Build project Beetle pick up conversion

Started on the beetle pick up truck conversion today, spent a few hours this afternoon gutting the interior, removing the hatchback and labeling wires.

Beetle pick up build update : It was a learning curve disassembling the 2002 Beetle inter, wiring was complex and had to label every wire. The fenders and rear bumper come off as one piece. The side 1/4 glass was cemented in and after a half hour with a knife I decided to get it done by blue taping both sides of the glass, hit that with a hammer then cut into the metal 1/2" outside of the glass, the blue tape minimized spreading the broken glass.  Tomorrow AM I'll be cutting the roof and back end off the car with my friend ...Sawz All. 

Oh yeah! Go man!

This will be fun to watch.

i see a sawzall in ur future, maybe a plasma cutter too.

I like those 4 1/2" thin metal cutoff blades from HF for cutting metal.  You just have to watch out for sparks.  They cut straight and clean.

This is going to be great!

Beetle pick up post cut photos . Making the first official cut was a bit daunting because this was a nice looking Beetle in good condition.  I went through nine Sawzall blades (ends breaking) but did finish the cutting today. Now that I've done this I probably could do it again in half the time.

Nice!

Are you going to reinforce the structure to maintain crash integrity?

Alan Merklin posted:

Beetle pick up post cut photos . Making the first official cut was a bit daunting because this was a nice looking Beetle in good condition.  I went through nine Sawzall blades (ends breaking) but did finish the cutting today. Now that I've done this I probably could do it again in half the time.

Remind me never to leave my car parked in your driveway...

Remind me never to leave my car parked in your driveway...  This took me way back to '72  when I worked at a salvage yard in Davie, Florida.

Simplify, add lightness, Colin said. It'll be great, Colin said...

Lane Anderson posted:

Are you going to reinforce the structure to maintain crash integrity?

I am confident with the structural integrity of the kit,  it's very well engineered (Mark Smyth previous Factory Five co-owner) uses  premium grade aluminum and extruded bed floor. The  factory B pillars have heavy gauge aluminum gusset s added, the bed is bolted and bonded with " Corvette glue " aka 3M Panel Bond to the "cab" becomes part or the overall structure ,  it's under bed bracing and utilized multi factory tie in points to the bed assembly.  The bed - fender sides are one continuous thick fiberglass section also utilized structural 3M Panel Bond.   I've seen a photo of one that was rear ended at 45 mph and held up well to the point it was fixed.

Good to hear.

Today I made sense out a large wire harness , I had to split two 1"  20 wire sections and pull those two from the  main harness...Opened it  from the taillights to the seat back location to ID and  relocate the factory amp and CD changer …. yeah old school but's part of a complex factory sound system.  Then capped off the rear defrost, hatch release, hatch open warning switch and sorted out the taillights . Amazingly when I powered up the harness everything worked as intended. Tomorrow I'll assemble the aluminum bed sections .

Yeah, you get into "factory" wiring harnesses on cars, especially those optioned out and come away with "What the heck were they thinking?"

Gordon Nichols posted:

Yeah, you get into "factory" wiring harnesses on cars, especially those optioned out and come away with "What the heck were they thinking?"

As you know, most of the time no one guy was thinking.

Somewhere in the Fatherland, there was a department tasked with the sound system, and they were in another building from the safety-system guys, who were in a different country than the lighting guys. They did 53 conference calls to get it all together... but in the end just let each department have their own wires. Production bundled it all and told the guy down on the line to put it in the car. The first shift union guy figured out how to do it fast and right... but it was too much work, so second and third shift just did it the way the foreman told him to, so none of the wires actually ended up in the retainers.

After a couple of years of production, the accountants decided that sourcing wire with soy-based insulation would be cheaper. Marketing got a hold of this factoid, and the ad guys touted their production methods as green. It turned out that soy insulated wires is delicious to rodents, and so the food supply of the woodland creatures was secured by the tens of thousands of cars with this particular harness.

After 5 years of production, the manufacturer stopped building that particular model, and started the whole process over. Aftermarket parts kept some harnesses on the shelf (at $1927 a pop) for masochists who were not content to see a $2000 used car go to the scrap yard. There were no takers, and after 5 years of being dead inventory, the harnesses were sold to a salvage company, who stored them outdoors and provided a food source for woodland creatures.

It's the circle of life.

@Alan Merklin  Is there any issues with aluminum to metal reaction.  Also what about drainage of the bed?  My issue might be that the seat would not be able to rake enough to sit in the car I wonder how much seat track travel and rake is available in the beetle and wether there is more room in a Jetta.  Great concept for doing stuff around the house etc.   Now I can see the need to make a FG cover  

All hardware is stainless except for the female RivNuts From what other ppl that have built say 6' is about max and that with the seat against the back wall. Jetta kit appears to have more room. The is a company that is already doing a aluminum framed tonneau cover with the gas lift shocks . One guy has made a one off fiberglass full tonneau .  Today I altered the glass sun roof track stops and made the rear drains.

Stan wrote: After a couple of years of production, the accountants decided that sourcing wire with soy-based insulation.     The 01 - through 04 Beetles has  carpet insulation  that when hot in the car it has a very strong Crayola crayon wax smell so that has to go too.