An inspection camera would be very handy.  Pretty sure HF has them.  I have a Milwaukee one.  Great for stuff like this. 

For future reference, use paper tubes in the holes like tp or wax paper, cling wrap come rolled on.
Just cut them to length and push them into the holes, take ‘‘em out when you’re done.

Thank you all for your answers - gives me several options. I will head on over to HF and pick up that borescope thingy. If I can see it, then I can figure out how to reach it and the nuts too.

I lost 5 of the 8 nuts, and a socket, in my pans while trial fitting 95 seats in mine. Got 1 nut and the socket out with an old speaker magnet. I'll concentrate on getting the rest out when the seats go in to stay.
I learnt to use an empty TP roll in the hole, up to the nut ... stuff can only fall out of the roll.

MS wrote:

Big magnet under the pan. Move around until the socket follows the magnet over to the hole.

If no luck, pump the hole thing full of Liquid Nails and go for a drive. At least it will quit rattling.

I always use a 1/2”, 3/8 drive deep cocker with an extension to help keep control of the socket.

 Guess I'm gonna have to get one o' them deep cockers when I put the seats back in..... :-) That's the socket I was using. As I pulled it out I got it cocked and it snagged on the edge of the hole - boink and it was gone. I have an endoscope being delivered tomorrow, but in the meantime I am having fun trimming the new carpet and locating all the necessary holes to cut. At least with a convertible, you can drop the top and have a lot of room to work.
 

Ron68 wrote:

MS wrote:

Big magnet under the pan. Move around until the socket follows the magnet over to the hole.

If no luck, pump the hole thing full of Liquid Nails and go for a drive. At least it will quit rattling.

I always use a 1/2”, 3/8 drive deep cocker with an extension to help keep control of the socket.

 Guess I'm gonna have to get one o' them deep cockers when I put the seats back in..... :-) That's the socket I was using. As I pulled it out I got it cocked and it snagged on the edge of the hole - boink and it was gone. I have an endoscope being delivered tomorrow, but in the meantime I am having fun trimming the new carpet and locating all the necessary holes to cut. At least with a convertible, you can drop the top and have a lot of room to work.
 

Ok, you caught me with a typo. My phone must have “self-corrected” to that without me catching it. Normally I would go back and edit my response, but then it would take away from your response, so I will leave it alone. Cocker should be socket. That was a pretty major typo for me.  It is difficult for my recovering perfectionist self to leave it that way but, what the heck, I couldn’t call it recovering if I tried to fix everything.

MS wrote:

Ron68 wrote:

MS wrote:

Big magnet under the pan. Move around until the socket follows the magnet over to the hole.

If no luck, pump the hole thing full of Liquid Nails and go for a drive. At least it will quit rattling.

I always use a 1/2”, 3/8 drive deep cocker with an extension to help keep control of the socket.

 Guess I'm gonna have to get one o' them deep cockers when I put the seats back in..... :-) That's the socket I was using. As I pulled it out I got it cocked and it snagged on the edge of the hole - boink and it was gone. I have an endoscope being delivered tomorrow, but in the meantime I am having fun trimming the new carpet and locating all the necessary holes to cut. At least with a convertible, you can drop the top and have a lot of room to work.
 

Ok, you caught me with a typo. My phone must have “self-corrected” to that without me catching it. Normally I would go back and edit my response, but then it would take away from your response, so I will leave it alone. Cocker should be socket. That was a pretty major typo for me. It is difficult for my recovering perfectionist self to leave it that way but, what the heck, I couldn’t call it recovering if I tried to fix everything.

It just goes the show that you are human, and you can laugh at yourself - a very important trait to have. ( I did Google deep cocker though - just in case... )
 

Jack the rear of the car up really high, then try bumping the bottom with the rubber mallet.

Ron68 wrote:

 We have success!! With a $35 Amazon endoscope and some creative work with a magnet and a brazing rod I was able to locate and retrieve my socket, the two nuts I lost - and two additional nuts lost by someone else in the past almost 60 years!
For those not familiar with the underbelly of a convertible, the reinforcing boxes located below the seats that non convertibles don't have, have two levels. The items lost were in the upper level so tapping and sliding a magnet  would not have worked.
Now to devise a sure way to not lose my nuts or socket when I reinstall the seats.
 

 
Use the toilet paper roll tube or similar that I mentioned previously.
Use about 10 turns of electrical tape to secure the socket to the extension, use 1 turn of the same tape to hold the nut to the socket.
Good luck!

A little bit of weatherstrip adhesive inside the socket will secure the nut to the socket, when removing the nuts.  Tape or more adhesive works going back together. Also works on extensions if yours are old and worn like most of mine.

You could dedicate an extension and socket by welding 😱
JB weld if you don’t own an arn melter.

RPM, aka Bearing Bob wrote:

Rudi wrote:

arn melter.

 
Outstanding! Ol Sal has some competition.

 
Ha,  thanks Bob,  even though I’m from Southern Ontario I’ve  yet to master  Sal’s southern drawl.