resurrection

hello faithful readers! wait... do any exist? i guess we'll see. after a year and a half of not posting anything, i have some great news to share. my wonderful, beautiful wife decided that she wants me to get the bug in shape so we can have some fun with it! i'm so stoked! after picking myself up off of the floor, my brain immediately went into overdrive. not only trying to remember what i need to work on but also prioritizing.

here's the plan so far:
1.) rebuild the front suspension. i've got the super shimmies and shakes really bad. first off will be installing a full front-end rebuild kit from top line parts. i'll go ahead and get the lowered kit since i'll either go ahead and lower it now or in the future.

2.) complete rewire. my mechanic recently recommended an automotive electrician to me. so, i'll be dialing up Auto Scan and telling him what i want to do and seeing what he recommends. i've seen a few different generic wiring kits but i'm just not sure which one to have him install. i figure i'll get his opinion and go with it.

that's the list of have-to-do's. once that is done, the bug will be driveable again. it'll probably need a little carb tuning and normal maintenance (valve adjustment, oil change, etc.) but that's the fairly easy stuff.

as far as the list of stuff that would be cool... here it is:
1.) lower the front. going back to top line for this, i'd either get the versa struts or the maxx struts. i'll probably just end up calling top line anyway so i'll see what they say. i think that most people upgrade to the maxx struts to run big rims. since i'm just looking to run 15s, i may not need them.

2.) take the turn signals off of the fenders and get a euro bumper. i'm hoping i could just use a fiberglass patch kit for the fender holes. i've never used one before so i'll have to find something else i can try it on. i may go ahead and do this anyway since it's fairly inexpensive and i'll be getting the whole car rewired anyway.

3.) iron cross rims. i really like these. already talked to mid-america and these will fit over my disc brakes in the front. they'll look way better than the mis-matched rims i have on there now. definitely go with all black or the black/polished ones.

4.) wider fenders. would love to get some of these widened, fiberglass fenders. scroll down to the second option. these are 2.5" wider and would hopefully give me a more tucked look with the iron cross rims. also, if i got those, i'd have to get these in the rear. 3" widened would go perfectly with the 2.5" in the front.

there's tons more on the fun list but i'll leave it with that. i'll keep posting as i call people and figure out exactly what i'm doing. then, we'll actually have some fun progress posts. stay tuned!

stencils

wow, has it been a long time since i've posted. and, yes, it has been that long since i've touched the bug. i've had good intentions but a new kid and some pretty big responsibilities at church have been taking up my time.

however, enough with the excuses. i've never really done anything with spraypaint and i'm not what you would call an artistic person. so it was a whole new realm for me.

after a little research and a great idea from Jason, i got some stencils that i wanted to put on the bug. so, while the rest of the family was up in Michigan visiting relatives, i got busy doing some stenciling. below is how i did it and my comments about what i learned.

1.) once i got the images the way i wanted and the size i wanted, i printed them out onto transparancy film. big note here... don't use transparency film! it's just too thin to make a good stencil. harder to cut out the smaller stencils and the little bit of breeze outside really blew it around. using some spray mount would have helped but next time i'll definitely get real stencil film to print the images out on.

2.) using an ex-acto knife and a self-healing mat, i went to work cutting out the stencils. this actually wasn't as hard as i thought. but it was more time-consuming than i thought. but, once you get in a groove it's not bad. just remember to take breaks so your hands don't get cramped too bad. doing the 3 stencils that i did, it took about 3 hours. not too bad for my first time.

3.) if the stencils are significantly smaller than the piece of film, cut it down as this will make taping easier.

4.) once i got the stencils all done, i taped them onto my car using the blue painters tape. i then taped a bunch of cardboard around them. but, as you can see, i still got some bleed through. not a big deal, though since my paint job isn't showroom quality by any means. so the blurring and ghosting kind of go with the car.

5.) then i just sprayed. next time i'll definitely use less paint. that'll help with bleed through and i realized that it just didn't need that much.

so that's about it. pretty easy but time consuming. in case anybody wants the stencil images i used, i have them all here with a few others i've collected. enjoy!


weimar eagle


passenger side, celtic cross


driver side, celtic cross

here she is...

to appease the masses, i quickly took some shots of the car tonight before the sun was completely gone. here they are!


with the flash...


without the flash...

how about those white rims?!

since i'm posting pictures, i'll post some of =the wood that i've been gathering for next year. we decided to get a woodburning stove for our house this summer (we'll just get the matte black finish). so i started going around and getting free wood from friends, neighbors, whomever. subdivisions are great places to find trees. most places fell the trees, cut them up and just leave them. then i come along and load it up. works great. nothing like getting something for nothing.


here's what i started out with...


here's another angle...


this is what i've built it up to. in the background is about a cord of wood stacked. i have a huge maple tree that's already cut up at my bosses house that i'm slowly bringing over to our house. i'm hoping to have about 5 cords for next year. the way i'm going now, i'll easily have that. i may stockpile some as well. just to make sure i have enough.

enjoy!

