I was looking on google at DIY camper conversions and due to my current situation have decided to convert River (my V70).

My main questions:
1. How easy is it to remove the rear seat backs?
2. Is there any wiring that should be left intact?
3. How bad is road noise after removing the seats?

Some questions that I'm not sure if anyone would know the answers to or not would be:
1. How much weight would i reduce by taking the seats out?
2. How much cubic feet would I have in the floor boards?

Looking forward to this and would love to share the conversion process/before and after pics.

 

1) Never looked. Either simple hardware is exposed or it's behind plastic decor/trim pieces.
Are you removing the seat bottoms too?
2) If the seat belts are wired I'd leave seat belt wiring intact. I'd even go as far as to make sure the buckle was made up so any "tell-tale" circuitry is happy.
You can unplug any rear seat heaters.
3) Most noise will come through the floor and body panels. The seats themselves are incidental attenuators.
As in a room, the rug and drapes do more to quell noise than the presence or absence of a couch.
If you're a rough & tough camper there's going to be a raft of supplies in your convert so you've little to fret over.

1) I'd put the weight of the rear seats (backs & seats) at 90 pounds avoirdupois.
2) You really must rephrase this question.

A friend of a friend bought a 2008 Honda Element to convert to a camper featuring foldaway tables and inflatable bedding.
Every time I've asked him how the project was going he grunted at me so I stopped asking.

 

Thanks for the response, and I should have asked "About how much extra room would I possibly get after removing the seats?" Yes the seat bottoms are coming out as well for added storage space, hence the very last question that needed to be rephrased.

 

How did you spend your Coronavirus downtime? I gutted my V70, how 'bout you?
I went outside and took a few measurements, did some multiplication and got ~11 cubic feet.

Suggestions before you remove the rear seats:
Make 2 templates of the surface of the seat backs in the down position in case you want to continue the floor forward.
Make one of them with the front seats in usable, representative positions.
Make another with the seats all the way forward so you have the option to utilize the maximum amount of flat floor.
The second template will be larger (obviously) so you might want to consider making the additional length an add-on section.

 

I haven't been able to gut it yet sadly, but in my downtime I have started planning out how the platform should be built, I'm just unsure if I should use plywood for it or go for something sturdier.

 

Hi Ryan,
if you use 12mm marine ply it will be just as sturdy as your house - and marine ply will also give you a degree of protection from water/moisture.
I made something similar for my bee keeping a few years back (with 10mm marine ply) and it was absolutely fine for carrying loads of a about 200kg).

Regards,
Paul.

 

Awesome! Thanks for that info man, I had been going crazy trying to figure that one out lol.

 

sounds interesting, be wary of srs airbag codes if seatbelt circuit is disconnected.
I tripped mine when rear seat was removed to do the fuel pump repair. forgot to disconnect battery.
so many uses for these old volvos. !