Saturday, June 22, 2013

This Little Light of Mine, I'm Going to Let it Shine


I've been spending a little time working on things to make working on things a little easier. The number one item is the light set-up I made out of a couple of scrap pieces of 2" x 4" to go over the top of the VW sunroof. I've been working on the car in the evenings and once the sun goes down it's a little tough to see. When I wired the barn I had the good sense to put three lights in the ceiling rather than the normal two, so I've got a light shining down on each side of the car but you still spend a lot of time working in your own shadow. With the light coming through the sunroof and the ceiling lights, I can see pretty well to work on finishing up the floor pan now. What I really need is a couple of fluorescent fixtures mounted on the sidewall of the barn like the body shops have. When I built the barn I wasn't planning on doing a lot of mechanical work in there but right now it's pretty convenient with the Bug. 

After a little research on the hood hinges for the Bug, it appears I do in fact have the correct hood hinges. The problem seems to be that it's a piss poor design and the manual shows the hinges for the early Super Beetles with the flat windshield, rather than the later model with the curved windshield like I have. I need to dig out the hardware for mounting them up, install the hood latch and the gasket and then see what I've got. It seems that the hood is located mostly from the gasket surface as opposed to anything like a mechanical alignment. The idea being, if you make the hood flimsy enough, it will conform to the gasket. We'll see how well all that works out. A couple of strap hinges welded to the cowl would probably work better.

I got a couple more things finished up around the shack. I replaced a board under the back door that had rotted where it was in contact with the concrete stoop. Not a big job but a definite needed to get done job. Got the pile of sheet metal moved that was on the north side of the barn and planted some grass seed to cover the bare spot. Seems like the list is never ending but every day I try to get a little bit done for the "company" and a little bit done for me. Pretty happy with the progress of late. 

Enjoy the weekend. 

1 comment:

Surly said...

I've got a couple of work lights you can use. One is halogen and super bright but hot. Like moth cooking hot. I bought another one that's LED so no issues with heat but it's a weird color temp. Swing by and you can grab em both.