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Finally started in on the rear interior of the taxi this weekend, since there were some recent posts about legality of riders in the back and how to accomodate them, thought I would share some thoughts and pictures. 'Cause I'm just cool like that.
First of all, if you are going to mod your coach to put people in the back - do it right and do it safely. I picked this particular car to build the taxi out of for a couple reasons, but primarily it is a combination coach, i.e. REAR DOOR HANDLES and the rear windows roll (at least partially) down. Smart!
I also finally turned up a removable seat from a mini van or something that fit nicely inside the wheel wells with about a half inch to spare on either side.
Should these pics post in the correct order, what you are looking at is as follows:
1) After pulling out the jump seats, I obviously needed to remove the decking. This is just 3/4 plywood with linoleum on top. So I set the blade on the circular saw to the correct depth and screwed a board down as a guide to get a nice straight cut. This proved to be a tight fit for the guide plate on the saw itself, so I had to modify it by removing the spring loaded safety guard thing and insert a 1/8 inch washer behind the blade to push it that much closer to the front edge to get that clean cut. (I would not recommend anybody else doing either of those things.) After saying a Hail Mary, I set the blade spinning and made that first cut - man, it was tough - no turning back now. So you know the plywood is bolted down to the frame rails from the top, so you have to kind of figure out where the bolts are and gouge the linoleum off the top to find the bolts hidden to unscrew them. Since this is a combo, there are pans inset in the plywood to accept the flip panels that are flat on one side and have rollers on the other. These are screwed in from underneath, so as bad as it was trying to find the bolts on top, its worse having to contort your arm to reach those last 3 screws on the far end of the pan to get them out.
2) Surprise! After cutting the deck out and exposing the framework, you'll be pleased to see a hollow channel running down the center of the floor. Sure, the blower motor was easy enough to unhook and came right out with 4 screws, but look at the heater core behind it! That's right, EMT's and patients like to be warm too. To be honest, I had no idea this thing was in there. There was a vent at the foot of the attendant compartment, but the core is offset from it and not visible, so I thought it was just for air circulation. I could not detach the hoses from the top as it sat, so I jacked up one side of the car and cut them from underneath. Believe it or not, that 5 x 10 inch core and the lines leading to it hold WAY more than a gallon of coolant, and a pie plate won't catch it all. (yes, I made sure the valve to the rear heat was closed - duh)
3) A sawzall with a metal cutting blade burned through the frame rails and the channel in the center was mostly only tack welded down, so this part was not terrible. There were a couple stubborn spots, and I only snapped 2 blades in the process, but Dewalt makes some quality stuff, so I ain't mad at 'em. About a total of 1/3 of the rear deck is totally emptied down to the floor pans, ready to be cleaned up and fitted for cosmetics, seat brackets, etc...
4) After a fruitless search of a Pull-A-Part junkyard, Craigslist, etc. for a bench set that would (A) fit, and (B) did not smell like cat pee, I actually found this one out by the back door of my local Value Village. As pictured, it has this weird system of bars and clamps meant to lock it down into whatever it came from. Rather than try to work within its realm, I decided to unbolt the whole assembly and reattach a super-simple new support system made of steel tubing, or L-channel, or whatever. How hard could it be to unbolt this frame? Pretty hard if you dont have those stupid star-shaped "Torx" bits or whatever they are called. No big deal - I'll pick up a set at the Depot, they will be a fine addition to the tool box if I ever need them again. So I pick out a lovely 12 piece set of the things, and lucky me - there are TWO 45mm heads in there! Bonus! But guess what, there are NO 50mm heads in there. Now guess which size I need?
Anyway, that is as far as I got this weekend. I have to re-route a little wiring and figure the seat frame thing out, then should just be a simple padding and carpet job after that. Will continue to post as the wheels of progress turn...
First of all, if you are going to mod your coach to put people in the back - do it right and do it safely. I picked this particular car to build the taxi out of for a couple reasons, but primarily it is a combination coach, i.e. REAR DOOR HANDLES and the rear windows roll (at least partially) down. Smart!
I also finally turned up a removable seat from a mini van or something that fit nicely inside the wheel wells with about a half inch to spare on either side.
Should these pics post in the correct order, what you are looking at is as follows:
1) After pulling out the jump seats, I obviously needed to remove the decking. This is just 3/4 plywood with linoleum on top. So I set the blade on the circular saw to the correct depth and screwed a board down as a guide to get a nice straight cut. This proved to be a tight fit for the guide plate on the saw itself, so I had to modify it by removing the spring loaded safety guard thing and insert a 1/8 inch washer behind the blade to push it that much closer to the front edge to get that clean cut. (I would not recommend anybody else doing either of those things.) After saying a Hail Mary, I set the blade spinning and made that first cut - man, it was tough - no turning back now. So you know the plywood is bolted down to the frame rails from the top, so you have to kind of figure out where the bolts are and gouge the linoleum off the top to find the bolts hidden to unscrew them. Since this is a combo, there are pans inset in the plywood to accept the flip panels that are flat on one side and have rollers on the other. These are screwed in from underneath, so as bad as it was trying to find the bolts on top, its worse having to contort your arm to reach those last 3 screws on the far end of the pan to get them out.
2) Surprise! After cutting the deck out and exposing the framework, you'll be pleased to see a hollow channel running down the center of the floor. Sure, the blower motor was easy enough to unhook and came right out with 4 screws, but look at the heater core behind it! That's right, EMT's and patients like to be warm too. To be honest, I had no idea this thing was in there. There was a vent at the foot of the attendant compartment, but the core is offset from it and not visible, so I thought it was just for air circulation. I could not detach the hoses from the top as it sat, so I jacked up one side of the car and cut them from underneath. Believe it or not, that 5 x 10 inch core and the lines leading to it hold WAY more than a gallon of coolant, and a pie plate won't catch it all. (yes, I made sure the valve to the rear heat was closed - duh)
3) A sawzall with a metal cutting blade burned through the frame rails and the channel in the center was mostly only tack welded down, so this part was not terrible. There were a couple stubborn spots, and I only snapped 2 blades in the process, but Dewalt makes some quality stuff, so I ain't mad at 'em. About a total of 1/3 of the rear deck is totally emptied down to the floor pans, ready to be cleaned up and fitted for cosmetics, seat brackets, etc...
4) After a fruitless search of a Pull-A-Part junkyard, Craigslist, etc. for a bench set that would (A) fit, and (B) did not smell like cat pee, I actually found this one out by the back door of my local Value Village. As pictured, it has this weird system of bars and clamps meant to lock it down into whatever it came from. Rather than try to work within its realm, I decided to unbolt the whole assembly and reattach a super-simple new support system made of steel tubing, or L-channel, or whatever. How hard could it be to unbolt this frame? Pretty hard if you dont have those stupid star-shaped "Torx" bits or whatever they are called. No big deal - I'll pick up a set at the Depot, they will be a fine addition to the tool box if I ever need them again. So I pick out a lovely 12 piece set of the things, and lucky me - there are TWO 45mm heads in there! Bonus! But guess what, there are NO 50mm heads in there. Now guess which size I need?
Anyway, that is as far as I got this weekend. I have to re-route a little wiring and figure the seat frame thing out, then should just be a simple padding and carpet job after that. Will continue to post as the wheels of progress turn...
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