Take A SEAT.... Please...

[60dgrzbelow0]

Skip the story if you like and have a look at this rare and infrequently used tool that you will need to remove GM truck seats with.... I think "fastback4" coined the phrase back in 2009 when he was inventing a tool to remove his windshield wipers... "...a One and Done Tool"

As soon as my accident/back surgery situation stopped my work on the 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer, I realized I would have to help out my son promptly and get him some wheels, I found a decent plain white wrapper 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with 60K miles that was not all "Beat to Bupkus" for just under $10,000.00 ... However even with Charcoal Leather Bucket seats and a fairly potent V8... there was no Center Console installed. Of course, without having a place to rest your right arm, or tuck in two easy to access cold drinks, or save your paperwork, sunglasses and all the other stuff in a handy place.. you start noticing the absence of it as soon you start driving around. I've never owned a pick-up truck before ...but I knew that something was missing here.

So I went to eBay once again and after a few weeks of nosing around, I finally found the perfect combination Center Console/ Jumper Seat with safety belts for around $325.00 with S&H included. While I was waiting for it to arrive...I hobbled out to the truck to see what size TORX hardware was holding down the seats and to my chagrin... the fasteners I spied where actually reverse TORX or emblemed with an "E" in the tools section of dealership style tools. I ran some searches on Youtube and sure enough, the job required not only a rare VIM-620 (E-20) socket for the four nuts holding down both seats...but also required another smaller E-16 to remove the four stout bolts in the four rear mounting brackets.

Now you would think that I could not be the only person in North America in need of this tool... but after searching High and Low for the damned thing in local stores... the closest one to having what I needed was carried by CarQuest (soon to be merging with Advance Auto) having a full set of these odd sockets made by "Gearwrench" that ranged from large to small as E-18 all the way down to some LBMF in size. [LBMF= "Little Bittie Mother- eFfers"] and those would have to be special ordered for around $45.00.

Of course Amazon.com was the last place to look and sure enough, the tool in the photograph below was widely available for between $7.00-$10.00...so I ordered two...one for me and one for my neighbor Eric (owner of the 1,000 HP Blue Chevy Nova II). I also ordered the Gearwrench kit mentioned above and that turned out to be a Godsend. The story ends happily with a logical explanation as to "WTF is the reason to use these Weird Fasteners?" In plain English... you can steal both bucket seats if you have this tool faster than you can say "Timmy FELL... down the WELL!" So it is probably a good thing that they are as common as Hen's Teeth. The new console went in slick and smooth, using caution when taking out the seats to unplug all the electrical sensor connections underneath each one and make room for the console install.

Last but not least... as illustrated in the attached photo... when I was finished double checking and tightening down all eight fasteners... I clear taped the label that the tool came with from VIM and after poking a hole in it... I strung the weird socket together with the label so as not to have get mixed up and disappear among several hundred other Parkerized-Anodized sockets rolling around inside in my big roll-around tool chest.

Caveat Emptor: When it comes to tools.... its better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it!

PS Sorry about the poor image quality... taken with my POS Samsung VirginMobileUSA Turd Phone.

[neophile_17]

Haha I like that! ... "one and done tool"

I ended up buying the Gearwrench set a couple years ago to work on my steering column. Hopefully I don't need an E20... The Lisle set gives you an E20 but takes away the E4 if somebody else is tool shopping. I use the set surprisingly often as it seems to have become somewhat of a standard for studs. OTOH The cam alignment tool for an SVT focus will languish in my toolbox until it gets made into something else...

[60dgrzbelow0]

Haha I like that! ... "one and done tool"

I ended up buying the Gearwrench set a couple years ago to work on my steering column. Hopefully I don't need an E20... The Lisle set gives you an E20 but takes away the E4 if somebody else is tool shopping. I use the set surprisingly often as it seems to have become somewhat of a standard for studs. OTOH The cam alignment tool for an SVT focus will languish in my toolbox until it gets made into something else...

Yeahuh... God only knows how many things are bolted together with these !~@&%* fasteners! that are lurking somewhere in every modern vehicle now. I have a different expression for the STUDS I find that have these weird tighteners attached... I call them THUDS... because as soon as you find out the price of the tools needed to work with them... you pass out hard from the Sticker Shock! LOL

[Guest]

While I do have a set or two of the E-torx, I have not needed them on GM trucks. A regular socket of the appropriate size fits over the tangs (for lack of a better name) of the E-torx just fine. I remove and install these seats often.

[60dgrzbelow0]

While I do have a set or two of the E-torx, I have not needed them on GM trucks. A regular socket of the appropriate size fits over the tangs (for lack of a better name) of the E-torx just fine. I remove and install these seats often.

Once... Upon a Repair Dreary
While I Pondered...Weak and Weary
Over Many a Quaint and Curious
E-Tool for this Special Chore.

Verily, I sought to borrow
The Best Tool that would end my Sorrow
“An E-Tool will arrive Tomorrow..”
But, Nevermore from the Car Parts Store.

Suddenly I heard a Rapping
As if someone Gently Tapping
Like UPS or Fedex Tapping
With E-Tools in their Hands, Galore!.

But... Quote The Raven,
“Nevermore!” and told me
That he knew the Score
That he would sooner use a Tool
Marked SAE, 'cause he's no Fool.

But unlike him, upon my Word
I'm Born under the Sign of “Turd”
Not Aries, but Another Species
My Stars are marked “The Sign of Feces”.

And were I to try with SAE
They'd snap or break or jam, you see.
So may those E-Tools get here Soon
Or I'll start Howling at the Moon!

Apologies to Edgar Allen Poe's “The Raven”

But I just could not resist... LOL

[pocket-rocket]

The engine that was in my wife's old Daewoo had tons of those bolts... so yeah, I have a set of them. And since that car is long gone, they sit and collect dust now.