what is the best way to do this.
simple and effective hopefully

I've done it with mine, piece of piss, just drill out all the spot welds, grind off the couple of tack welds and remove.

You can make up some sort of fastening system but I left mine as is, the guard bolts clamp it in place nice and firmly once they are done up.

Does this make the rear weaker? Ive seen some people put bars across horozontally... is this to retain strength?

Only if you don't run bumpers, but even then it doesn't make a huge difference, my black beetle had a removable fibreglass apron same as my Lbug has now with no bumpers for nearly 20 years with no problems.

You could make a bolt in bar but it's abit overkill

have not enough posts to reply to you lee if you are there.
email is paul781967@gmail.com