How to Remove & Repaint a Bus Driver Seat

Our school bus’ driver seat was in pretty bad shape.  The paint was chipped and it had a lot of surface rust.  Not a beautiful thing to see upon first walking into the bus!  But we also didn’t want to replace it completely.  So we fixed it up!

Tools & Materials Required:

• Socket wrench with corresponding hand wrench
• Aircraft Paint Remover (be CAREFUL with this stuff)
• 4-in-1 painters tool
• Metal sandpaper
• Rust-Oleum Black Spray Paint
• Ospho Rust Converter (get a gallon because you will use this many times in the conversion)
• Replacement bolts and nuts to match the old ones from your seat (we highly recommend a heavy duty bolt with nylon locking nuts)
• Safety goggles and gloves
• Impact driver
• Power drill (we got this drill/impact driver combo kit and it served us well through the whole conversion)
• Two powerful flashlights
• 1/4″ thick rubber mat
• Construction adhesive (we used Loctite PL)
• Two people will be needed for re-bolting the seat through the floor

Step 1 – Remove and disassemble the seat

1. Make sure you take photos or video of the seat set-up and how all the pieces fit together, so that you aren’t left with a massive head-scratching puzzle when you try to put everything back together!
2. Unbolt the seat from the floor and disassemble the seat, scoping out where the screws and bolts are.  Every seat design is a little different, so we can’t tell you how to exactly disassemble your seat.  BUT we can tell you to take pictures or videos as you go!

Step 2 – Strip the old paint

1. Wipe down the seat components to remove dust and grease.
2. Use an aircraft paint stripper to remove the paint, spreading the remover over the paint and waiting till it bubbles.  Then scrape off with the painter’s tool.
   • THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT – THE REMOVER WILL BURN FLESH IT TOUCHES.  No joke, this stuff is intense.  Make sure to wear gloves and safety goggles.
3. Rinse off the stripped components and let air dry.
4. Use the sandpaper to remove surface rust, wearing it down to a smooth metal surface

Step 3 – Convert remaining rust

1. Apply a thin layer of Ospho to every square inch of the metal components of the seat.  This will convert any remaining rusty areas into iron phosphate.
2. Let dry for 24 hrs.
3. Rinse away the Ospho residue (it will leave a thin, white dusty layer from the chemical reaction)
4. Let dry for another 24 hrs or until bone dry.

Step 4 – Re-paint

1. Repaint the components with a spray paint (we used two cans of Rust-Oleum Black Spray Paint, which left a professional-looking finish)
2. Allow to completely dry before touching

Step 5 – Reassemble the seat

1. This is the fun part.  Or the horribly frustrating part, depending on whether you took photos/video while disassembling!
2. Work in reverse to completely reassemble the seat

Step 6 – Prep the floor

We extended our floor insulation/subfloor to extend all the way through the cab.  Some skoolies don’t do this, but we did.  If you did as well, you no doubt realized that you had to drill holes in the subfloor so that the driver’s seat could be re-bolted through the floor.  To figure out where to drill those holes in the subfloor, we put red paint on the underlying holes in the metal floor, then laid down the piece of subfloor w/ insulation.  Then lift it up.  Drill your hole where the red paint marked the subfloor/insulation.  If you didn’t extend your subfloor to the cab, then ignore everything we just said!

1. Cut a piece of rubber mat to sit just underneath the seat (this will serve as a fancier-looking barrier between the subfloor and the driver’s seat)
2. Secure the rubber down with Loctite

Step 7 – Re-bolt the seat to the floor

The bus driver seat is bolted directly through the floor of the bus and secured with four large bolts that must be secured from below.  You’ll need two people for this job.  One will go below the bus and one will stay above, both with powerful flashlights.

1. The person above will shine the flashlight through the bolt hole through the floor, so the person below can find its location.
2. Place the bolt through the hole and hold it secure with a socket wrench.
3. With the person above holding the bolt in place, the person below will secure the nut from below
   • SERIOUSLY, IT IS WORTH BUYING STAINLESS STEEL LOCKING NYLON NUTS.  The stainless steel won’t rust away and the locking nuts are extra secure.  These bolts are securing you, the driver, to the floor.  You don’t want them rusting away in few years and putting your safety at risk.  You also don’t want the nut to squiggle loose with all the vibration of driving.  You want it to LOCK.
4. Stand back and look at that beautiful seat, revived and ready to carry you to new adventures!