What did you do to your volkswagen today?

Sunday morning I pulled the intake off of the waterbug and replaced the much needed valve cover gasket. The valve cover had been weeping oil down the back of the motor on the header side. Nasty, smelly and a fire hazard.

I also painted the sides of the all aluminum engine cover flat black like the rest of the car to tone down the huge appearance of the "wing/engine cover". My wife as well as my "non VW fan" friends hate the look of the engine cover. My wife says it's ugly. My buddy says it looks like a dishwasher machine hanging off the back. I'm really catching a lot of grief about it. None of their comments bother me that much mainly because I like it and it serves a functional purpose. It keeps the road grime and rain off of the engine's electrical bits.

I lowered the back of the driver's side seat brackets...a comfort issue. I'll have to do more as it still doesn't feel quite right as yet. I'll raise the front brackets to get the angle right.

69panel wrote:Sunday morning I pulled the intake off of the waterbug and replaced the much needed valve cover gasket. The valve cover had been weeping oil down the back of the motor on the header side. Nasty, smelly and a fire hazard.

I also painted the sides of the all aluminum engine cover flat black like the rest of the car to tone down the huge appearance of the "wing/engine cover". My wife as well as my "non VW fan" friends hate the look of the engine cover. My wife says it's ugly. My buddy says it looks like a dishwasher machine hanging off the back. I'm really catching a lot of grief about it. None of their comments bother me that much mainly because I like it and it serves a functional purpose. It keeps the road grime and rain off of the engine's electrical bits.

I lowered the back of the driver's side seat brackets...a comfort issue. I'll have to do more as it still doesn't feel quite right as yet. I'll raise the front brackets to get the angle right.

Pics or it didn't happen

Started buffing out the paint on the bus. Since I didn't have any 1500 or up sandpaper I just used 0000 steel wool. Worked pretty good on the nose of the bus but took forever..... I don't have pics as it got too dark on me. Maybe some tomorrow....

De-modified my 66 Beetle by taking off the drop spindles and putting the stock ones back on. The small change in offset and wide tires (195) caused much fender rubbing. I also found the lower trailing arm tore off my stick-on wheel weights on the inside of the rim! Not good. I decided to go back to stock so I drive the car again and work on getting an adjustable front beam. I think this will be cheaper than buying narrower tires, narrowed front beam, etc.

Yesterday:

Started building a dash for the 74 super turbo bug. I had been fiberglassing one, based off the metal frame from the stock dash, with all the padding ripped off, but i didn't like the way it was turning out, so i abandoned that one. But now i decided i wanted an aluminum dash. But looking at how much aluminum costs, i found its much cheaper to make it out of wood. so yesterday i made the wooden part. Basically just some of that finished smoothe 1/2 inch thick wood, and made the basic shape.

Today:
I made a few adjustments to get tthe wood to fit perfectly. Then i started to bond the aluminum flashing to the wood. Couldn't do much today, as i have to put a lot of weight on top of the front to bond, and then wait for the glue to dry on the front parts, and then tomorrow when its dry, i can fold over the aluminum and glue it to the top. So from that you can kinda picture what its gonna look like. Very simple, and clean looking. The weights on top were a piece of wood, goes over forst, to evenly distribute the weights, and on top of that i put 3 cinder blocks, a car battery, and a 5 gallon tub of greased lightning. Anyhoo i didn't realize there was a screw under the dash, making it uneven. any hoo i didn't realize that, and the top of the dash started to slide the aluminum off the wood smearing the glue, causing all the weight to slide off, and the whole mess came crashing down, and broke the cinder blocks. So now i put everything back together, and just placed the pieces of conder blocks on top, lol. I'll try to get pics 2morrow.

Bugman114 wrote:Yesterday:

Started building a dash for the 74 super turbo bug. I had been fiberglassing one, based off the metal frame from the stock dash, with all the padding ripped off, but i didn't like the way it was turning out, so i abandoned that one. But now i decided i wanted an aluminum dash. But looking at how much aluminum costs, i found its much cheaper to make it out of wood. so yesterday i made the wooden part. Basically just some of that finished smoothe 1/2 inch thick wood, and made the basic shape.

Today:
I made a few adjustments to get tthe wood to fit perfectly. Then i started to bond the aluminum flashing to the wood. Couldn't do much today, as i have to put a lot of weight on top of the front to bond, and then wait for the glue to dry on the front parts, and then tomorrow when its dry, i can fold over the aluminum and glue it to the top. So from that you can kinda picture what its gonna look like. Very simple, and clean looking. The weights on top were a piece of wood, goes over forst, to evenly distribute the weights, and on top of that i put 3 cinder blocks, a car battery, and a 5 gallon tub of greased lightning. Anyhoo i didn't realize there was a screw under the dash, making it uneven. any hoo i didn't realize that, and the top of the dash started to slide the aluminum off the wood smearing the glue, causing all the weight to slide off, and the whole mess came crashing down, and broke the cinder blocks. So now i put everything back together, and just placed the pieces of conder blocks on top, lol. I'll try to get pics 2morrow.

Yes, please post pics!! I've gotta see this!!

broke another one! Now 7 vw's and only one running. Trying to find parts to get 2 on the road, heading to a vw junkyard this morning to see if I can scrounge up whats needed to get the westy on the road and maybe the gon as well. Man it sucks, decided to bite the bullet and pay off the nb then my euro died. Hopefully find what I need and get a few ac on the road, these waterboxers are killing me!!!

Still working on tha wooden/ aluminum dash. Comming along pretty nicely. Still don't have any pics. but i already have the aluminum glued down completely, just waiting for one side to dry. So all i have left to do is trim the aluminum overlap, and shave the inside wood. The wood i used is way too think for toggle switches, so i plan to use my circular saw, adjust the blade so it only cuts half way thru the wood, and make several slices under where i want the switches, and chisel the remaining slices away, thus making the wood thinner. I'm sure there must be a name for this technique, as a was channel flipping once, and saw some guy doing that on some wood working show.

