Some kind of psychic force bent one of the hinge plates in my center seat
base today.  The right-side hinge plate on the left-hand center seat was
very bent and I couldn't fold the seat back to upright (I can't imagine
what caused the bend - nothing that I'm aware of could have hit just this
hinge and not the one just to its right for the right-hand seat.  I was
moving a sofa-bed, and had a large sheet of cardboard protecting the
upholstery and there is no evidence of an impact on the cardboard.  This is
1/8" steel - I'm really at a loss to explain how it happened...)

I wound up taking out the hinge pins in order to get at the plate and bend
it back to an approximation of its old self.  Now I can't get the seat-back
to align so that I can reinsert the hinge pins.

The Bentley manual is useless for this.

Any clues on how to get the hold-it-upright latch to stay out of the way so
that I can get the holes to line up and the pin back in?
Any idea what the little Mickey-Mouse-head-shaped rubber thingy is for?

I'd prefer not to have to pull the upholstery off to accomplish this.

TIA

bcnu - Grungy (John Gladu)     (Houston, TX)    Opinions are just that
INTERNET: jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu                       VOICE: 713-997-1117
'60 dddPanel walk-thru  (The Bozobus)-----resting - melting 1600dp----
'89 Vanagon GL----------------------------good!-----------------------
'90 Vanagon GL----------------------------good!-----------------------
'68 & '69 Bugs--(Frunobulax & Bertha)-----on vacation (engineless)----