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So I'm doing this kind of backwards. The car is pretty much done, or at least runs, drives, and is low. I still have some stuff I want to do with it but this is mostly a look back at the whole process. The picture above is what it looks like as I sit here and write this.
When I picked it up it had a whole lot more ride height and a helluva lot less engine in the back.
My friend Elisha and I drove through the very early morning from New Hampshire to New York to pick the car up, with an engine in the bed, and a tow bar. If putting the engine in didn't work, the tow bar would.
We tried to put the engine in, but several issues, including something shorting out and throwing sparks when we put the engine against the transaxle, kept us from being able to drive it home. It wasn't a very good plan, anyway.
Finally we hooked the towbar up and started heading home. We ran into a few issues, but nothing that doesn't seem kind of funny looking back on it now. All in all, not a bad trip. The tailgaters kinda sucked though:
From there it mostly just sat around while I worked on other projects until Elisha put the adjustable beam and drop spindles in it. Note the beat up, nasty, rusty hood and gross bondo fender.
The next step was to wear the car like a hat. I can't stress the importance of the hat step enough.
We also switched to some lower profile Kuhmos at this point.
Once we got it low, we took a couple pictures of the Chrysler/ rolling tool box I had at the time.
We brought the back end down in the parking lot behind where I work. Pretty sure I could've been fired for that but whatever. The aftermarket wheels I wanted to put on it didn't fit in the fenders, which is kinda good because now I have better aftermarket wheels that are gonna go on it. I think Ezzy just rejected them completely.
We then brought it home in the hopes of making it drive. We had it starting, but not running and driving. I didn't know at that point, but it was gonna be a long time before it ran and drove. I mostly just puttered around doing small projects on it. I grinded the paint and bondo off the fender. Still trying to decide between the spot like I have now or just doing the whole fender, almost a year to the day later.
About this same time I cut off a pretty substantial amount of metal to fit this goofy exhaust. It's loud, it's brash, it angers purists. I have no regrets.
After that the Chrysler left and a new Beetle joined the cast, actually a '61.
The projects continued, including patching the hole in the nose with a license plate which was both gaudy and illegal. I just got a new hood.
Winter 2014/2015 set in and I didn't really do much because everything was buried in snow. Come March I was eager to get working on it because I knew it needed a lot of work and I had a show I wanted to make in August. I began to dig the car out, and being that the car was frozen to the ground, I had to yank strap it out.
From there it pretty much went right to the shop. Not being as mechanically inclined as I'd like to be, and working a lot, I had no problems paying to ensure the car would be done for the show.
They had it for maybe a week when I got the call that the car was ready to pick up. Being that it didn't have brakes, we drove it onto a trailer and headed home. The feeling of being able to drive a car that you had been pushing everywhere for a year, even on and off a trailer, was an awesome feeling. I took a victory lap down a dirt road by my house. Even without brakes (I had a hand brake) I felt on top of the world.
I drove home and parked her in my yard, and shut it off. I don't remember if it was that night or the day after that I noticed the oil, but I noticed. There was a lot of it. The rear main seal was gone and I had a pushrod tube leak. I'd driven it less than a mile, and now it had to have the engine tore apart. I elected to try to do the work with the help of a mechanic at work.
We pulled the engine, and much to my chagrin he lost interest very quickly in the project. I couldn't get him to work on it with me. I took the engine to yet another shop and waited for their word. I got the call and had the Beetle towed over. This was the week of the show I wanted to be at.
They put the engine in and had it running and driving Thursday. I went over and paid my bill. I began calling everyone I knew with a truck and trailer. Everyone with a truck and trailer would be busy that weekend. I started calling people with just trucks and accepted the reality of renting a UHaul trailer for the weekend. No trucks were available either. From there I looked at renting a truck. What a nightmare that is financially. Finally I asked one of my friends with a truck if he really needed a truck for what he was doing, or just transportation. Since he figured a truck wasn't needed, I lent him my Focus ST. My 8 year old brother and I picked the trailer up Saturday morning, with my friend Mike in his E30 behind us.
The car had made it to Wolfsgart but the car wasn't perfect. It wasn't timed, and the clutch didn't fully disengage. Everytime I went somewhere I was riding the clutch, it wasn't running well, didn't idle, the heat wrap on the exhaust smoked like wild, and I still was using the hand brake. Despite all this I still entered the limbo.
My brother got a huge kick out of riding shotgun during the limbo, his eyes were wide as could be when he saw the crowd that would be watching us. He's still talking about it. I trust there will be more car shows for him in the future.
Since Wolfsgart ended I've mostly been driving up and down my road and fixing little things. First the clutch adjustment, then the timing, then the vacuum advance. Still have to play around with the fuel mixture screw and do the brakes, but we're getting there. Last weekend Ezzy even had a photoshoot. She's an ugly girl but she knows how to pose. Last night Mike drove my friends Chris and Jeremy up and we had a lot of fun playing with the E30 and the Beetle.
I'll try to keep this updated as more stuff happens, because stuff will be happening. I've got some aftermarket wheels for her, so I'll be sure to post pictures of her when I get those on.
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