How to gut an xB

Pretty much straight and to the point this time around:

Door Panel Removal, deadening, speaker install:

Door Panel:



Screw by handle:



Screw by handle missing:



Screw in closing handle:



Screw in closing handle missing:



Closing handle taken out:



For the expanding fastener of doom, simply rotate until it starts coming out, then pry/pop/pull it off.

Bad idea #1 of Chris’…Pull the door panel off with the expanding fastener of doom unlatched but still in the door. Expanding fastener of doom becomes high speed projectile…hence the name…expanding fastener of doom.

Expanding fastener of doom in the front of the panel:



Expanding fastener of doom missing:



[b]Pry the door panel off at this point, easiest to start in the bottom front of the panel, then work your way around. Make sure to lift up to get over the lock, then just slide it rearward while lifting to remove the top of the panel from it’s little track on the metal.[b]

After the panel is off, it looks like this:



The control push pin on the connector…upset me…so I pulled the whole thing out through the door:



Became a lot easier to push the little connector and remove it…and the entire panel with it:



Ripping off the silly vapor barrier:



Crumple zone Styrofoam:



Pretty simple, screwdriver and it’s out:



SE² goes on doors quick:



And reinstall the crumble zone thing:



Repeat for the other door…I didn’t take pictures because it’s just the opposite side…I could make mirror images but that’d be silly. The connector on the window/door controls over there = much easier though

Door panel with the diaper type backing on it:



Ripped off the backing:



Pesky little tabs:



Dremeled those tabs off:



Row 2 of pesky tabs:



Dremeled off:



Speaker channeling ring:



Dremeled off:



And fully V4’d:



Radio Fascia Removal:

Look, it’s a center console:



Pull the ***** off the Temp/where the air blows control:



From here, there are 2 screws. Unscrew them and set them aside. I didn’t get pics of their removal  After the two screws are out, carefully pry the center console fascia off. It just snaps in…pretty easy really.

After it’s off, you’re presented with this:



YAY wires. Disconnect them and set the fascia aside. Editors note: DO NOT set it on something where it’ll fall down. It will upset you greatly when you have a 4 day old car with rocks imbedded in the center console(my tC, not the xB)

No more center console and a hand going for a screw:



Screws on the left side of the HU, again, use your imagination for what the right looks like(hint: the same):



And no more music…for a while:



Front Seats:

First things first…snap off the plastic covers, and PLEASE do it carefully. There’s small pieces of them that are notched slightly to allow the plastic to bend out so that the piece comes right off the metal…of course, it breaks if you just yank as hard as you want and then you end up with broken stuff

Plastic cover on the inside:



Bolts on the back of the seat holding it to the center:



Sexy shot of me removing a bolt:



Bolts on the outside of the rears of the seats:



Bolts on the outside of the rears of the seats missing:



Bolt on the front of the outside speakers missing:

Bolts on the outside of the rears of the seats:



Clips under the passenger seat:



There is a little black arrowhead type clip attaching the wire to the bottom of the seat. Just get a small screw driver and push each side of the connector in and pull on the wire from below, pops right out.

Passenger side seat removed(see the little screwdriver):



Rear Seats:

Look…Seats:



Silly little center seat belt fastener thing:



Just use a small screwdriver to push the little white plastic in while pulling the belt out. Next we remove the seat cushion…just pull up on either side, it’s held in with the u-bolt retainers like every other rear seat ever

Seat in the door:



Seat belt buckle side:





Rear seat belt straps bolts:



Bolts gone:



There are several bolts holding the backs of the rear seats to the floor:

Middle in front:



Driver side rear:



Gone:



Middle on the hatch side:



Gone:



Passenger side rear:



Gone:



Now for the most hated bolts involved, the ones attaching the seat bar to the sides of the vehicle. Push the fabric away and you see them. 14mm bolts of death. Just take is slow and they come out. You’ll need to use an old fashioned wrench to actually get them out though. After they come out, it’s best to have 2 people to maneuver the rod out of the rear plastic panels and out of the car

14mm bolt of death:



Remaining Interior:

Next thing was to remove the door sill. Just pull on the back edge of it, it’s attached around the b-pillar plastic. Once it starts popping off there, just apply even upward pressure across the whole thing.

No more trim:



Kick panel(doesn’t actually have a nut over the threaded rod like the tC does…thought this was odd):



Just pull, and make sure to watch the threaded rod so you can get the plastic up around it

No kick:



And we’re relatively interiorless at this point:



I didn’t show the arm rest removal…since it’s just…kinda…remove seats, then pull up.

