VW Seat Removal

Removing the seat didn’t feel like a milestone, but it was a thing I did this weekend. It didn’t feel like a big deal until I was done and realized that the car was now empty of all the things that made it a car. It was just a shell. I also got the batteries and adaptor plate in the mail this week–and it’s starting to feel like a real project now.

I got the first battery in the mail on Thursday–2 of the 5 in a yellow-top tote with enough bubble wrap to engage my kids for over 10 minutes! They are heavy–clocking in at ~55lbs each, the 5 modules are no joke–275lbs in all of Tesla model S modules. I had a bit of a scare when I found a crack in the bin for one of the batteries and a bunch of blue liquid–but I verified that it’s coolant and that the battery was upside-down, which would leak the coolant into the box.

The second and third shipments arrived on Friday (with 1 and 2 batteries respectively), and I got the adaptor plate on Wednesday. The adaptor plate looks like it’ll work, but without the motor (shipping in slow-freight from Florida), I won’t know for sure until I can test fit it.

The seat removal was fairly straightforward. The backseat came out easily, but underneath was a huge pile of mouse poo and collected stuffing from other parts of the car. I shop-vac’d a lot before pulling out the seatbelt anchors and anchor bar.

The front seats (after a couple youtube videos) were also fairly easy to remove. It looks like these seats were capable of electric heating–in the ’70s! I have a lot of cleanup and re-upholstery to do, but the inside of the bug now looks like it has joined the project! There were also some extra wires running to the back for speakers (from the MP3 player). I’ll want to do a better job re-wiring for sound in the future build.

Along the way, I found a pen, a tennis ball, a sim card, some coins, and a LOT of hair ties.

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