Anyhoo, does anyone know what size the hole has to be for the speedo? i plan on using the stock speedo. the one from my 74 super (the one that is just pushed into place, NOT the one with a tab on the left and right side). I just wonder if its a common size i can get a cup drill thing for, or is it some akward size, i'll have to slowly grind away at, lol.

meinvw wrote:broke another one! Now 7 vw's and only one running.

Same boat as me, . 6 vw's and only one running, lol.

Bugman114 wrote:

meinvw wrote:broke another one! Now 7 vw's and only one running.

Same boat as me, . 6 vw's and only one running, lol.

Yeah but your running one is twice as fast as mine! Well maybe close, runner is the wifes new beetle, luckily she is off of work until friday so have a car to drive until I get one of mine running again. Had to walk to the parts store the other day. Really sucked for a fat man to walk in 90+ degree weather!! Going to get me a helmet for the bicycle today in case its needed, would have looked funny riding the bike with one of my motorcycle helmets on. Non full face so was less embarasing to walk!!!

Hopefully found what I needed, cleanning parts and painting them now so hopefully have a driver by weeks end. Even found a high roof to replace my damaged pop-top!! Really sucks, 1 or 2 parts needed for most to get a runner. Hmmmm....time to post in the wanted section!! Hopefully Stockornaut will have a part needed for the bug, so can have a bus and a bug on the road by weeks end.

Just finished getting the aluminum glued and stapled down to the wood, on the dash for my 74 super. Looks pretty sweet in the car, especially going over a year with out a dash, lol.

Here is how i've been driving for over a year:


Here is the inside of the dash:



Here is the outside:




And here is a pic of the dash just sitting inside. its not bolted down yet, so thats why its crooked, lol:

Thats pretty slick........

Looks like you made need shades to drive when the sun is out tho.......

A weed-eater with a polishing bonnet and a little compound and that'll shine like chrome!

Seriously, nice work Mike!

Is there anything a weed-eater can't do??

You hit your head on that dash they'll hose it off and just sell it to the next guy!!!

lol, NO, i'll hit my head on the nice padded grant steering wheel. I'll just have to hose off the passenger side of the dash, and then hide the body .

Thanks for the comments. Its a little wrinkly around the edges, and a few creases here and there, but i can live with that. That stuff is hard to work with, with out bending it. I got the roll of aluminum from hompedepot, next to the shingles. I believe its called flashing. I had to sort thru several rolls, before i found the one with the least dents and scratches.


I was thinking of drilling holes around the edges, and bolt some stainless steel bolts around, mostly for looks, and to also hide the passenger side bottom corner (the alumunum peeled off there, and created a bubble on the corner, you can kinda see it in the pic). But not sure how it will look. Or maybe even use some aluminum angle iron, along the edges, then use bolts, again mostly for looks (but to also cover up the slightly wrinkled edges. What do yall think?

Yesterday morning I went to Pull-A-Part on Buford Hwy. and gathered up the A/C hose ends needed to hook up the A/C compressor, condensor, drier and inside unit with the blower.

Last night I went by Stockornaut and arrived just before everybody from the "Boltsdragen Club" were about to take off for the cruise to Mestizo's. Excellent turn out and some very nice bugs were in attendance. Maybe next time I'll be able to make it in my one of my two bugs.

Just before he left Billie informed me that my new headliner had come in. He also mentioned he will be working at Stockornaut full time from now on. That will be great for the VW community but we all need to get out the word and make the effort to do business with Stockornaut to help it survive as anyone who's had a new small business knows the rent and power bill come so damn regular. There is no question about Billie's knowledge and willingness to try and help people out so we need to support his business since it's a full time thing now.

This morning I went to "Gainesville Radiator & A/C" to get the hoses made up so I can A/C the waterbug. Proud of custom hoses they are as well as crimping the ends but they are cutting me some slack. I lucked out because the fellow there likes the waterbug project and thinks it's cool. It's going to be cool when I turn the A/C on. I love A/C more and more the older I get.

Here are some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bertfoster/Waterbug#

Or a photoshow:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bertfoster/Movies#5351393633462410562

I changed out the wheel cylinder and the adjustment gears on the left side of the rear (where im having the big problems) drove it on the highway Good got 5 min from the house and locked up again!!! so now I think Im gonna try to change the master cylinder, maybe that will work???? IDK

69panel wrote:

Looks great can't wait to see it in person!

got an old speedo for free. plan on using it to my dune buggy. started tinkering with it and figured out how to reset the mileage. pretty simple.

Bugman114 wrote:got an old speedo for free. plan on using it to my dune buggy. started tinkering with it and figured out how to reset the mileage. pretty simple.

Do I see a bunch of low mileage projects comming up for sale???

lol, well, since pretty much everything on the dune buggy will be new (cept for body and frame), i figure it would be nice to know how many miles i put on it. also, looking at the way its made, it looks like it would be pretty easy to take another junk speedo, do a bit of welding and stuff, and make it go to 100,000 miles instead of just 10,000 miles.

Bugman114 wrote:got an old speedo for free. plan on using it to my dune buggy...

Remind me to not help with your dune buggy if you're going to wear a Speedo while doing it...

Metal work and a little Bondo yesterday...now blocking and sanding today.

cruised to work in Toby, still have some tuning to do on these carbs... but damn this thing has some power brought my heart rate up a few times

On the way to work I ran into a guy in an orange super pushing it to a hill so he could roll it off on Pat Mell rd heading towards Atlanta Rd. It looked pretty good. I helped him out a little by not letting the traffic get up on him.