Pair O' Gizmos

We'll I did make it out into the shop and get something done the other day. I'm not exactly sure what these are, but there's a pair of them just the same. Even if you did know what they are, you probably couldn't tell from the crappy photo. These are for my brother the mechanic. He explained what they were for when he was checking with me about making them, but to be honest, I really don't care. They're for my brother, which is reason enough to make them, but otherwise not much interest beyond what was required to actually do the machine work.

While trying to remember the lessons from Stress Relief Mondays and incorporate those into my daily living, I think I may have gone over to the other extreme. I used to worry about anything and everything. Now the circle of concern seems to have shrunk down to the size of a pinhead. Obviously I still haven't found the elusive middle path, and to be honest, I'm not sure I ever will. I seem to have the type of personality where I either care or I don't. The problem is I care too much about things I'm involved in and in the past I was involved in way too many things. I think it's a lot healthier on me if all I'm concerned with is my health, family and a few close friends. Hard to keep the old habits from creeping back in, though.

I did enjoy farting around on the old lathe making these. Even more so because they're for my brother. The piece of stock I started with was just a little too big on the diameter to fit into the center hole on the lathe chuck so I used a steady rest to hold one end while I faced, center drilled and through drilled the part. After that I removed the steady rest and supported that end  with a live center. Then it was pretty straight forward: turn the three diameters, thread, flip it around and repeat on the other end. Cut the pieces off on the band saw and then put them back in the lathe and face them - that's machinist talk there, by golly. A little more involved than doing the daily crossword but in the risk/reward formula, much more satisfying.

As long as I'm on a roll, maybe a little more machine work next week. I'm kind of intrigued with the idea of widening the rear wheel on the 900.  If it keeps raining, I'll get all kinds of things done in the shop.

Lost Weekend

I went to Terre Haute with Cuzzin Ricky for a sprint car race last Friday. According to the weather man zero percent chance of rain. My understanding of zero chance of rain means quite simply that it's not going to rain. It damn sure doesn't mean lightning, thunder, wind and rain coming down like Hell wouldn't have it. I'm sure by now you can guess which we ended up with. The van in the photo driving around on the track in the rain probably was a little tip off. Anyway, within a couple of minutes of the finish of qualifying, the rain hit and that was it. Show's over. In addition to the qualifying laps, we did get a chance to see a few warm up laps - long way to drive for not much racing but we've been pretty lucky over the years. We've only been rained out a few times. 

Sunday was prep time for my colonoscopy on Monday. If you've ever had the pleasure of having one of those done, you know I didn't get much of anything else done prior to the exam. Nuff said about that.

Looks like thunderstorms on and off the rest of the week. Hard to schedule anything outside but it'll give me a chance to get into the shop and do a little machine work. I haven't done much in the shop of late. It's about time.

Hawks Win The Cup!

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. 

Coming Unhinged

If you looked closely at the nose of the Beetle in the last post, you would have seen a tarp strap holding the hood on. I've got a pair of hood hinges that came with the car but they're a different color than any of the other colors the car was at some time in the past and they don't seem to go with the car. Not being an authority on Volkswagens, I don't know what the difference is between the hinges on a Regular Beetle and a Super Beetle. Likewise, even if the ones I have are for my car, I can't figure out what they bolt to on the car body. I'd like to get rid of the tarp strap and get the hood operational. The hood had a remote cable release that needs to be scoped out as well. Lots of time involved sorting all of this stuff out - rummaging through boxes of parts, fixing/cleaning the parts, and if everything is there, installing them. If everything is not there, figuring out what I need to order and where to source them from. I keep pecking away and eventually all the parts will be out of the boxes and on the car. Then I can take it all apart, paint it, and try to get it all back together again..

Not sure what these fit but they don't look like the ones in the manual

Surly came by for Father's Day and while we were eyeballing the car and the ripsaw, he mentioned the Samba. I was aware of it and had checked it out a couple of years ago but at that time it just looked like another place for me to spend a bunch of time in front of the computer screen looking at Volkswagens rather than working on one. However, now that I am actually working on mine, the forum could be of help answering questions about things like hood hinges and such. It's still possible to waste a bunch of time, especially if you want to look at 46,000 pages of photos, but I joined up just the same. Might come in handy and it'll give me something to do when it's siesta time.

