New (for me) Thing owner with many questions. Help!

[Poorjimmy5]

The hole in the Thing frame is 0.630" in diameter as shown in the first picture (it is the hole without anything running through it) and the rubber grommet is 1.075" diameter in the "groove" as shown in the second and third picture. I don't see how this is correct...hence all the questions.

[kenj06]

Yep, I checked tonight and though I didn't measure because the heater vents are in the way, eyeballing them says the holes are different sizes on each side of the car.
So options are:
1. enlarge the hole on the driver side and use the grommet
2. use Wildthings suggestion on the driver side.
3. install a nutsert on the passenger side to use the original hold-down and the grommet
4. use a bungee cord to hold the battery in on the passenger side (my option since I don't do any off-roading in the Thing and you can't see it anyway)
5. ???
All depends on what you want to accomplish...

[Poorjimmy5]

Thank you! And the way you laid out the options I have...couldn't have done a more succinct job of it. Grateful.

I obviously have some thinking to do.

[Poorjimmy5]

Was thinking this now:

Can I mount the battery on the drivers side, but use the hole on the passenger side? As far as the battery to frame ground is concerned, I can maybe mount it on the driver side or cross it over the transmission hump (like the positive cable) and leave it mounted on the passenger side. Thoughts?

[Poorjimmy5]

Does anyone know where the two unattached wires (of three) coming in from the firewall should go? I am holding the two unattached wires. One of the three wires is attached to the grounding strap from the battery.

[obus]

i stumbled upon the same thing yesterday when i was swapping seat backs except i have 2 coming in and 1 is unassigned. I'll wait for an answer as well!!!
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July 1959 Mango Standard Bus aka Obus L346 L347 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=256592&highlight=
June 1973 Pumpkin Orange Thing aka Othing L30H
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=711775&highlight=
1960 Paprika Red Karmann Ghia Convertible aka Schatze L452 built 5/20/60
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...highlight=
66 21 window bus built 8/31/65 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=777273

[Poorjimmy5]

😁👍

[Captain Spalding]

It's hard to tell what color those wires are from the photo, but those wires probably once connected to the factory battery and lead to the diagnostic connector in the engine compartment.

[Poorjimmy5]

To my eyes all three of the wires are black, or maybe dark brown. Does that help determine where the two unattached wires go?

[sjbartnik]

No, but in VW world black = switched power and brown = ground.

There was a diagnostic plug in engine compartment of VWs of that era which is now totally obsolete. However it had a wire network in the car leading from various places to it, one of which was the battery.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650