Engine Work and Shop Vac

Ok, here is the work we've done over the last couple of weekends. Here we have Steve removing the engine from the car...

Here I am, taking out the passenger side seat belt.

Here I have inverted the carpet where the heat vent is...I would like to remove this carpet but I don't know how. You can see it has this rubber strip that seems to be inserted into the metal at the bottom of the door. Any suggestions on how I get that carpet out of there?

This is what the back looks like now that I have it all vacuumed out. I was able to pull the rubber cover off the wheel area, but the insulation still adhered...probably have to scrape it off. I saved the rubber covers to trace for replacements if I can figure out how to make them myself.

Here's the middle...doesn't it look much nicer without all the trash and mouse debris in it?

Here's the floorboards in the front...see that little metal plate there on the passenger side? It was right at the front of floorboard. When I removed it, there was a huge mouse nest there and a gigantic SPIDER!! ACK! I made short work of them both with the shop vac.

Does anyone know what that metal plate is, exactly? What is it's purpose?

Ok, that was pretty much all we got done on Saturday. Saturday evening we went to the Tulsa Volkswagen Club meeting. Very nice people! How nice to talk to some other people who are as obsessed as we are with the topic of VWs!

A lot of people (besides my entire family) wearing Chuck Taylor sneakers! I liked that!

They let my jedis draw for the door prizes and then gave them a nice "Hotwheel" type New Beetle. My youngest even slept with his! Ha ha!

During the meeting, during the introductions, one guy said he had a 1970 Standard Beetle too. I looked for him after the meeting to see if he had brought his car. He was parked in another parking lot and I took off running to catch him before he left! I was dying to see what a "non-beatup" 1970 ought to look like! He was very nice and even gave me a ride back over to where my family was...the first time I have ever ridden in a Beetle!

Next day, after church, Steve worked on the engine some more. I perused the various catalogs trying to find the best price on floor pans and seat covers...The floor pans we might be able to get, but the seat covers will have to wait till after Steve graduates!

I did finally feel comfortable enough with the interior to get up in it! No mice or spiders jumping out at me!