Hi All, my son and I are about to start deep cleaning his Felicia Combi (1994 model) - we're planning to remove the seats to get to the carpets. Is it a straight forward removal process? I'm hoping no special tools are needed, or access to the underside of the body. :-)

Yep, 6mm hex 1 on each side, the rears have nuts welded to flanges so they will fall I advise to use a torque wrench when tightening the double ones on the seatbelt buckle side for obvious reasons

14 hours ago, TonyW1967 said:

we're planning to remove the seats to get to the carpets

Ι stongly suggest to look BENEATH the carpets,you may find dust-mud or corrosion marks from all these years and you must make a thoroughly cleaning.

I am speaking by bad experience of course...

9 minutes ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Ι stongly suggest to look BENEATH the carpets,you may find dust-mud or corrosion marks from all these years and you must make a thoroughly cleaning.

I am speaking by bad experience of course...

I agree, if you are there, remove both front and rear seats, centre console and carpeting, and thoroughly check. Could be worthwhile applying some butyl sheets to the front wheel arches

12 minutes ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Could be worthwhile applying some butyl sheets to the front wheel arches

You need thin ones for this task but you won't get great results, for improving the ''rolling quality'' as we say here in GR (means reducing the sound while travelling in Highway) you need to buy plastic arches and install noise insulation beneath them.

Some cars as Lexuts have them on from the factory.

You can make a wheel-arch sound improving but this means cost and adds some weight.

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Some cars as Lexuts have them on from the factory.

My brera has insulation behind the fender liner but also on the interior of the wheel arches, so every little bit helps

Two things that many owners don't have stock of, or sufficient stock of, or for some never carry stocks of, is time and patience. Even if you fully prepare for the job and allow loads of time to do it things can happen and you end up running out of something (daylight, warmth, parts, consumables, materials, time and patience) so you do something that you regret later.

For screws, nuts and bolts, after cleaning pre-apply (24-hours ahead if possibly) a good penetrating/releasing fluid, I favour GT85 as it is also a good longer last lubricant (than WD-40 Multi-Use) and has a nice smell. Hold can upright, give it a good shake before use, apply as liberally as possibly and reasonable, leave to soak in as long as possible, first try to slightly tighten before untightening (to crack rust/crud seal). If that doesn't work repeat the spray and leave and try again. Given time and patience with this I've found it it's very rare that heat is needed or fixings are broken.- https://gt85.co.uk/

PlusGas I don't think is such a good penetrating/releasing fluid as it used to be but that might not be the case and I'm not sure if the new lot have now stopped manufacturing it but stocks will be about, don't buy the tippy (gravity) can as I can assure you over time the bottom of the can can rust emptying the contents (previous PlusGas manufacturer's tippy can I have for decades with no issue, both GT85 and PlusGas used to be British decades back).

Various makes, sizes and types of spanners and sockets(or other tools) can be handy for a better fit to old and rusty fixings.

Always check, clean and lubricate (GT85 is often useful for this) before refitting. Most servicing, maintenance and many repairs boil down to clean and often lubricate (even clearing error codes is a form of cleaning).

I used to always replace screws, nuts and bolts and other fixing with new, partly to see what I'd done in future but then the quality of new screws, nuts and bolts generally available over here deteriorated so much I'd reuse any reasonable fixings.

Whilst the seats are out have a good look at the condition of the frames, any tilt mechanisms and the rails, again clean and lubricate as much as you can, obviously the driver's side gets far more use so if things aren't handed you could swap over with passenger.

I had some seats re-upholstered one time (now an expensive job) and I asked that the seats frames were given a good look over whilst they were stripped down before doing the re-upholstery, a number of months after the work was done the tilt mech broke and the new seat cover had to be cut and stitched leaving a very visible repair on it, and the upholsterer didn't even do a great job of the re-upholstery, Such is lif. 😁

5 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

on the interior of the wheel arches

When i find time i will show what i have done.

The idea began about 22 years ago but back then there was no help,no internet,no forums and not lot of choices for materials.