transmission tunnel removal

Must the driver seat be taken out to remove the tunnel cover?

It depends. On my car all I had to do was move the seats back and I was able to get the tunnel out. However I after removing the tunnel I noticed it was trimmed just enough to clear the seats. Also my Drivers seat has a different seat track than the Passanger seat. Thats why I say it depends. Somewhere along the line did someone trim your tunnel to make it easy to remove. Remember, all of these cars look the same but they are not.

David

I didn't have to remove mine.

Eric just performed this job, he said that seat does not "have" to come out, but it would make life easer. He said he twisted in 20 different ways to get it done.

A piece of sheet metal between the seat and the tunnel will kind of act like a shoe horn and make the tunnel come out easier and not tear the seat fabric.

having someone help makes it much smoother, if you don't totally remove the switch panel its nice to have someone move stuff and help wiggle it out.