Screw in the back of the center console:



Unscrew the screw, unthread the shift ****, and start pulling up. Just make sure to maneuver around the e-brake. Alternatively, if you just pry up on the plastic in front of the e-brake, you can pop it off, disconnect the aux in(little molex) and then just pull up w/o being careful for the e-brake

Center Consoleless:



Little cover for in front of the center console:



Has a plastic pin on the passenger side:



And apparently I didn’t get pictures of removing that. Just pop the pin out, and pull. Again, simple

Rear door sill:



Same as the front, it’s attached around the other two pieces…just pop it off one side then pry upward

No rear door sill:



And now the rear seats are totally out…time to concentrate on the very back plastic panels.

First up is the very back panel, already got a pin popped out here:



Other side with the pin still:



Pin out:



Front seat belt bolt with cover on:



Pry the cover off…I used a little screwdriver…again

Front seat belt bolt exposed:



Bolt removed:



Apparently I didn’t snap a pic of the b-pillar removal. Just pry off one side of it, then push to the other side…..for instance, I pried off the bottom of the rear, worked up, then just slid it forward for removal. Pretty easy stuff

To remove, just pull upward

Removed the rear plastic:



Rear side panel bolts:



These are 8mm Allen heads. I had to go buy wrenches for them specifically. Yay.

No more hooks:



To remove the rear panel, just slowly pry all the way around. Be careful at the top as it’s attached to another piece of plastic. Pretty easy…just like everything else so far…except those stupid 14mm bolts of death.

Rear Paneless:



Repeat on the passenger side…mirror image style….again. Then I pulled up the piece of carpet that was just sitting there and found this

Big plastic piece:



Just…umm…pull on it

No more plastic:



Side note…why is there an impression to house the spare…under where the spare sits? That makes no sense at all.

Interior carpet pin on the back seat:



Interior carpet pin on the driver side foot well:



Interior carpet is just threaded around a post on the passenger side foot well:



Interior carpet around some sort of wire/hoses(slides off around them):



Interior carpet pin under the drivers seat:



Carpet removed, Styrofoam on the passenger side foot well:



Removed:



Driver side foot well:



Removed:



When removing the Styrofoam, be careful…it was attached with 1 pin on either side, then some sticky stuff.

Dash removal:

Pop off the tweeter covers:



Unscrew the tweeters and you get this:



Technically you only get that on the passenger side of the car since that’s for the airbag.

At this point, I removed the gauge cluster…it’s been posted a billion times and I didn’t get pictures

No gauges:



Weird little bolt cover:



To remove the glove compartment, just open it. Then push in on either side when it’s all the way open to pop it out of the dash, then just pull it off. I went this route as it’s much easier to push the cover out from behind than it is to buy a new one when you scratch it trying to get it out from the front.

Removed the glove compartment:



And shoved my hand up into the dash to push the cover from behind, LOOK, a bolt:



Bolt removed:



To remove the a-pillars, just grab at the top and pull away, at the bottom, you need to lift it out slightly as there’s a tab that slides down next to the dash.

A-pillar on:



A-pillar not on:



Repeat for other a-pillar…mirror image…blah blah

Blurry airbag plug:



PLEASE DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE SCREWING WITH THIS!!!!!!

To unhook the plug, you need to push in while pulling on it. Small screwdriver again…sorry you can’t get the detail from my pics.

Blurry disconnected airbag:



There are also 3 screws in the dash. One under each tweeter and one behind the gauges. Once you unscrew them, just pry upward, slow even pressure across the dash.

Dashless:



Running wires and deadening

0 awg into the car:



Coming in:



0 awg in the car:



Fuse holder under the hood:



Large random quantities of eDead in the rear panels:





Car is a ½ completed mess:



Checked to make sure the wires were correct:



Bolted spacers to the door:



Fully deadened door:



Deadened floor:



Speaker wires were run through stock boot using stiff electrician wire and taping off to them. Drivers side wires were run up and across the dash, then back down. You can see all 4 pair in the pic above.

Stock Styrofoam with mod for fitting wire:



Grounding point:



Tweeters + tweeter plates:



Mounted from the rear:



From the front:



In the car:



Bolted down:



Drivers side eDeaded floor:



Stock Styrofoam:



Cut to fit 0 awg wire:



That’s it I think.

Finished pics







Amps are under the floor.

Total on materials used:

eDead V1SE²:

6’ per layer per door. We used 2 layers on the outer skin, one on the inner as they flexed pretty bad on the outside.

