F150 Rear Seat Removal 2004-2008 - MY WAY
 

Yes, this is ANOTHER article about how to remove the backrest from the rear wall of the 2004-2008 F150 (Super Cab or SuperCrew).

I am about to begin a full blown audio system instillation and need to gain access to my rear wall in order to mount my amplifiers.

You may ask why...why another one? For a couple of reasons:

1. Because this backrest is (seemingly) a real PAIN IN THE AXX.
2. Because I downloaded and printed three different articles during my initial attempt to remove my backrest and NONE of them were very clear. Dont get me wrong, their information was accurate, but each of them was either more difficult than necessary or not articulate enough for my taste.

First of all let me say this is its frankly VERY easy to remove the backrest. Oh sure, it is not as easy as a factory folding seat (that we all wish we had) but its not as bacd as it seems. Trust me, I know because I spent almost 90 minutes following the other install articles and got NO where other than getting the two bolts off the seatbelt tower. I never got the backrest to budge even a fraction of an inch.

So I gave up and went to my computer. I did find an article by Mitchell Repair systems that seemed to have information in it that is directly from Ford. After reading this, suddenly the light bulb went off and I went back outside and attempted the removal. In thirty seconds the seat was off!!

From start to finish, this backrest removal can be done in 5-10 minutes. If not, you are doing something wrong. And, despite some REALLY strenuous effort the first time, the second time, it took no effort at all.

Without further adeu....here is my attempt at a more articulate and clear method of removing the backrest.
Attachment 31241

In the image above you see a blue tubular bar and a pink metal tab....now here is an actual photo of the backside of that component:
Attachment 31242

To further paraphrase this entire backrest removal:

1. Just remove the top of the seat belt tower. It is very obvious what you have to do once you are looking at it.

2. Stick a screw driver beside one of the two latches (see photo) and aim toward the roof. Push forward. Your screw driver will slide in the access hole (it may take you a couple of tries). Once you feel the screw driver stop, push hard. At the same time take your free arm and push the seat down (not very much effort is required) Keep pushing the screw driver,....yo will feel a liitle movement. When you feel the movement, quickly grab the bottom of the seat and lift up. One side is done!

Repeat.

After wasting 90 minutes when it really only took 5 mins....I was somewhere between embarrassed and angry. So I wrote this artilce to save YOU time.

Edit on 05/19/09: Included link to new photos of backrest.

If you want actual pictures of the back side of the back rest....of the clips....etc. Go to one of my other threads:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/20...back-rest.html

Good luck!

It took me all of 30 seconds to get it off. The screwdriver method does work well, but i found it easier to just mash my arm back behind the seat around the lower side of it, and pull the clip with my finger and pop the seat out.

One thing you should add to your post: ZIP TIE THE CLIPS ONCE YOU GET THE SEAT OFF. That way, all you have to do the next time is take the 2 nuts off and pull the seat right off.

Look at the lower right of my picture, you can see where i zip tied the clips:

Attachment 31243

Does zip tying the clips not make the seat slightly more dangerous in the event of an accident? I am not certain it is safe. However, I DO want to think through a way to perhaps make a quick release cord to pull these clips more easily.

I have no idea how you got your arms behind the backrest. I did, but not without a lot of strain and effort. Once to got my hand on the slip, I found that I had no range of motion left in order to even attempt to free the clip (even when pushing down on the seat..etc.).

Nice photo of your install. Now that I have seen my own truck stripped, I can more easily tell what you have done.

It looks like you also have the window motor. Is there any chance that the motor can be relocated, even slightly?

I have a total of three amps to mount, plus a sound processor, plus positive and ground distribution blocks and of course, the MDF board itself.

Did you use 1/2" or 3/4" thick MDF? It appears you used 3/4" I think most amps are approx. the same height. I know all three of mine (from different mfr.s) are within 1/16" in height. SO that is good. From your photo, it appears you have plenty of room between the amp and the backside of the backrest. Well at least more than I expected.

One more thing: Did you cut out areas on the MDF board to allow air passage to the rear vents at each side of the rear wall? I can see an open area on the drivers side, but not sure on your passenger side. I had no idea these vents were on thye rear wall until tonight.

