Interior Front Seats
The Original VW Beetle seats had seen better days, they were musty damaged, and the driver's seat upholstery was torn. It would have cost more money to re-upholster all the origianl seats than it would be to source some modern comfortable seats and addapt them to fit the car. These are seats that came out of an Alfa Romeo 156 Sports wagon.
The fronts were fairly simple to fit into the car. I have had to remove the drivers side arm rest and have had to raise them up so that they clear the heater channels. I've used aluminium box section and clamped it to the original seat rails so that the original seats can be re-fitted if desired at a later date.
These are what the seats look like now they have been securely mounted to the original rails.
Interior Rear Seats Bottoms
As predicted the rear seats from the Alfa Romeo were far too tall and could not be adapted to fit.
Fortunately the rear bottom seats were a perfect width to replace the originals. From this I was able to fabricate a beam for them to sit on while still allowing access to the battery.
Using Scotchweld I was able to bond a steel bracket to securely fix the beam in place.
These are what the Alfa Romeo rear seat bases lookd like after they had been fitted.
Rear Seat Tops
I stripped off the leather from the Alfa Romeo rear top seat in the intension to use on the original VW Beetle rear top seat. Although the two seats were very different profiles I thought that once the leather has been unpicked it could be adapted to fit the old seat.
I married up the leather against the seat to see what could be achieved. From this I could see that it was possible to do something with it.
I took the original seat and leather to a local upholster. I was very happy with the results and the finish they were able to achieve. Any leather that was not used in the re-upholstering has been kept to be used on other parts of the car, for example lining the glovebox and seat bucle covers.
Rear Luggage Area
I have stripped the rear carpet and old insulation that was causing a bad odour. This reveald a few spots of rust that needed patching up. However, this was expected in a car of this age.
Once the rust damage had been covered the whole luggae area, wheel arches and floor pans were painted to prevent future corosion. I also added a layer of adhesive sound deadening to reduce engine and road noise transfer.
I have also added a layer of foam insulation, again to reduce road and engine noise.
I have extended the headlining of the car, this is not original for this era of Beetle however i felt that it improved the aesthetics and flow of the cusom interior.
Under Dash Shelf
This is a custom shelf I have designed to fit under the dash to increase storage space. Using a piece of card, I was able to create a template to work from. I then used this to cut a piece of ply wood to shape. i then fabricated the edging using dowel.
As you can see I have experimented with rope to see the aesthetical effect before purchasing the correct length and colour. It required 41 meters in total to cover the frame.
Custom Steering Wheel Boss
One of the wheel hubs had been damages, so I decided to cut out the centre logo to be used to cover the centre boss.