It looks like I'll be teaching three days per week this fall semester. That will give me lots of time for my projects and some traveling. Actually, I couldn't ask for a better set-up. Seven days in a week, and I'm working a little less than half of them. I'm thoroughly enjoying what I'm doing and there's a real possibility that the VW and the 900 will actually move under their own steam in the foreseeable future. Hard to imagine but it could happen.

VW

I forgot to grab the link where I found this one but you have to admit it's a pretty cool fridge, even if you aren't one of the Volks folks. Me, that's way too nice for my operation. It would be covered with greasy fingerprints and the glass would be pitted with grinding sparks if it was in the shop. And since I don't have any fancy man cave, not much use to me. I dig it, though.

I do have an honest to goodness VW in the barn, however. While it's not quite as sexy looking as the refrigerator, it is showing some progress. I decided to start putting things together, first of all to locate all the parts, and secondly to see how things are going to go together. I've got both front fenders on with the bead welting installed along with new hardware. I was missing one of the headlight buckets when I got the car but picked one up at a swap meet a few years back. I had to soak the screws holding the lamp into the bucket with some penetrating oil for a couple of days before I could them to turn but everything is loose and I've now got both headlights installed and adjustable as they should be. The "eyebrow" trim pieces around the headlights came with the car - there weren't any stock rings included. I'm not sure I'll end up using the eyebrow pieces but at least I've got something hanging on the car now. 

I found the screws for the door hinges today. There's no latch on the door jamb, so I need to dig that up and make sure the door will latch properly. The outside door handles aren't in either of the doors so I need to get them out and install them to make sure everything works. Basically what I'm trying to do now is the get all the bits and pieces hung on the car and make sure I have everything and that it all works. I've never had the car together since I've owned it. It was in pieces when I got it. Always makes things tougher to put together if you weren't the one who took it apart, especially if you don't have any experience with this particular type of vehicle. But that's OK. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

The car has lots of bumps and dings and some rust damage. I'm not too concerned with the dings and dents but I do want to take care of the rust damage. There's a couple of spots on the exterior that are going to require some welding but most of that is pretty straight forward. I want to sink the antenna in to the cowling 1950's style. I made up a piece of tube and bought a new antenna. It's going to be a little bit of work for a car that the closest it will get to a car show might be the parking lot, but it's something I want to try. 

Since I'm only working a couple of days per week now for the summer, most of my day time hours are going to be spent on projects around the shack. After supper, however, it's VW or 900 for a couple of hours. If it gets too hot during the day, which it probably will be pretty soon, I'll just get after things early in the morning, come in and rest up during the heat of the day and then go back out for a little bit in the evening. If I can keep going like I have been lately, I'll soon have the outside of the car looking pretty good and I can start welding floor pans and heater channels and all the rest of the fun stuff.

Wood Rack

Busy day today. Got up early and went for a bike ride with a buddy I hadn't seen in a while. We did about 16 easy miles in the beautiful cool of the morning and then later in the day I finished sheeting the wood rack. I was going to leave the sides open but since I had plenty of left over sheet metal from the barn collapse, I cut a couple more pieces and installed some sides. Pert near a wood shed now. Now I need to move the rest of the woodpile and finish a little more clean up on the north side of the barn and then the view out the kitchen window will be a little less Clampettesque.

I'm sure Granny would approve. 

I got a little more done on the VW.  Still not much for a photo-op but a little something is better than nothing.  I can't find the screws for the door hinges. I bought some metric socket head screws with a flat head but can't find them in the boxes and bins of parts. I moved everything out of the high school in a big ass hurry once I decided to retire. They could be anywhere, including at the high school. I'll look again but if I can't find them, there's plenty of other things to keep me occupied.

The farmer who has taken care of my little acreage since I moved to the country passed away the other day. The Missus and I went to pay our respects and out in front of the church was one of his John Deere tractors with a big black bow on it - nice touch for a nice man. I always enjoyed our little chats out by the barn. With "Farmer Norm" farming was more than an occupation, it was a calling. We're going to miss him.