Spring is Coming! Spring is Coming!

It's slowly but surely been warming up the last few weeks. While there have been some cold days here and there (and down in the 30's most mornings) it's been in the mid-upper 50's most days and even in the 60's quite a few times. It was a brutally cold winter with one major-ish snow storm a week before Christmas (Central Virginia missed the major, repeated snow that nailed the northeast thankfully) and I'm very glad to see it warming up. I haven't done much on the Bug in months but I've finally been able to make some progress recently.
The garage received a major clean up and I'm in the process of selling off pretty much everything I won't need to complete this project. It's giving me an infusion of cash to spend on the stuff I do need as well as clearing out clutter and freeing up additional space. I finally POR15'd the rear end of the frame last week. (For some reason I didn't do this when I did the rest of the pan but I can't remember why.). I'm also starting to price out getting the body stripped and painted. I view this as the biggest obstacle to making progress and am determined to get this done this year even if it's the only thing I end up having money to get completed.

'Twas Cold This Morning

Pulling out of my neighborhood this morning I was passed by what looked to be an early 70's standard Beetle. This wouldn't really be noteworthy I guess except for the fact that the temperature was in the low 30's. I don't expect to see Beetles or really any aircooled Volkswagens during the winter.

Years ago when I first bought my Bug I drove it through a single winter as my daily driver. The heat never worked very well and I have some not so fond memories of freezing while driving it in cold weather as well as using a rag to wipe the frost off the inside of the windshield. (As the defrost was pretty much nonexistent too.) The lack of heat was a major reason why the following winter I bought the '88 GTI 16v that became my daily.

Got a seat

Thanks to Ronnie over at the Bug Haus in south Richmond I now have a complete rear seat for the Bug to replace the one burned up in the fire years ago. He was parting out a badly rusted out '72 Super Beetle prior scrapping it and I was able to get the seats. They'll need to be recovered in black vinyl but they're in pretty good shape otherwise.

The Pan is Done

After working on it off and on for the last month and a half or so I've finally finished cleaning and POR15'ing both sides of the pan. I've added a page to the site detailing the process.

Don't Be Dumb With Power Tools

I'm about to admit I'm stupid but it's with the hope that the lesson I learned yesterday will serve as a warning and prevent the same thing or worse from happening to someone else.
I've been laid up for the most part since yesterday after a run in with an angle grinder. I was out working on the Bug's pan yesterday morning using a wire wheel on an angle grinder to remove the last bit of undercoating. I was sitting on my little Craftsman roller seat and in a brief moment of inattentiveness as I went to move the seat the wheel on the angle grinder made contact with the bare skin of my leg just above the knee while going 12,000 RPM's. The result wasn't pleasant. I now have a three inch or so long abrasive burn and it hurts like hell. I called my doctor almost immediately but luckily it wasn't bad enough to warrant a visit but rather I was advised to clean it thoroughly (which I'd already done) and apply Neosporin and a bandage. I'm also going in next week to get a Tetanus shot since I haven't had one in about ten years. (Something I've been meaning to do for a while.) By this morning it had started to heal and I've been able to leave the bandage off but it's still very painful off and on to the point where I'm walking with a limp at times.
So let this be a lesson to everyone. Don't be dumb with power tools. If I had just taken the time to turn it off yesterday before moving my chair and resuming work it would have saved me a whole lot of hurt.

Summer Vacation At Last!

As of 3:00pm this afternoon I'm officially on summer vacation for the next seven and a half weeks and don't return to work until Monday August 23. This is definitely one of the perks of working in education. Starting tomorrow morning I'll be outside working on the Bug as much as the weather will permit. And at least now I can get in a few hours in the mornings before the temperature gets too high. I'm hoping to make significant progress this summer.

Heat

I'm sad to say I haven't been able to make much progress on the Bug for several weeks now. Richmond has been suffering from extreme heat with high temperatures above 90 degrees something like 20 days out of the past month. The handful of days we had where it was reasonably cool outside about two weeks ago just had to be during the week and when I was sick on top of that. Even with three fans going in the garage it's just been far too hot to get anything accomplished. It doesn't look like the heat is going to let up anytime soon but I'm hopeful after Wednesday of next week when I'm finally on summer vacation that I can start getting some things done early in the morning before it gets too hot outside.