Hatch area was around 40’ for the floors/backs of the wheel wells/quarter panels(seriously, those quarter panels vibrate like crazy).

Main floor up to the seat backs was 60’

We didn’t do the rear doors as we were somewhat pressed for time and we didn’t need to open them up otherwise.

So, 140’ SE² total.

eDead V4 –TekLite:

1’ behind each speaker

7’ on each door panel(lotsa curves)

1’ on each rear quarter panel.

We didn’t line the floor with as most people can’t really afford that. We tried to do this car to what we could expect 99% of people to be able to afford.

18’ total V4.

Door Speakers:

eDi 6500s

Spacers:

Mid Spacer
Tweeter Plate

Speaker Amp:

Nine.2

Subwoofer(this will change to whatever a customer wants, but currently):

11Kv.2(Black)

Sub Amp:

Nine.1


Power Wire:

17’ Blue eNETIC
3’ Silver eNETIC
3’ Blue Tsunami 4 awg
3’ Silver Tsunami 4 awg
3’ Blue Tsunami 8 awg
3’ SilverTsunami 8 awg

Distro Blocks:

2x DB8701

RCA’s:

2x 17’ V10 RCA

Speaker wire:

70’ 16 Gauge Twisted Blue Speaker Wire

Ground/Power to the battery:

5 pack 0 Gauge ring terminals

Fuse Holder:

FBW801-ANL

Remote Wire:

20’ Blue Remote

Head Unit:

Eclipse AVN-7000

That’s it.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Oh yeah, to put it back together, read this whole thing backwards.

 

about time you did an xB! good job

 

wow that is great. Just what I was looking for, as I want to deaden my hatch area this winter.

 

Someone sticky this. This is by and large the most comprehensive interior removal walkthrough. Nice work Chris.

 

Even though it's my own post...and I feel dirty for doing it.

It's stuck now

Until it moves to tech under xB interior disassembly.

Just need an xA and then I'll have the trifecta...until the xD....

 

HOORAY BEER!!!

 

Great write-up Chris!

 

Very nice write up, Chris! Looks so familiar in there.

Update on "expanding fastener of doom"...

Take a phillips screwdriver and gently turn CCW (righty tighty/lefty loosey) and it will pop up about an eighth of an inch. Grab that center and pull/wiggle it out. No problemo.

Nice door/tweet spacers, btw!

 

Yeah...I didn't have anything to grab it with after twisting...didn't think it would actually shoot out of the hole.

And yeah...wonder where I got those from

Although the tweet spacers had to be changed to work for 6500s.

 

Grab it wit' yo fingers, dog!

Yeah, my comps were "only" 6000's at that time. BTW, still some of the best entry level speaks out there, even compared to those costing much more!

6500s are better, but the 6000s set the bar high.

Killer write up, bro!

 

I = trying to not scratch anything.

Me + grabbing small pieces of plastic usually ends in damaged things....I dunno how...but I do it

Good thing we got that done last week...Just stabbed a piece of metal into my finger = 1/2 useless right hand on me now.

Oh, and for you guys wondering why the headliner wasn't removed, I didn't realize it was one piece...and the car needed to come apart and back together in under 2 days...rushing = bent headliner and very angry boss

 

Yeah, that's a damn nice car. Bet you had a really cool salesman for it!



BTW, does Ben have the spare/jack/key for the Jetta at the shop yet? This other salesguy won't give me any rest on that one.


Also also, I need those tweets and all. Hook me up with that, will ya? Call me or PM or whatever.

-Alex

 

Nice writeup, I am adding this to the tech section now.

 

man dat looks like alot of work but nice write up

 

^^Lot of work, but sooo worth it!

Do it in stages:
front doors
rear doors
hatch/cargo area
then finally under the rear seat/floor/rear quarters

Done in 2 days = world record!

 

go chris!! you're amazing

now to finish your car?

 

Awesome, I just placed an order for my eDead. I cant wait to get started on this next week. I plan on doing the floor,roof,doors and hatch. Awesome write-up

 

Love it! I just need to mat my doors now. I hate door panels.

You should have installed some 6.5" speakers in the rear to fill in the void...They aren't direct fits, and require a small amount of trimming, but they are SO worth it. It would have made a complete HOW-To guide.

 

Nice write-up Chris.


Your sentiments on the rear seat bolt are exactly the way I felt when I was doing the write-up on my xA. It made me want to just, just.....

I'm going to have to get some of that V4 and redo my doors in the spring.

 

damn so may pics, id love to gut my xb for autocross