What did you do to your volkswagen today?

Made another parts list, this engine building is fun every time i get it back together I get paranoid take it all apart and clean and recheck everything, never again will i underestimate an aircooled engine rebuild again, I have learned much patients on this one but i WANT IT IN NOW I know i will enjoy Toby a whole lot more now that I have put so much b.s.t. in him

Spent Saturday organizing my stash of parts and all day Sunday going through my recent purchase, a 1970 Beetle. Found that I am going to need a set of new floor pans and a luggage tray. So I am planning on removing the body this weekend. This should be fun, 1st time I have ever done this. If anyone wants to come over and give me a hand you are very much welcomed. I will know better my plans later this week. DiggerD came over for a couple of hours Sunday and jumped right in pulling out the carpet and tar boards. The man was on a mission, He found over $10 in pocket change, small knife and a key for a set of handcuffs. I have never seen him happier.

I worked on the waterbug today. I installed the passenger seat by welding in the brackets. I mounted the tach and the triple gauge set up. I put the tach in the very middle of the dash. I mounted the water temp, oil pressure and volt meter to the tunnel on the passenger side with the panel and the gauges angled toward the driver. I enclosed the back seat area with plywood to hide the battery and all of the bundels of wire associated with the fuel injected Jetta motor. I put a tag bracket and tag light on the engine cover.

I noticed the brake pedal was mushy so I'll probably bleed the brakes again. I also need to get some new longer emergency brake cables.

I have a wiper transmission with a motor but I don't know if the wipers work as they are not wired up. No blades, arms, cowl nuts or seals.

I am just a week or so away from getting insurance and a tag. Then I can finally drive the waterbug.

Got the engine back in my car

Goped406 wrote:Got the engine back in my car

Where's the pictures?

Gary check this out, my friend Monty went to some import event and they had a dub magazine that did a special on last years Durty Fest. Baxter and my bug were in it, along with tonys bug, randys bug and gayle's square

^^^ thats cool!

i changed jana's oil, cleaned the carb, gave her a bath, and drove the hell out of her.

tito wrote:^^^ thats cool!

i changed jana's oil, cleaned the carb, gave her a bath, and drove the hell out of her.

Kinky!!

I bought insurance and got my tag today. I still don't have brake lights. Trying to chase down the problem. I bled the brakes and they work now. Installed my tag and got the tag light working.

I may head up to Stockornaut this evening and see if Billie can shed some light on my brake light problem then I can shed some light to the rear when I step on the brake pedal.

Goped406 wrote:



Gary check this out, my friend Monty went to some import event and they had a dub magazine that did a special on last years Durty Fest. Baxter and my bug were in it, along with tonys bug, randys bug and gayle's square

Dude! How can I get a copy of it?
Engine looks good by the way. I take it the generator works o.k.?

Stockornaut to the rescue again....

Billie found the problem with my brake lights. It was of all things the headlight switch. It needs replacing and Billie had a used one in a parts car but it was seized in the dash so tight it wouldn't budge even after a bath in PB Blaster. I'm going to give Ralph a call per Billie's suggestion and see if he has a NOS '74 headlight switch.

Drove the hell out of the turbo bug. And changed the oil. maybe i shouldn't have done that in that order, .

Me and Tyler went to the gas station today and the battery cable from the hot post to the starter decided to take a crap. He was freaking out wondering how we were gonna get back home when it wouldn't crank. I told him to just sit there and I would push us home. I got the bus rolling pretty good from the pumps, (downhill) and hopped in and jumpstarted us. He had never seen a car started like that and was talking about it all afternoon.

Got home and pulled the bad cable off. Looks like it is corroded inside the sheathing, I will get a replacement tomorrow.

DiggerD wrote:
Got home and pulled the bad cable off. Looks like it is corroded inside the sheathing, I will get a replacement tomorrow.

I too had a positive cable that looked perfect on the outside but was rotten on the inside. It drove me nuts till I discovered the problem.


The waterbug saga continues:

Billie cut the dash on his parts car so I could have a chance of getting the headlight switch off. I borrowed the correct tool from MAC, # SC-17 and it still wouldn't let go. We both decided that the waterbug had been submerged at some time in the past as there is creamy light brown silt covering all of the wiring and fuse panel under the hood.

Also nearly every ground on the car is corroded, front to back. I think I see a complete re-wire in the near future if things don't get straightened out soon. Bad or intermittent grounds can make a tough job even tougher.

I have driven the car little but enough to get sort of a feel. It is smoother than an Air Cooled bug. It accelerates harder. Due to the increase in torque and horsepower the car feels like it needs a 5th gear or a taller final ratio.
Roughly 3000 rpms at 55 mph. I may have to put taller rear tires for a temporary fix.

