What did you do to your volkswagen today?

Gave the HAVOC a good bath today and pulled the Ghia out for a run down I-20W and she ran like a champ. Olive this little car, but the wife keeps the keys on a tight hold. Going to have to get me a copy of the key soon lol!!!

Went to Walmart and they gave me a new battery. Not without a hassel though. I had tested it on my smart charger and it said there was a dead cell. They tried to charge it for an hour before they gave up and said, "Battery has a dead cell." I wanted to say, "No shizot Sherlock."

At least they didn't tell you to come back tomorrow or call the 800 number for a refund lol!!!! Well the waterbug should be up and running next Wednesday. Glad it got work out

well, everywhere you go now, they want to charge the battery before exchanging it, because it does cost the store a lot of money to replace batteries. but if they give you a hard time, then they are just being a-holes. at advance, we get the battery, check the acid, charge it, and if it still reads bad, then we exchange it out. only takes an hour at the most. most of the times, the battery simply needs a little acid, and its good to go. for example, the battery may come in test bad at 550cca, be rated at 800cca, pop the caps off, low acid, fill em up, charge it, retest it, and the battery will read as if its new at 850cca. The battery in my bug did that. i had it tested, it was bad. i filled it up with acid, charged it, and went to have it tested, and viola. good battery. still got that battery too. usin it in my truck. have had no problems

a bottle of acid only costs $5, and theres enough to top off several batteries. i keep a botte at home, and check it every few months. they say you can use distilled water, but i seem to get better results using the acid solution. i think were the only store that checks the acid (district manager's orders, lol). and about 75% of the batteries that come in that test bad, are usually low on acid, and end up being good.

Bugman114 wrote:well, everywhere you go now, they want to charge the battery before exchanging it, because it does cost the store a lot of money to replace batteries. but if they give you a hard time, then they are just being a-holes. at advance, we get the battery, check the acid, charge it, and if it still reads bad, then we exchange it out. only takes an hour at the most. most of the times, the battery simply needs a little acid, and its good to go. for example, the battery may come in test bad at 550cca, be rated at 800cca, pop the caps off, low acid, fill em up, charge it, retest it, and the battery will read as if its new at 850cca. The battery in my bug did that. i had it tested, it was bad. i filled it up with acid, charged it, and went to have it tested, and viola. good battery. still got that battery too. usin it in my truck. have had no problems

a bottle of acid only costs $5, and theres enough to top off several batteries. i keep a botte at home, and check it every few months. they say you can use distilled water, but i seem to get better results using the acid solution. i think were the only store that checks the acid (district manager's orders, lol). and about 75% of the batteries that come in that test bad, are usually low on acid, and end up being good.

That's some old school shit. I can't tell you the last time I owned a battery that had access caps. I didn't even know they still made them, I thought everything was maintenance free.

noo. Most batteries you still have to add acid to them. if they have two big rectangular caps, then you have to add acid. pretty much ALL advance auto (autocraft), auto zone (duralast), walmart (everstart), interstate, diehard, energizer (yes they do make car batteries ) batteries need acid added to them. if it doesn't say maintenence free, then you need to add acid to them.

The battery will either have the two rectangular caps (three cells on each), 6 individual caps for each cell (haven't seen too many of those), or it will have a thin strip, with three on each, like whats pictured below:

Like this battery. you can see the yellow strip. some batteries have this, except they have two, instead of one long one. this popps off, so you can add acid:


Or these batteries. you can see where the white writing is, on the two rectangular caps. most batteries are like this. these pop off with a flat tip screwdriver, so you can add acid:




The only real batteries that are maintenence free, are the crazy expensive optima batteries (YES, optima are lead acid batteries, they are NOT gell cell), deep cycle batteries (SOMETIMES), gel cell batteries, or SOME bmw, SOME mercedes and SOME oldsmobile batteries.


Now everyone go check your batteries, and save yourself some $$$ . and watch out for that acid. if you get it on your skin, don't worry. the acid in batteries is like 66% water, and about 33% acid (hence the reason its called an acid solution). it won't burn you unless you leave it on your skin for a long time, so don't freak out if you get some on you, just go wash it off. if you get some in your eyes, then by all means, freak out, lol.

And when charging it be carefull!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Had my first battery explode on me a few months ago and WOW! Threw my fat-a$$ to the ground and shook the house. I now unplug the charger before I touch the cables!

Got a little paint on the gas tank I got from Jeff a while back.

Here how it looked when I got it.


Started taking the dirt and crud off of it with a scraper and sander


The threads on the outlet were gunked up with the remnants of the aluminum thread from the tap.


