installing seat pedestal mats - here's how I did it [a little long]

["William L. Nothstine" <nothstine@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings, folks:

I got the seat pedestal mats in my 1970 over the weekend.  Installing the 
mats went without too much trouble and didn?t take much time; prepping the 
area took longer.  There was a lot of crud under the remains of the old 
mats: horsehair bits from the old seat pads, grime, some rust, globs of 
adhesive that appeared to have been added somewhat recently, and some other 
stuff you don't want to know what it was.  I got rid of most of that with a 
putty knife, a 3M grey sanding pad, a dash of paint thinner, and a lot of 
Simple Green (?The Only Solvent That?s Better Is Mom Spit!? [tm]).  I 
treated the rust and hit it with primer and some NAPA spray paint [Spinnaker 
Blue] that?s amazingly close to the unfaded parts of the original blue.
Luckily for me, Mike B. from the list lives only 3-4 miles from me, and he 
has a nice low-mileage 1970 with the original mats in good condition, so I 
could see what they actually look like in place. I?m glad I did, because 
[list veterans, hold your giggles until the end of the story] I didn?t 
realize that there were long metal clips along each side of the seat that 
are meant to anchor the edge of each of the two-mat assembly.  Since the 
edges of the old mats had long ago torn off from the rest, leaving the long 
flat strip inside the clips, it wasn?t very obvious that the clips WERE 
clips until I saw Mike?s originals. The strips were torn off so sharply, so 
long ago, that I thought I was looking at the finished edges of the old mats 
until I got a look at Mike's.
If I?d had more helping hands, I would have fit the new mat edges under the 
clips first ? inserting the mats upside-down,  then crimping the clips down 
with a hammer and punch to hold the mats, then flipping the mats over, 
forming a sharp crease along the clips, and then letting the mats fall into 
place.
Since I didn?t have enough hands to do that [working alone, it?s nearly 
impossible to keep the mat edges under the clips while you?re trying to 
crimp the clips down - the mats? own weight pulls them free], I took 
advantage of the warm September sun and let the mats get good and limber, 
then put them in place and tucked the edges down into the clips using the 
tip of a screw driver.
I?m kind of glad I did it that way anyway, because I have a feeling the new 
mats need a few days to relax and stretch a little once they?re in place. 
They just aren?t sitting quite 100% right in a couple of places: inside 
front corners, and at the bottom of the seat back where the curved 
indentation is.  So for now I?ve ducked the issue that Chuck M. and Ronnie 
F. raised ? to use adhesive, or not to use adhesive?  At the moment, the 
mats are held down by their own weight, the metal clips [loosely], the seat 
belt hardware, the edges of the front and walk-through mats, and the trim 
strips at the bottom of the seat backs [three rivets to drill out on each 
side, replacing them with screws]. My plan is to wait for the next sunny 
weekend day [which, I hope, will be soon], then take all the hardware off, 
try adjusting the mats a little better, and attach it all a little more 
permanently.
I imagine that, when the time comes, I?ll only use the minimum 3M trim 
adhesive [tube, not spray] needed to hold the inside pieces in place, and no 
adhesive on the outside pieces ? since the latter are held in place by a 
long clip and really have no place to shift to once they?re correctly in 
place.  The inside pieces, which have to wrap around three sides of the 
pedestal and hang vertically rather than lying flat, may need a little bit 
more help.
Hope someone finds this helpful. I realize it?s a little hard to visualize 
some of it if you?re not standing there with the mats spread out in front of 
you. That was part of the problem for me, too. It's a left-brain thing.
But even though it?s not yet a permanent installation, and there are a 
couple of places that aren?t right yet if you know where to look for them, 
it looks pretty good, and the bus has sort of a new-bus smell again, 
probably for the first time since Nixon was president.
Meanwhile, I have one last question: It appears that, even after those mats 
are in correctly, there?s still a length of the painted metal on each 
pedestal that is exposed - about 10? long and 2? wide, along the top edge of 
the pedestals along the walk-through.  Why don?t the mats cover these 
places?
Thanks to all.

best,

Bill
Beaverton OR USA
1970 bus


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