Been contemplating installing a 5 speed from a Jetta or Golf. Even thinking of installing the entire front wheel drive platform mid engine style. I believe the weight forward would improve steering feel. It really feels light in the front as it is it pushes ....under-steer. Thinking about moving the battery up front too. Also it needs new rubber that will improve the road feel I'm sure.

69panel wrote:

DiggerD wrote:
Got home and pulled the bad cable off. Looks like it is corroded inside the sheathing, I will get a replacement tomorrow.

I too had a positive cable that looked perfect on the outside but was rotten on the inside. It drove me nuts till I discovered the problem.


The waterbug saga continues:

Billie cut the dash on his parts car so I could have a chance of getting the headlight switch off. I borrowed the correct tool from MAC, # SC-17 and it still wouldn't let go. We both decided that the waterbug had been submerged at some time in the past as there is creamy light brown silt covering all of the wiring and fuse panel under the hood.

Also nearly every ground on the car is corroded, front to back. I think I see a complete re-wire in the near future if things don't get straightened out soon. Bad or intermittent grounds can make a tough job even tougher.

I have driven the car little but enough to get sort of a feel. It is smoother than an Air Cooled bug. It accelerates harder. Due to the increase in torque and horsepower the car feels like it needs a 5th gear or a taller final ratio.
Roughly 3000 rpms at 55 mph. I may have to put taller rear tires for a temporary fix.

Been contemplating installing a 5 speed from a Jetta or Golf. Even thinking of installing the entire front wheel drive platform mid engine style. I believe the weight forward would improve steering feel. It really feels light in the front as it is it pushes ....under-steer. Thinking about moving the battery up front too. Also it needs new rubber that will improve the road feel I'm sure.

Yeah that cable kinda looked suspect around the terminal ends but I only had the ground cable at the time (which I replaced) I figured the positive cable wouldn't give me any problems until I had a chance to replace it.............wrong!! Just one more of the nagging problems created by a 19 year long storage, I just fix em as they arise!! :Rockit:

More body work today. First time using a stud welder...it was SWEET. (And a hell of a lot faster than the hammer and dolly I had been using although I did use that just to get as straight as possible in the end.) Finished treating all of the surface rust...that I could find...and I'm hoping that tomorrow is skim and primer day!!

I also scored a rear tire hanger for the truck so I can get the damn spare out of the way! Did the front brakes on the truck too. Great day!

Spent another 400 easy on some little bits to finish up the engine, new oil cooler, the rest of my full flow set up, chrome air deflectors that wrap around the cylinders, Teflon buttons, shims and crank spacer to get my end play dead on, engine compartment seal and back tin without holes for the non-heater, new red scat wires, cap, rotor, scat chromoly rocker shaft kit, scat swivel ball adjusting screws and copper head gaskets .040 to get my compression ration down to 7.8:1 so that's .030 deck height .098 cylinder spacers and .040 head gaskets.

Now that the beam is done, I went back to finishing up the fake vert decklid. I grafted one vent over months ago, so today I cut the other vent out and cut the hole in the decklid. This one fits much better than the first one. I had huge gaps to fill the first time, this one fits nice and snug. Unfortunately though, the welder is out of gas. Got to get a new tank this afternoon.

new brakes on the 08 accord this morning- pulled 4 screw/nails out of the rear tires- wtf- alot of people on our street getting new roofs!

ended up reordering the part im waiting on from long enterprises-hopefully be here monday.
no faith tht BFY is actually shipping -prob just more BS.

I had tires mounted and balanced on my American Racing wheels and installed them on the '68. I also installed new headlights and new trim rings.

I put the Centerlines on the waterbug. I also put two new brake light switches on the waterbug. I bought a new much needed steering damper for the waterbug at Stockornaut today. Billie drove the waterbug said he thought it was fine except that there is little or no flex to the front suspension. It feels like a fixed axle very stiff. Another front end coming from Stockornaut soon.

Drove it! Hell yeah!

Drove it to the hot rod show and won a top ten trophy.


I'm not a trophy kinda guy but ths one was sweet with it's retro gas pump, banjo wheel, and flaming pillars.

Congratulations Glenn.

NICE TROPHY, congrats

bumblebuggy wrote:Drove it to the hot rod show and won a top ten trophy.


I'm not a trophy kinda guy but ths one was sweet with it's retro gas pump, banjo wheel, and flaming pillars.

Congrats on the top ten!! Looks like someone put alot of thought into the design of the trophy, very cool!!