Can I disassemble an airbag from it's 'casing'?

Ok, I'll probably catch heat on this one, flame suit on. 

Got an extra Corolla S steering wheel (popular 'upgrade' for the SW MR2), and have an airbag for it too. 

From what I have read, it's illegal to ship airbags, they consider them explosives. And Im trying to do right by the law and keep folks safe. (yeah, I know, that's not lining up with what Im asking about)

On this wheel (Corolla S, Rav4, Matrix/Vibe, and MR-S) there is a center piece that holds/houses the airbag. I am wondering if it's possible to 'open up' the casing and remove the airbag guts and then reassemble so it still looks right/complete and is on the up-and-up with the USPS etc. 

Of course it'll be marketed as such, the buyer will know there is no airbag in there, but I didnt know if it was possible or not. 

Well, if one man made it, another should be able to unmake it.  Doesn't mean its a good idea though. 

I'd probably start by grounding the cord and frame of the airbag to the same ground so no current can pass through.   Outside of that I'm not sure.

Maybe look up the chemicals in the explosive and see if they break down in water?  If so dunk it in a bucket for a day?

A lot of the covers are heat staked on so removing the cover may not be possible. When an airbag connector is unplugged it is shunted to avoid unintentional firing (that is my recollection from working on them a long time ago). The folded bag gives some shape and structure to the cover so you may want to leave that in there. You can remove the entire assembly and then take off the inflator (DO NOT MESS WITH THE WIRES, like don't cut them.). Typically they are anti tamper nuts that hold the inflater to the frame that holds the bag. If you did that you should have a stock looking and feeling cover with a bag inside and no inflator.

Anti Tamper but not impossible to remove, just not easy, you aren't going to put a 10mm on there. At Takata they were always some weird shaped triangle nut, we custom made sockets for them to install.

NY Nick said:

A lot of the covers are heat staked on so removing the cover may not be possible. When an airbag connector is unplugged it is shunted to avoid unintentional firing (that is my recollection from working on them a long time ago). The folded bag gives some shape and structure to the cover so you may want to leave that in there. You can remove the entire assembly and then take off the inflator (DO NOT MESS WITH THE WIRES, like don't cut them.). Typically they are anti tamper nuts that hold the inflater to the frame that holds the bag. If you did that you should have a stock looking and feeling cover with a bag inside and no inflator.

Unfortunately they were cut when removing...

Maybe I just tape them up and it stays in my garage forever. 

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

I am not really familiar with Toyota ones, Honda ones can also be unplugged at the inflator, pretty sure that is shunted too. It may be a non issue or maybe you can tie the wires together? Maybe someone else can chime in on that. I can tell you 100% do not put a multimeter on those wires, it can send enough current to set it off. In the thousands of them I handled back in the day sending a current through a plugged in connector (typically done by a meter) was the only way I have seen one accidentally set off. 

I was under the impression it's legal to ship, but must be labeled and only shipped ground? When I was working at the dealer in parts I first experienced that with seatbelts when the explosive bolts started showing up on cars. GM couldn't overnight them.

Maybe I was mistaken then

You can definitely ship them. I think there's some extra precautions/special packaging needed.

The other option is to fire the airbag in a safe manner, while protecting the finish on the cover.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

typically they are designed to tear the cover open when they deploy. The inside of the cover will have defined tear lines molded into it. Sometimes on the really old ones (think early 90's) you can actually see them on the front of the cover because the molding wasn't as good.

Yeah I dont think there's a way to fire it without ruining the cover. Ive seen these fired and it's all tore up. 

I picked this up from a yard, its an extra, was wanting to sell for extra car part money. Looks like USPS will NOT ship airbags, so I'll contact FedEx and/or UPS

All the USPS package shipments have the chance of being carried by air so they won't handle airbags. FedEx and UPS ground will, though if you tell them it's an airbag it will need to be in an airbag shipper. You can buy those boxes, possibly even local to you. Here's one place online that sells them:

https://www.commercialforms.com/airbag-module-shipping-boxes-1859.html

When I ship them I just pack them very well and ship them ground. I haven't bothered with the special shipping container.

NY Nick said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

typically they are designed to tear the cover open when they deploy. The inside of the cover will have defined tear lines molded into it. Sometimes on the really old ones (think early 90's) you can actually see them on the front of the cover because the molding wasn't as good.

Hm.  I thought that when fired as demonstrations they'd usually put them on the ground with the front facing down and send the force upwards, but I must admit I've never seen what they look like after that so maybe not.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

I think that is only for videos intended to be on ridiculousness! When people do that they are just trying to shoot them up in the air because the bag blows out the bottom (which is the front).

This video shows it really well. When I worked in an airbag plant we had a room like this and tested bags off the line on every shift.

I've removed the airbag from a Miata steering wheel and then I cut the bag away from the gas generator cannister. The cannister is still in the garage as I've never gotten around to firing it off. The vinyl cover on the steering wheel center needed some foam stuffing to keep its shape afterwards.

Another excellent video. You can see how it works in this video and how to disassemble.