1) with the bolts in tightly, the seat cannot budget in an accident, even with the clips ziptied. They are suecured down into the slot and cannot move at all, so yes it is plenty safe.

2) That picture was taken a while ago, i currently have 3 amps plus 2 distro blocks in there. Luckily my HU can do al the processing and time alignment I need. 2 amps + distros on the left side, and that single amp on the right. The window motor cannot be relocated, so i worked with what I could, and mounted the amps in directions that they would all fit. Capable of 1800 RMS+ at full tilt.

3) 3/4" MDF. No problem fitting the amps, and I like it loud so i tend to really crank it, yet never have had a problem with overheating.

4) I closed up the vent on the passenger side (covered with 2 layers duct tape then 3 layers of sound deadener). I'm going to do the driver's side soon too. It reduces noise A TON. Reduces exhaust and tire noise big time. I have 35" mud terrains and a 9" Borla muffler and the interior sounds nearly stock on the highway cruising @ 70mph. Slap 1800 watts ontop of that and its SEXY!

The rear vent:

Attachment 31244

Doors:

Attachment 31245

Attachment 31246

Attachment 31247

rear wall:

Attachment 31248

Thanks. I have three amps, distribution blocks and a signal processor. I do not have crossovers. It will be tight. I am pretty anal, so I can envision me taking my sweet time on the amp board, wiring pathways etc. I am thinking about mounting my amp board with "feet" or pegs on the rear side, perhaps using small blocks of 1/2" or 3/4" MDF. This woudl allow me to do wiring on the back side and just penetrate to the front side when necessary. Makes for a really clean install. But its tough to get too picky when no one will ever see it. I am more about being organized than anything. I hate opening things up and seeing a plate of spaghetti.

I will be making my chip board template for the amp board today.

Since I am trying to mock up my amp board, I am thinking about getting some 1/2", 3/4" or 1" rigid board (blue board) insulation and mocking it up, including some rudementary blocks representing my amps. Tape it to the wall, put the seat back (release clamps zip tied) and then sitting on the seat, jumping up and down...etc. Remove the backrest and see if there are any impressions or other damage in the blue board. This would give me an idea of how tight it is....since you really cannot see what is going on back there when you put the back rest back on.

thank you dude, this was exactly what i was hoping to find some time soon on here, i needed to get my code for my door. i just followed your directions and it took me literally5 mins to take the seat out get my code and put it back on.

Read this thread, got all excited, figured I was going to finally install that nice rear seat cover I bought for the hound. First step took all of a minute. Fast forward 45 minutes, many cuss words later, and I am no further. Tried the screwdriver method, as well as the jam my fat hand behind the seat method, all with no luck. What the hell could I possibly be doing wrong?

Got it done. One of those things that will piss you off all day, but could do again in about 30 seconds if you need to. Thanks for the tips!

Thanks ARCuhTEK, this was awesome. did you have to cut anything away from your back seats from the amps?

I wish I would've had this this afternoon. :D

I did my leather install, and fought for about 30 minutes before finally getting it.

I came here and looked at 05redfx4's install but the clip in his post doesn't show HOW to remove it, only what it looks like.

I ended up removing the seat bottoms and could get in there much better.

The screwdriver method looks much easier. :thumbsup:

I tried this and just could not get my screwdriver in how I wanted it to hit the clips. Just to clarify because I am not looking at it right now, does the screwdriver go over or under the seat when detaching the clips?

I found it easier to take off the side panels covering the rear pillar (C pillar?) and then get my arm around snugly. People who say get your arm behind the seat are crazy, I haven't the slightest clue what size arm people have, lol.

The visible metal latches (for child seats) are welded to a long horizontal bar. That bar has four metal plates (saddles) which the back rest, fits down into and rests on... The portion of the backrest that sits in the saddles is also a long metal bar embedded into the very bottom of the back rest. All of these components can be seen in my diagram. The metal bar in the seat can be seen as the tubular shaped bar colored blue in my diagram.

Take your hand or fingers and find this bar first. Just to be familiar with it. Your screw driver needs to be aimed above this bar....in essence....toward the ceiling of the truck...but only at about a 30-45 degree angle. The trick is knowing where....along the horizontal length of the seat backrest....to insert the screw driver. Essentially you are immediately adjacent to those metal latches that you see sticking out of the crevice between the backrest and the actual bench seat. There are only two release clips, which are located at the far ends of the seat.

