I gotta say Gary, that you are pretty sure about some things that frankly just aren't that cut and dried in my view - and I daresay that they seem a little arbitrary as presented to this point.

Let's accept that the nubbin in question is clearly outta here - since it attaches directly to the seat, we probably have consensus that it's a bracket. But drawing a bright line between it and the rest of the seat mount is certitude over logic.

On the "pro" cut-it-out side, we've got...

1. It's all one piece in the VW parts book - we enforce a lot of rules based on the "stockness" of a part in IT, defined pretty much exclusively by the specifications of the original part, defined by the part number. There are cases where you can remove a stock part but not modify it. We allow replacement of stock parts as long as they are the equivalent of those they replace.

2. It's job is to connect the seat to the chassis, making it by definition a bracket. That is, unless you are suggesting that simply because it adds strength to other pieces, that it's not ONLY a bracket. Any bit that welds to any other bit is strengthening the structure. Removing that nubbin makes the cross piece weaker - that it does so in such a small amount as to be immeasurable makes it just a matter of degree. HOW MUCH support does that cross piece have to provide in order to qualify as structure - as something other than a bracket? From an engineering standpoint, it only makes sense to mount the seat to the tunnel and rocker, rather than to a flat piece of floor sheetmetal, and that appears to be what VW did.

On the "con" you-can't-cut-it-out side, we've got... What, again?

K