JBugs Video Series

1971 VW Super Beetle - Interior Disassembly:

Interior Upholstery

Video Overview:

Our 1971 Super Beetle Teardown is rolling along and in this video we'll get to work on the interior. Before we can restore our VW Interior, we have to tear our the old parts. Our seats and most of the headliner and carpet had already been removed but we'll complete the disassembly by removing all the parts from inside the car short of the dash components.

Vehicle Prep: 0:48
Seat belt hardware removal: 1:10
Interior wiring removal: 1:40
Dome light assembly removal: 2:14
Voltage regulator removal: 3:18
Main wiring harness removal: 4:08


Video Tips:

Tools used in this video:

1/2" Impact Driver
1/4" Bit Adapter
Impact Driver
1/4" Drive Extension
3/8" Drive Extension
10mm Socket
13mm Socket
19mm Socket
Flat Blade Screwdrivers
Side Cutters
#1 Phillips Screwdriver Bit
#2 Phillips Screwdriver Bit
#2 Phillips Screwdriver

Video Transcript:

Hello! I'm Sam with JBugs.com
We're in the middle of getting our 1971 Euro Look Super Beetle ready for bodywork. 
In our last video, we pulled the running boards, rear fenders, and decklid, 
and cleaned out the engine compartment. 
As we've mentioned in the last video, save all of your hardware 
and take pictures of the parts that you are removing.
This is especially important on the interior as there are a number of small bolts, screws, and brackets. 
Some are specialized and many of the parts are not reproduced. 
As we are filming our disassembly, we will be starting on one side of our car and working our way around the car. 
We will cover the steps as if we are working on both sides of the car at the same time.
We start by removing the various seat belt bolts at the shoulder points, 
the rear luggage tray mounts, and the mounts at the tunnel. 
The rear seat crossbar is removed 
along with the rear kick panels. We're going to save the kick panels since the plastic grommets for the rear seat heater ducts are not reproduced. In fact, these panels are nice enough that they could be reused, after a good cleaning of course. The rear seat crossbar is obviously saved as well.
The battery ground cable is unbolted from the chassis. 
We note that the battery tray of the floor pan has some pinholes from rust, 
so we'll probably be replacing that right pan half. Do you guys think we should do a video on that as well? Leave a reply in the comments below. 
The headliner door post material is peeled back from the b-pillar 
along with the padding. 
After removing the rear seat assist straps, 
and pushing the wind lace bead back at the door jambs, the material is pulled out of the car.
While we're in the area, we also pop out the dome light assembly and disconnect the wires. 
Don't pull the wires out of the body as they'll be used later to pull the new wires through the a-pillar. 
Since we'll be pulling the body off the chassis later, 
the rear foot-well heater control cables are disconnected from the flaps on the ducts. 
We tried to loosen the set screws in the couplers but they're too rusted 
so we just cut the cable at the floor pan.
There isn't a starter in our car so we can pull the positive battery cable 
out of the chassis, without having to disconnect the wires there. 
The power supply wire that connected from the voltage regulator 
to the battery terminal, is disconnected from the voltage regulator. Check for clips that hold the cable to the rear seat crossbar, if you've got them, save them. Next, the rear seat backrest stops and latches are removed from the rear quarter panels. The brown wire, in the right side quarter panel, is for the rear window defroster. If you plan on hooking up the defroster later, leave it in place.
Next, we'll get to work at the voltage regulator and the wires at the rear left of the car. 
The two straps around the heater duct are cut. 
The various wires for the voltage regulator and rear window defroster are removed 
along with the defroster relay and the voltage regulator. 
The rear window defroster power wire that linked up to the relay is pulled up into the quarter panel 
along with the main wiring harness that comes from the rear of the car after it's been cut down. Make sure to save the rubber grommet that the wires are fed through. The wires that were tucked into the quarter panel will be used to pull the new harness through later. The front heater channel vents are removed from the heater channels. The carpet is pulled up and out of the door jamb.
Underneath the dash the main wiring harness is cut, 
the two wiring harness clips are popped out of the heater channel, and the wiring harness is pulled up from and out of the heater channel at the front edge. 
The remaining piece of carpet on the tunnel is removed 
and then we'll spend some time scraping down the interior and vacuuming up all the debris inside the car. We'll be back soon to cover more of the tear-down of our car.
Thanks for watching!
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As always, when you need parts or accessories for your vintage Volkswagen, head over to JBugs.com