Bought my father-in-law's '98 SWB passenger wagon, 5.2L, when he passed last summer. The sheet metal for the front passenger seat mount bolt (left front corner) broke from the floor pan and allows the seat to rock a little bit. Not safe. Recommendations for repairing? Simple tack weld at a muffler shop? Or is anybody local to Chicagoland who could do this with some social distancing and a few bucks? I'd like to clean the van up and sell it. All original. Always garaged. 99k miles. Very little rust in the usual places. Thx.

 

As you said, it's not safe. My comments are from experience with an '89, but I don't believe the floor pan changed much in '98. The seat base mount anchors the seat belts, and you said it's rocking, so you should not let a passenger sit on it in case of collision. Air bag alone is not sufficient; the seat belts are still the primary restraint. As for how to fix it, you should have a lot of options since there's plenty of room to work underneath & frame-like members to mount to. You may be able to use heavy angle iron, drill through & make a new seat base frame for all four mounting bolts. Or a heavy gauge steel plate would serve the same purpose. If you can attach pictures, that would clarify the situation. If a spot weld can do the trick, OK, but try to look at it as a complete seat base mounting fix for safety. It shouldn't cost much, materials & labor.

A couple notes: On my '89, the brake lines run along the driver's side, the fuel lines on the passenger's side. Be careful what you weld around. And I believe the floor pan on my '89 is true galvanized (not just zinc chromate spray coated). I heard that special welding equipment & skills made be required. A bolt-up job may be preferable.

 

If it's similar in build to the earlier vans, those seat mount bolts come through a doubled piece of panel, the front seat bolts go through a flange in a stiffening rib which goes across the vehicle, the rear seat bolts are through the similar flange in the main transmission-mount crossmember. And then they have a small piece of heavier gauge pad to give further strength. This pic is the same bolt on the driver's side:



Even if it's not the same it won't be too far removed from this. So for that to have pulled through you will surely find that there's a significant area of the floor under the seat which has been badly rust-affected. That's what you have to fix, in my opinion,

Personally I don't like the idea of putting hefty pieces of iron in there, but it is the sort of thing that a decent exhaust man with a handy MIG and some panel steel could work on from the top, cut it all out and then build it as you go, if you have a friend in that business I'd pull the seat out , clear the carpet (if any) away and take it down to see him.