Komm nach Hause, verlorener Sohn

Come Home, Lost son...

So lets go WAY back 26 years to a summer drafting job in 1993 and (what I though was) a copius amount of money made. I decided to piss it away as any 19 year old would....on a car.

$10,000 later, I had turned a ho hum 1972 Superbeetle into a cool little cruiser.  (You might be thinking "10 grand WTF?" and you'd be right.  There was alot of bought and sold Empi and Bugpack sh^t bought for this car that had a short shelf life) I spent the next 4 years wearing the tires down driving all over southern Ontario with friends, in the new found freedom.  But by 1998, I needed something I could drive in the winter, as I couldn't use dad's diesel rabbit anymore (met its demise to a food service truck) and apartment living was hard to own 2 cars...a beetle as a second vehicle was hard to hide from the landlord.  So the decision was made to sell her, as she needed some work to the pan and frame that I couldn't do with no garage or driveway.  So I yanked the engine and sold the rest for $800, figuring I'd never see it again.  I did poke my head into the new owner's house in Cambridge a couple years later and there she sat under a tree, not turning a wheel.  Like f^ck, big plans....right.  I said my goodbyes.

Fast forward 21 years...

I have the Kijiji app on my phone, (like Craigslist to my US friends) hard wired to "Classic cars/Volkswagen/All of Ontario"  no sense in searching anything else I'd say...And one day while musing on the litany of Empi-catalogue-built Meyers Manx clones fetching $15,000+ I spot the Chevy Bright Aqua beacon on the page!  There she is! And is Local to boot!  I call the guy and try not to sound like a blithering idiot (to steal Clarkson's line) and head down to look at her.  I got the chance to go over her without the owner there, and man....what a time machine!  There was even a mechanical drafting pencil of mine in the glovebox!  Nothing has changed?  We, err, I did pull the motor, so that was different, and my Sony deck was gone.  But anything else changed?  nope...not one bit!

As one would expect, the paint is tired, but I did take solace in my bodywork skills that they had help up rather well for 25 years!  Only some small rust blisters exist now, a couple of which I saw starting when I sold it.  I figure old Neil did the most damage in the couple years after I sold it to him, and the balance of time she sat in a dark dry garage away from the elements.  

The framehead is gone, as is the drivers side floor under the pedals, but not to worry...VW bugs are the most supported car in the aftermarket.  Which comes to the finagling with the owner...he HAS a new klokkerholm framehead for it.  Score!

I'm buried in the GLI build, so I really don't need this.  Let's make it clear...I don't want a bug, I have no interest in them, they are slow, they are cold, and I much prefer the watercooled VW variety.  But, I put alot of blood and sweat into THIS car, and was cheated by time, apartment living, and an era where aircooled VWs, especially Superbeetles, were worthless. (some would argue still are)  So I say again, I would NEVER bring home 'A' bug, but I will bring home THIS bug.  I was cheated when I basically gave it away, and now I have the means to fix it.  So I gave the owner a somewhat lowball offer, and a sob story on its history and he agreed to sell it to me...

Is it normal to know your tow truck driver by name, and he knows by memory where to bring these old VWs to? (Thanks Emad, you rock!)

But I gotta say (and my brother reiterates the feeling) that even if all I do to it is stare at it, I couldn't have let it go again.  There's a reason why it hasn't been touched, or ravaged by time.  An omen?  Maybe?  

And the definition of CATHARSIS, is handwashing a car you haven't seen in 20 years.... ;)

Oh, its been a busy summer...

Oh, its been a busy summer...

While that statement is true, its not so much for the GLI.  Its been alot of stop and go on that front.  I was making good progress on the running gear, having completed the brakelines, brakes, bearings, bushings, balljoints, hubs, gas tank, filler pipe, etc. but I did make a trip over to see Chris my mechanic, and while talking about someone else's car he stated "only an idiot would run fuel hose on the high pressure side of CIS"... oops...I guess all the HP fuel hose in my engine compartment's gotta go! So hard fuel lines and braided are back on the menu...

I also had a local buddy offer to powder coat a buncha stuff for me...ok, off comes all the sheet metal from the engine that was ready to drop in.  Oh, about the engine, I yanked the JH block out of Rabby, and it looks REALLY good.  Didn't snap any studs, and by the looks of inside the head I'd be surprised if this JH has more than 200k on it.

There's also an awful stink inside the otherwise stripped interior, which always points to the headliner, so pulling down the trim around the doors reveals a mouse hotel in the headliner.  f^ckin' great...  So I'll have to call Jesse to bring his window tools to take all the windows out so we can gingerly remove the headliner and clean it.  Good news there is that I can touch up the rustwork around the window gaskets.

One step forward...two steps back...

I changed out the flares too, the ones on the car were cut and quite beat up.  I had a nice set squirreled away so a change was in order.  Living in Ontario, there is a definite trepidation to touching fender flares on Canadian cars.  They usually crumble around the screw holes and you'll never get them back on without new holes if there's any sheet metal left for screws at all.  But, this car amazes me yet again!  The metal behind the flares is mint!  Except for the bottom edges cut for tire clearance, they are very straight!  Whew!

I did make some headway on the drivers window regulator though. Window regs are around $100 shipped to my neck of the woods, so I thought I'd use what I have. The cabby does a better job of moving the window up and down without the help of a B pillar, and I always hated the way the stock regulators on 2 doors would allow the window to tip back and slice open the back rubber channel. I hate that! So the cabby regulators motion follows the vent channel perfectly and lifts on 2 points on the glass rather than 1, hopefully getting rid of the glass tilting back. I do need to build a little cradle to hold it with the window down as it flaps a bit in the door if you slam it. I was this close to tossing the cabby regs! Glad I didn't! Only 5 new holes, some countersunk bolts, and a stack of washers to make the change. And I don't need to replace the split rubbers, because the window no longer needs them to direct the glass up.

Some new tires on the P slots too, I opted not to restore the wheels yet as I just got some cheap Mazzinis to get it to the safety check and work through the snag phase.  I really want proper Pirellis on those rims, so eventually I'll get them restored with black and diamond cut faces.  Not in the budget at this time though.

So while this all appears as sundry items, it is.  An old flame came back into my life...that's what has distracted my efforts...