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The end of the front-back actuator is pinned to a plate welded on one side to part of the drivers side track and bolted to the floor at the other end. The pin is difficult to reach and remove even with the seat forward --- at least on the Caribbean seat -- if you want to remove the actuator separately. If the regular seat cushion lifts out and provides access to the end of the actuator then maybe not as big a pain but I believe the motor side of the actuator is still pinned to brackets welded onto the seat frame so something would still need to be removed to unbolt and lift the frame off the tracks. As I understand it the entire reason for messing with the seat is to lift and pull the carpet so it can dry. If that is the case I believe the tracks still need to come out to free the carpet and it is much easier to remove the whole seat as an assy without trying to take anything apart.

There is another bolt .
Near the center of car.
After you remove the 8 nuts on the rails

If it doesn’t lift out.
It's that bolt.

Agreed. Take the nuts off from the underside of the car, and pull the entire seat with tracks out as one (heavy) assemble.

Wire bush the nuts first, spray with PB-Blaster. They probably haven't been touched since in left Conner Ave.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Much easier to remove the whole assemblyc as a unit. Just one more bolt compared to my '54, but overall much heavier. My back is not loving it. Ended up taking the entire seat out, plus the rear. Both front and rear carpets are out.






The two jute pads were soaked, so they are now removed and draining



I took the carpets out and hosed them down, hopefully enough to get the coolant out. They are now hanging up in the garage to dry. I'll make sure they are good to go before I put them back in.

Bob did a great job with the front floor pan repairs. Nice and clean, well sealed, and the carpet/padding work is great.

I do believe the leak is from the main heater valve. It must have been a rather catastrophic failure of the seal. I will bypass it for now, and rebuild once I address other the on the car.

Hey! I hope we will be seeing some videos for this 56 soon!

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I need to get on that. I've been too busy with normal life stuff, then using the small spare time I have to look into the issues on the 400. But you're right, I should at least document what I'm doing. Might be helpful to someone else.

NAPA no longer sells the special heater valve washer but you can get them on eBay. Follow Kev's instructions, it's not too bad but you have to be careful in a couple parts as they weren't really designed to be disassembled easily.

Side note, I think you will get the jute OK by hosing it down... if not your local carpet shop has scraps for cheap. Whole car 20 bucks.

Made some progress today between kids sports and other projects.

I confirmed that Napa no longer has the seals available for the heater valve rebuild. So for now I removed the valve from the circuit completely. So instead it goes to the main heater core first, then to the under seat heater core, then back to the engine. It was the easiest way to remove the valve from the circuit, and this also gives me an opportunity to check both heater cores for leaks.



Filled up the cooling system again, started the car and let it run and warm up for a bit. No signs of leaks from either core or the connections.

I took advantage of a surprisingly warm and sunny day (40 degrees) to wash the filth off the car. It was pretty well caked in dust, dirt, and grime, which was getting tracked onto the seats and interior when I was climbing in and out.



So some of the kids and I gave it a good wash and thoroughly cleaned the windows as well.



Cleaned up nicely. The paint is presentable from a distance, and looks decent in the pictures. Up close it's not amazing. Will need to address that in the future.



Went to reinstall the interior and found that the accelerator pedal bracket broke. It had been welded before.



Removed it and welded it back up again. Should be fine now



Noted that I had some wetness from coolant on the frame under the radiator. Looks like there is a leak from the upper tank



Which is pooling down at the bottom and dripping onto the frame



So at some point I will need to remove the radiator and have it boiled out and repaired. Hopefully just soldering things up and not a recore.

Jute and carpet reinstalled, and seats back in. Nice to have that mess cleaned up and the interior back together again.




That's where I left things tonight. Next up is to go through the entire Torsion Level system to find out why it's not working correctly.

Quick work on that, good job. Sorry I didn't notice the leak on the tank. I may need to watch my video again and see if it was there. If soldering that up turns out to not be feasible, please give me a shout as I have two V8 radiators that I am looking to unload. Both good, one recored.

I probably have another accelerator bracket somewhere but I'm surprised a weld repair on that would break. In other words I would just weld it again. It is easily removed from the body if you have long arms to reach a box wrench above the transmission. Have extra nuts on hand as the originals are probably rusty and/or you will drop them...
Somehow I glossed over the photo where you repaired it

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No worries on the radiator leak. It's bound to happen at some point. Currently has a 12-15 PSI cap on it...was original 7 PSI? Either way the radiator is coming out to see what the shop can do. I also have a second one that Bob sent with the car, but looks rough. I may have the shop take both of them and see what can be done. If I need to get another radiator I'll let you know.

Thankfully all the nuts I've removed so far have been no issue, including the seats and the accelerator bracket. Previous owner had all of these off before, so nothing is seized at this point.