building up strength

wow... it's only been a week since i last posted! i told you i'd get better. alas, i still haven't had time to take pictures but i'm hoping to do so this weekend. i know, i know, i keep saying that. but you will see pictures soon. i just don't know how soon.

so over the weekend i went to take the bug for a little test drive and i couldn't get her started. plenty of gas and spark but no fire. it was weird. so my friend paul swung by after work last night and he couldn't figure it out either. after he left i remembered that i'd reattached the electric choke wire after i'd shut it down last wednesday. i didn't see how that could preclude the engine from starting but i was frustrated and ready to try anything. unhook the wire, crank, crank, VROOM!! crazy stuff. so i let it warm up, idled still really smoothly so i decided to drive it around our yard some. got it over to the driveway and did some runs back and forth. the brakes weren't grabbing like i thought and it seemed to have no power at all. but, i grabbed my new license plate, stuck it in the window and took it for a spin around the neighborhood.

it wasn't bad. just no power at all and the brakes aren't what i think they should be. they are better than before but the front end should really be diving (i kept trying to lock them up) and it's not. the pedal is a little spongy so i'm just wondering if it needs a good powerbleed. as far as the power issue goes, i'm thinking the carb needs a good tune. hopefully that'll cure it. i know it's running rich. so who knows.

overall, i'm happy that it's starting, running and stopping. i just need to work out the kinks and it should be good to go.

IT'S ALIVE!

wow... i sort of feel like dr. frankenstein this morning... but more on that later.

hello faithful readers! if i have any of those left. i know it's been forever since i've posted, but nothing has happened on the bug since my last post, until last night. between an awful work schedule keeping me at work until all hours of the night and morning to other household projects getting in the way, i have had no time for the bug. however, that all changed last night. here's the scoop...

my friend paul, who is very gracious to help me out, came over last night to help me with the last few items. he'd already mounted a balanced the old tires on the new front rims. i'll have to post some pictures of the new look. it's not bad, but definitely different.

anyway, i'd gotten the front rims on before he came over and there are no caliper clearance problems! so things were starting off right. first thing we did was to tighten the rear axle nuts so that we could put the cotter pins in. i'd already torqued them to 215 ft-lbs. but they needed just a little bit more for the holes to line up. he brought this massive 3 or 4" long socket and we went to work. got everything lined up and the cotter pins in.

next item of business was hooking the accelerator cable back up to the carb. not a big deal. we got that done and within correct spec.

so the moment of truth came. i tried to start her up and she cranked like crazy (the new starter is awesome!) but no fire. so we checked the spark and absolutely none. first thing paul noticed is that the spark plug wires weren't on the plugs correctly. i'd thought that there was a problem before and since forgot. so we took the new plugs out, twisted off the new type connector and put them back in and everything fit great. tested the spark again and nothing. tested it from the coil and barely anything. i just put a new coil in last year, so i'm hoping it's not that. but i still had my old one, so we hooked that one up and even less spark. so then we start tracing lines. everything is hooked up properly but paul notices a break in the hot wire to the coil. it had already been "fixed" like most of the wires in this car but the junction was really bad and corroded. so we made a new fix, checked the spark and it was awesome. nice and blue and very strong. so we hook up the wires again and start cranking. it took a while to get her started but she did fire up. paul was manually working the throttle. once the engine got warmed up and working again (took about 10 minutes) she ran on her own just great. no more intake leaks and she runs stronger than i've ever heard. we noticed that she's running rich, but that's probably from the previous owner compensating for the intake leaks. so i'll drive her around some more and see if i can't lean it out later.

but she ran for about 45 minutes last night. worked all the junk out and was running really smooth. it was 9:00 by the time we were finished, so i didn't take her out for a test run. but, i'm working from home today, so i'll have to take a little break later on today and take her out. first a drive through the yard to make sure the brakes are ok, then i'll take her out on the road. i'm really excited.

once again, kudos to my friend paul and to all of you who gave me advice and encouragement. i'll post up some pictures of the bug later and also some pictures of my recent projects. now that the bug is back on the road, i'll have to start focusing on some other things.

that's all for now. i promise it won't be months before the next post...

back and better than ever... sort of

hello to all of my faithful readers, if i have any left. sorry that it's been so long but crazy work hours, sickness and a general laziness have gotten in the way of me finishing up the bug.

however, i do have some updates. i just completed an order for two new rims that should fix my clearance issues on the front wheels. the rims i got come from Chirco Performance and are your standard, white spoke wheels. i got 15x6 rims which are the same size as the ones i have now. so i'm assured that my tires will swap right over. i'm going for a very interesting look... white rims on the front with black/chrome rims on the rear. maybe one of these days i'll sand down the new rims and paint them flat black so they match somewhat. but at this point i just want my car back and i don't really care how it looks. not like it's beautiful anyway.

i'm hoping that i'll find some time this weekend to actual fire up the beast and see if she'll run on her own power. that way i'll have some time to fix any engine issues before the rims get here.

i'm hopeful that i'll have the bug on the road before november and just in time for the cold weather. good thing that my heater boxes work well!

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.