Remove VW T5 California rear head restraints / headrest

Although the rear head restraints / headrest can be dropped down then the lower bed is made up they take up a lot of room under the bed. As we often drop the bed and travel with my kayaks inside I wanted to remove them.

Drop the head rest and carefully prize out the plastic side covers

VW T5 California Headrest removal

There are ‘C’ pins holding in the headrest, using a pin punch I knocked them in from each side.

Knock in C pin

Once the pins have been knocked in the headrest can easily be pulled out.

VW T5 California Headrest removal

The black plastic is part of the locking system shown below is to keep the headrest locked up, this moves with the headrest metal bar is removed stoping it from locking up, I pushed this in and placed a small piece of foam on the hole and replaced the side cover.

WV T5 California headrest removal

Finally to finish it off I put some grommets in the holes.

VW T5 California headrest removal

 

VW T5 California Safe Install

One of the options available on the VW California from the factory is to have the safe installed in the bottom of the large cupboard/wardrobe this is something we weren’t sure about at the time of ordering but after having the Cali for a while and the space been a bit wasted I decided to retrofit the manufactures genuine part.

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Turns out the safe is just a metal door thats shaped to fit perfectly in the space with some holes drilled inside to secure it flush with the raised part of the cupboard floor the cupboard.

Time to fit Approx. 10mins
VW Part number :- 7H7068191 – Lockable cover

The safe fits in the bottom of the cupboard to the left of the fridge, there are three small pre drilled holes on each side of the side walls. For better access I folded the seat down into bed mode.

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Place the cover in the hole and push the supplied rivets through the holes in the cover into the hole in the side walls. This makes sure everything fits as it should, snap the rivets up and your done.


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Atera Strada DL3 fitted to VW T5 California

I’ve been looking for a new cycle carrier for our VW T5 California that would allow access to the rear boot area with out having to take the bikes off.
Due to the large tailgate our old carrier had to be remove to access the boot area this was a right pain, after some time spent on google I found the Atera Strada DL3 that had some very good reviews and suggestions that it would work.
A phone call to the very helpful people at Roofbox.co.uk who confirmed I would be able to open the tailgate without removing the carrier I ordered one.
I would have liked a video to confirm there was enough clearance but couldn’t find one, I will update with another video showing the bikes fitted.