That narrows it down pretty far....so you should be able to view my diagram and get the seat off pretty easily. If you have never done this, expect som frustration....and about 15 mins of work the first time. If you get lucky you will have the seat off in 5 mins. If you struggle...maybe 30 mins.

The second time you do it...I bet you can get the seat off in under 5 mins!

I bought my 2006 Lariat Scab used and realized well after that I didn't have the keypad code. I assumed it was just under the dash like previous Fords I've owned. After finding out the module with the code printed on it was behind the rear seatback and reading about people's trouble removing it I was at one point about ready to pay the dealer to scan or whatever they do to get me the code. Being cheap, I decided to do it myself but had been dreading it and putting it off for months. After I read this thread, I decided to take it on last night. I stared for 20 minutes at the lower exposed tubes and almost decided my truck wasn't like the picture. Finally it dawned on me that the picture was showing the tubes up inside the seatback. From there it took me all of 5 minutes to get it off, retreive the code and reinstall the back. I used a pair of shoes that were in my truck to prop the seatback up while I did the second side. When I was done, I only had one shoe....I had left the other somehow wedged behind the seatback. I had that thing off the second time, shoe removed and reinstalled in 2 minutes flat.

At least with the Supercab, one of the keys is the right length screwdriver. You go in on the inboard edge of the notched out area that clears the anchor points, and then to get the blade angled up high enough to get above the tube a relatively short screwdriver lets you do this without too much resistance from the seat bottom. I had my seat cushions (bottoms) in a sort of half folded position.

Thanks for the help. Now I can stop worrying about locking the keys in too.

OLD VERSION

Attachment 31249

If you look closely, under the color illustration, it tells you the rear seat has been removed for clarity. But after reading your post....I realize it is slightly misleading.

It may "seem" that the illustration caption means the seat has ALREADY been manually removed. When in fact it means the blue tubular bar is the framework for the backrest, but the foam, leather and other seat components have not been drawn so you can more clearly see the release clips.

I have edited the instructions and updated them on the original post.

Here is the new version.

Attachment 31250

Nice! I saw someone put something like this up over at the other F150 forums a while back. It's how I got my backrests out. Originally I tried getting my hand behind like most say, but my hand is way too big for movement back there. Screwdriver in between was much easier! :thumbsup:

It might have been me...I am a member there too. Glad to help.

I searched for 1hr looking for those latches. I even took out the bottom seat. I can see the latches welded to the round tube but cant find the part where Im supposed to push with screw driver. :confused::confused:
'06 XLT Supercab

An hour to find a latch that sticks out from the seat and should be visible from 3 feet away? I mean they are even visible in the photograph in my document....see the big red arrow point to the latch? My goodness.

As far as the screw driver....well I cannot do much better than a color coded 3D drawing..... Put the screw driver on the inboard side of the latch (in board means on the side toward the center of the seat)...literally touching the latch...and basically follow the directions from there.

Here is a photo with the seat bottom removed.

Attachment 31251

It is showing my amplifier rack, but it also shows the metal bar, the black plastic release clip and the latch. I have the black plastic clip taped with blue painters tape, because I do not want it to grasp hold of my seat bottom when I am working with it (at least until I am ready to reinstall the seat bottom for good).

The idea is that the black clip needs to be pushed directly toward the rear wall. So you will slip the screw driver between the seat and backrest...and put the tip of the screw driver right where you see this blue tape...and push.

That is as good as I can give to you.

Another picture for the blind:
Attachment 31252

Some people just cannot seem to figure this out...so I thought I would add ONE MORE photograph.

This photograph (the best one i could find to demonstrate) DOOEEEEESSSSS NOOTTTTTTTTTTTT have the seat bench or the seat back rest shown. Everything has been removed but the structural bar itself. Here you can see where to insert the screw driver. You MUST press down on the back rest while pressing on the release clip SIMULTANEOUSLY. Use this photograph in conjunction with the instruction sheet (posted at my link "How to Remove the Seat MY WAY thread shown above).

