Cleaning the Pan

Over the last few days I've been working on taking the pan down to bare metal. Using an angle grinder with wire wheels mostly I've been removing 37 years worth of rust, tar board, and grime with the ultimate goal of giving them a coat of POR 15. The angle grinder makes quick work of it for the most part but it's dirty work and eye protector and a dust mask are a must. Ear protection is helpful too as the angle grinder can get very loud. I'm sure my neighbors are not too thrilled with this step of the project because of that. Below is a picture I took early on of the difference between a cleaned/uncleaned side. I haven't touched the driver side yet but the passenger side is down to bare metal. It took about 45 minutes or so with the angle grinder to get it to that point. Once I get more done on this part I'll be posting detailing it further on a new page - Cleaning the Pan.

And then there was one

Earlier in the week I exchanged the brown Bug for cash and sent it to it's new home. I got less than I wanted for it but after having it for sale for a few months without much interest when I finally had someone make me an offer on it I jumped at the chance. While I'm sad to see it go I really needed the space in the garage if I'm ever going to make any progress on my other Bug. As the picture below shows I now have a lot more space to maneuver around. From here I'm going to start working on the pan.

My Daily Driver hits 100k

Earlier today my daily driver GTI reached the 100,000 mile mark. I knew it was coming and made sure I had my camera with me to capture the moment. As it was the wife was with me to snap the picture so I wouldn't have to stop on the side of the road to do it. Aside from the Bug I've owned this car longer than any other and put far more miles on it than any thing I've had. When I took delivery of it from the dealer in January 2004 it had 10.7 miles on it. They sure grow up fast.

New Cart Part II

Since Sunday I've built Bug Cart II and tonight my two brothers came over and helped me move the Bug onto it. It's a far simpler design than the previous one and was cheaper and took less time to build. Although I mentioned in an earlier entry about using pneumatic wheels I ultimately went with a set of 5" hard rubber caster wheels from Harbor Freight.

Overall dimensions are 6.5' long by 4.5' wide by approximately 10" tall. I've posted a page with details of the design for anyone looking to replicate the design.

Swingset

I'm going to go non-VW for a moment to talk about what I've been doing the last few days.
I spent Thursday and Friday afternoon along with most of yesterday putting together a new swing set for my son. I've been looking forward to this pretty much since the day he was born four years ago and finally decided that this was the year for it. I wasn't looking for anything fancy but wanted something that would last. After some looking around I found the kits sold at Lowe's that include all of the wood precut along with all the needed hardware to put it together. For just under $500 my son now has this to play on:



It took far longer to put together than I thought it would and I've been popping ibuprofen as I hurt in my places than I can count. (My wife says this is because I never exercise these muscles. I say there's a reason for that and it's called massive amounts of PAIN.) But seeing my son's face light up when he saw it for the first time and watching him play with it all weekend made it well worth it.

Bug For Sale

I've finally put the brown Bug up for sale on TheSamba, Craigslist, and RichmondDubs:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=936661
I still wish I didn't have to do it. I had high hopes when I brought the car home in 2006 but I need the space in the garage. And the money from the sale will help towards my other Bug too.

New Cart

When I originally designed and built the cart two years ago for the Bug's body to sit on it was done in such a way that it could roll over top the Bug's pan given the limited space in my garage. Now that I'm planning to sell the brown Bug and free up space I'm looking at redesigning the cart to a far simpler design that sits lower to the ground. After looking at some designs online I think I've settled on something like this. (Link to TheSamba.com forums.) The only changes I'm going to make to it is to lengthen the sides so there's no overhang of the heater channels and also place larger, pneumatic wheels on the bottom to make the cart slightly higher. Those wheels will also allow me to roll it out into the yard if need be. (Since there's no driveway attached to my garage, just grass.)