help with 3-d cockpit object please

[crash]

Greetings everybody. long time reader first time poster. :)
here's my issue: I have a 3-D cockpit object from a payware author.
what I want to accomplish is moving the seat objects back away from the
control panel so my view isn't so smushed against the windshield!
here's the problem: normally when I want to take a look under a surface I
simply highlight the surface and then select " hide selected" button.
however the problem I am having is the entire object, seats and everything
disapear when I try this method. I have tried in all 4 modes. from vertex to full object.
including surface mode ( which I expected to work in the first place)
I found a workaround using the " remove surface" button, however this seemed counterproductive because after 1.5 hours of selecting the seats and getting them moved just so, I found myself unable to recover the surfaces of the interior
of my 3-d virtual cockpit.

I guess what I want to know is, what other methods for hiding just a section of

surface are available?( temporarily) Since simply selecting " hide selected"

is hiding nearly the entire object despite only some surfaces being selected.

thanks in advance! _ Crash

[Mossie]

Sounds like the entire model is one object. Suggest you select the seats and make them a seperate object, then you can hide, move, etc as you wish.

[crash]

okay I get it, because he made the entire cockpit one object,

that's why the whole thing hides despite having selected only a portion of the surface to hide.

imagine a cylinder with seats and stuff inside it.

I needed to hide a bit of the cylinder to be able to proplery select the seat object to manipulate it.

I appreciate the feedback. I can work with this. :)

[Snow]

Select all surfaces of the seat and then go to the "Surface" menu and select "Cut away object". This makes the seat a separate object and you can hide it without losing it.

If you can't reach every surface of the seat, just do it with the ones you can reach, then hide this object and do the same with the remaining surfaces of the seat.
After separating all parts of the seat as objects, switch to object mode, select your various parts of the seat and merge them into one single object again.