Attachment 31253

Thank u Thank u thank u. HAHA i have been trying to figure a way to get that seat out so i could put my seat cover on. Took me about 5 mins to pop that seat out. Very informative. Again thank u:banana:

I took the rear seats out of my truck because I was going to install a sub wall but that didnt happen. What is the BIG bolt back pass side?? That is a BIG LONG bolt!!! What is it for?

Jon

So many people told me this was a pain in the ass, it would take me over 1/2 hour to do it. But this thread makes it look REALLY easy, and thanks to those who posted pictures, it helps a lot! Now I can relocate my sub amp to the back instead of under the passenger seat in front of the foot air duct. In fact, now I can invest in a better system now that I have better access to better space for a big amp!

Just did it (as a nice bonus, discovered an 850W amp the previous owner had installed, though it's not currently hooked up). Hacked up my hand a bit the first time because, like others mentioned, it was easier to just shove my hand back there to release the catch. Would be nice if they just made an easily accessible catch

The way Ive always done it, is to use one hand and pull the foam and material straight up. Then just press the tab with the other hand. Its fairly simple.

I am extremely familiar with the seat, backrest and tabs/release clips now. But I still cannot release it with my hand. I can get my hand between the seat and the c-piller up to my wrist and then I just cannot fit any of my forearm into the gap and then turn my wrist 90 degrees to grab the release clip. I agree that (since no tools are required) it is the easier thing to do if you already know what you are doing.

I am just glad we have two methods instead of one. But it would have been nice if Ford would have put in a release pull string, tab or anything that can be access in less effort than writing books about it. LOL

Rear seat back removal
 

Your method worked great, kind of a PITA but it worked, there's no way I could have gotten my big hand back behind that seat, especially since I didn't really know what I was looking for. For those who haven't tried it yet, there are two "latch points" on each side of the seat, you need to work on the ones closest to the edge of the seat. You can't see the bar that the clamp attaches to, it's part of the seat frame so don't be confused when you see that the hardware is welded to a bar, that's not the one you need to work on. Get the screwdriver blade right next to and on the inside edge of the bracket, work it over the bar (all done by feel) and push in. May take several tries, it did for me. And you're not kidding, the hardware on the bottom of that seat back will destroy your seat cover, so be VERY careful. (I didn't have that problem because I just laid the seat back forward but didn't remove it.) By the way, I put a 1x4 next to the latch and twisted it onto it's side to help give me a better view of what I was doing, that seemed to help.

I think it's time to bump this up again. I just did it in under 5 min for my 1st time. Thanks ARC!!

cab mount

im hoping this isnt too difficult? i need to remove my rear seats to do a total cleaning as my dog took a **** in the back seat!!! im about to pay a place downtown to detail the interior, but if it is simple to remove i will. but i cant really see what clips they are talking about or which tabs, or what tools besides a screwdriver lol i dont know, i might just suck it up and get it detailed...i just hope they remove the seats to clean it all out.

screw driver methed sucks i found the hole above the bar and pushed on the clip it wouldnt budge so i jammed my hand back there and pulled the clip back. strained my wrist but i finally can lock my keys in my truck no problem :D

4:00 into this video shows a good view of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ7CfLEeogc

Arcuhtek, you rock! Thank you for all your efforts in writing this detailed post. I spent about an hour taking out the seat and realized there may be a better way. Thanks again for the effort!!!!!!!

Thanks
 

Thanks dude! It took me a few minutes to find that first clip, but without this thread I would have been lost!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Thanks I was able to follow your instructions and detailed pics. Worked great and now I have my keypad code! Just wanted to say thanks again

When i did mine i got so frustrated with trying to reach my hand behind the seat that i was ready to give up, this article had not been written or else i would have tried this method also, So what i did when i took my seat out was i loosened the seat belt mechanism as shown in the picture than i grabbed hold of the top of the seat and pulled towards me the 3 plastic clips at the top of the seat all came free and the seat folded forward for me to easily reach my hand behind and undo the clips. This would better be considered the brute method though.

i had same problem when i went wading thru a creek last fall. Interior got wet so we decided to strip the interior. Couldn't for the life of us figure out how to get that backrest off! One word: Youtube. There it was in living color from beginning to end. Simple video instructions. After looking at three other print articles and no success, this was a god send.

thanks for the info on removing the seat, my back window stopped working yesterday and now i gotta fix it too:mad: