will i ever finish?

i meant to post this all yesterday, but i was quite busy at work and never had time. so here it is today...

this past weekend we had a lot of rain. so i worked on the bug between rainstorms saturday and most of sunday afternoon. i did get a lot of good work done. the engine is all back together and i think it's back together properly. brake lights are hooked back up and the car is off of the jackstands. i was going to start 'er up on sunday but the clouds were forming again and i didn't want to get stuck outside in a downpour. so i cleaned things up and went inside.

in order to start 'er up, i just need to attach the throttle cable to the carburetor and i'll be all set. i'm still kind of scared to start 'er up, though. i don't know why but i keep imagining the engine just blowing up. guess i'll have to get over that fear soon.

the only bummer to the weekend was that i realized the wheel spacers i bought for the front are too thin. the caliper bulges out a lot more than i thought and 1/8" spacers just aren't enough. i'm thinking i'll need about 1/2 to 3/4" spacers to get the job done. i need to call up top line and see if they'll exchange the spacers i got for some thicker ones. course, i need to actually measure the thickness i need and scrounge up some longer wheel bolts (VW's of this era don't have wheel studs).

i will say that not having studs is a major pain when you are trying to put spacers and a rim on. luckily it wasn't too bad and i got them all back together. hopefully wednesday i'll get the courage to fire 'er up and we'll see how the engine runs. obviously, i'm hoping that all the work i did fixed the idling issue. it should get me running smoother and a might more power. i guess we'll just have to see.