Ordered a metric thread file from McMaster-Carr and cleaned the threads up. Perfect now.


Once I had it down to bare metal, I taped it up and sprayed it with some phosphoric acid to kill any of the rust that was left.
Here it is ready for paint.


Bottom side is painted. Need to let it dry and then paint the topside.

Looks good Eric!

You went all out on the tank bro. Great job now the next time the bug got to spray your going to have to clean out the garage and do it yourself. I think your ready lol!!!!! Nice job tho

Thanks guys. It turned out ok. The paint is just brushed on with a foam brush, I didn't break out the gun and spray it. I have carpet in the trunk, so it'll be hidden anyways. Just really wanted to make sure I got rid of all the rust and keep it from rusting in the future. The inside of this thing was so clean!

Also, called the paintshop to check on the status of my touchups. It won't be ready for me today, so I have another weekend without the bug. Should be ready Tuesday.

Damm and I was going to tell you let's meet up and ride tomorrow and go on the cruise with the Deshwarm crew in canton. Oh well I'm going still but next week we can go for a Friday run how's that sound

Bugman114 wrote: if it doesn't say maintenence free, then you need to add acid to them.

I checked all my batteries and only one says maintenance free. I just replaced the one in the Ford and it was 11yrs old, the Dodge is maintenance free, the beetle has a date of 1998 and one of the buses has a date of 2002 and the other is new. I have never added water or acid to any of my batteries. 10+ years on most...........I don't think I'll start. I must have good battery luck (knock on wood). How often do you guys add stuff to your batteries?

i rarely ever have to. but one thing i've noticed over the years, is that if you never have any charging issues, then the battery may never need acid added. but if youve ever had charging issues, or a bad alternator, the battery will burn off a lot of water.

and yes, BATTERIES CAN EXPLODE. i've had a few do that at work. ALL batteries (regular OR maintenence free), all emit sulferic acid, which is explosive. NEVER connect or disconnect the clamps on your charger with the charger on. any sparks can detonate the battery. also when removing the battery, always remove the negative first, because if you remove the positive first, the the wrench your using touches the frame, or something metal, it will short the battery, and spark. same with installing the battery. install the positive cable first, then the negative.

Also if you ever have your car sitting for a long period of time, i'd highly recommend a maintainer to keep the battery on. or else the battery will slowly die, and sulfate. if a battery is low on acid, the exposed parts of the plates inside, will build up a custy layer of sulfation (think of it like carbon build up, on a piston, or head). also if you leave a battery sitting, and it de-charges, it will form a layer of sulaftion. sulfation occurs when the battery discharges. a fully charged battery, or a battery left on a maintainer will not sulfate. if you leave a battery weather its brand new, or not, sit for a long period of time, it may not hold a charge when you go to charge it, or it won't hold a complete charge. once this happens, the battery will never hold a charge, and you will need a new battery.

56HAVOC wrote:but next week we can go for a Friday run how's that sound

We will see man. If the car is in a driveable state, I'd be up for it! Not getting the car back this weekend has kinda put a damper on everything I wanted to get done before Reynolds. I wanted to swap the gas tank, install a new steering coupler, install a new shift coupler, pull the engine and put another main seal in, and swap out the gas gauge parts I got from Bob. I'm off of work next Friday so I may have the car in a million pieces from Friday to Sunday trying to do the "last weekend scramle" to get everything done in time.

WOW dude your a work-a-holic when it comes to the Dub lol!!!! All of that would take me a hole month if I were to do that at home. Good luck I got to attend one of your VW classes.

Stockornaut put my new wide 5 wheels and Coker Classic white wall tires on. Purty!

the pictures look real nice but i wet up to stockornaut today so i could see them in person, dude there crazy kool you made a great choice getting them.

1968ghia wrote:Stockornaut put my new wide 5 wheels and Coker Classic white wall tires on. Purty!

Looking good!!

DiggerD wrote:Looking good!!

Getting close... Those guys are doing an awesome job. I can't wait to finally drive it. On the hunt for a right rear overrider bar. That's all I'm missing...

Billie is going to fill in that whole that was for a reflector...

56HAVOC wrote:the pictures look real nice but i wet up to stockornaut today so i could see them in person, dude there crazy kool you made a great choice getting them.

Ahh cool! I'm quite happy with them. I can't take all of the credit. Billie Fry had a lot to do with the choice...

well MR fry you out did yourself this time,well i cant waitto see what you do with the 64 ghia i dro off lol, great work guys really great job

Yeah, I saw the wheels the other night and thought they looked good. With the cokers on them they really look great!! I think it is a great look for your car.

Thanks ya'll. Looking forward to cruising with you...