I'll be had on this one. On my 1986 and newer Vanagons the
front seat belt spools are covered by this big strainge plastic thing.
My older 1980 Vanagon did not have this.  I'm sick of reaching over the
thing to unlock the sliding door, from the front pass. door, when you
don't have the key handy.  So I took it off.  What I found was the
exact thing that was on the older Vanagons. After removing the spool
I found that there is a metal plate below, that was installed just to hold
the platic. I reinstall the spool and have had no adverse effects, so far.
 Now what is this for?    What a waste of money!

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          86-SS Syncro
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler
                                   92-Jetta GWC
            www.fyi.net/~vw4x4/vw4x4.htm