how it goes. Thanks guys. BTW do you even need those pieces for the back seat?? What are they there to do?

they add support for the bottom seat (not absolutely necc, but o help in support) I run without them now since mine were rusting