Rear seat delete and build on 06 DC

Hey all,

Finally got around to starting my backseat removal and build. Right after I bought this truck I went on a 5k mile cross-country winter road trip with my dog and my girl, camping all along the way. And the whole time I was wishing I didn't have folded up back seats taking up useless space and weight. So here we are.

The seats came out real easy, weren't that heavy at all. Pop out the plastic shield, unscrew the bolts, wiggle the seat out. The trickier part was removing the black metal brackets on the floor as there's a bolt hidden under the carpet. I jammed a socket wrench in there which is not the best way to do it, but it worked, at the expense of a bit of torn carpet...



Now that those were removed, there's a HUGE and mostly flat surface to start building. I had no idea where my jack was this whole time, so that's a nice discovery...



I'll update this post with what I end up building, if that's allowed by the mods here. In the meantime anyone want some pristine seats for cheap?

 

I'm eager to see storage ideas with a rear seat delete, or even with keeping the rear seat. Plastic bins are easy. Cabinets with drawers and such would be very neat.

 

I pulled out my back seat when I started doing some side jobs as a handyman last year so I could fit a tote and a couple tool boxes. Business picked up quickly though and I got a toolbox for the bed off Marketplace for a steal. Polished it up with aluminum polish and elbow grease so it looks almost new again.

Then a couple months back a friend gave me a powered Rockford Fosgate 10” sub that I wired up and liked so much that I decided to complete the system with the same brand speakers in front, back and tweeters. As of yesterday I have it all wired up including a Big 4 upgrade to the electrical system which does wonders to the truck y’all, I’m talking everything seems to improve a little. So now the amp, the new speaker wires to it and the sub are all sitting where the back seat used to be, so I decided to pick up a big, thin, white plastic sheet and some insulation so I can build a back wall to hide the wires except where they will come out to meet the amp mounted to this new wall. I ordered a reproduction of the old TOYOTA large tailgate emblem (think Toy Story) to decorate this new back wall and I plan to make it all a really clean custom audio system install. It definitely sounds incredible compared to the stock system, although I really didn’t think the stock was as bad as some I’ve heard.

I know, I know. Pics! I’ll get them posted once I wrap it all up this weekend. Thanks for listening y’all!

Oh and I hope I didn’t high jack this thread man! That storage shelf you set up looks great and has got me thinking of some additions to this back seat area.

 

All right...




Got the build done, all that's left is treating and carpeting the platform plywood. Used around four lengths of 2x4, a lot of wood screws, some corner braces that are nailed in, and extra long bolts that secure the whole thing down to the floor (using the existing holes that previously held the seats down). It's really sturdy. I laid down on the whole thing and it didn't budge, so for a dog and some duffel bags, it should be fine.

The height from the floor to the platform is 18", which lets me put a whole lot of gear/containers and even a Yeti 65q cooler. And the underseat storage is still accessible, just have to slide out some containers. I'd like drawers but not worth the energy to build them, and they have their drawbacks as well...

 

We better see a dog bed on top of that when you're done...

Great work, makes me miss my 2005 DC..

 

Completely removed the back seat, under-storage, and backing to install 4 storage drawers, a permanent trash can area, fire extinguisher mount, cooler/storage tote area, hidden gun compartment, tie downs, either side pullout table, and more.



Will post the whole build soon...

 

Did you ever put up any more details here? I was very interested to see your ideas.

 

Interesting. I removed the back seat from my '03 soon after I bought it new. No other modifications other than a blanket curtain on the back wall. It's so much handier for carrying pets, suitcases, coolers and long guns. The seat and back are in clean storage for whenever they need to go back in.