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...