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Part 4 - Miscellaneous updates |
Due to a variety of issues; weather, my budding personal life,
and the rally car, large-scale progress on Project Hole-In-One has been slow.
Instead of one big update, Part 4 will catch everyone up with some of the details that go
into building a good project car.
The biggest news is that the
doors are being worked on! Dropped them off with Bob and Al a few weeks ago, and
while they did sit for a while, work is now underway. I had a picture of the other
door much further along, but somehow the picture was lost. Not sure what's going on
with the camera, but we had a similar problem when were taking pictures for Part 1. |
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Another small detail I worked on
was the exhaust manifold. I picked up this particular dual outlet manifold off eBay
from Pencilneck, of 4130 Designs. He sandblasted the manifold, and it was in good
shape when I got it, except for a couple of broken studs that would normally hold the heat
stove in place. A little torch work, some Vise-Grip® work, some Easy-Out
work, and finally some tap work took care of the problem. I picked up some studs,
nuts, and washers at the local hardware store, and installed the heat stove I picked up
from IMPEX. Unfortunately, after installing the heat stove, I decided to try and remove
the nuts holding on the support straps that connect to the intake manifold and SNAP, two
more studs to replace. This part to be continued... |
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Speaking of IMPEX, between Friday and Monday, I received
3 UPS packages full of a variety of parts for Project Golf. After the engine
compartment cleaned up a lot better than I thought it would, I decided to continue
dressing it up by replacing the old, stained washer fluid and coolant reservoirs with new
ones, and while I was at it I picked up new caps for them. If you compare the before
photo on the top to the in-progress picture on the bottom, you can see the difference the new
reservoirs make. Also notice that while I was at it, I swapped over the G60
cam cover from my Jetta. As I work up to getting the car to the body shop, I will
continue to swap over non-essential parts. That way, there will be less to do during
the big swap (brakes, suspension, selected ancillary components, etc.) |
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Also included in this order was a replacement dip stick tube top, and center
caps for the 15" steel wheels I plan to install on the car for every day driving,
once I replace the currently mounted Hakkapaliita 1's with something with higher
performance in mind. |
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The most important part I purchased with this order was P/N 191.419.514, a sleeve VW
offers in order to install later style (large hub) steering wheels in older cars. After
using the steering wheel retaining bolt to press on the adapter, I was able to install
this wheel, offered by Volkswagen of Brazil in its Gol/Saviero product line.
This wheel is on loan to me from fellow club member Chris Fox, who
came across it at a former job. Volkswagen of Brazil shipped the wheel, mounted to a
steering column, to the U.S. for some sort of bearing test. After the test was
completed, the wheel was pulled of the column (which was discarded) and presented to
Chris. It hung by a nail in Chris' garage until I saw it one day and begged to
borrow it. The wheel is a temporary fitment until I can get the wheel shown here
on the left. Currently available in the South African-market Citi Golf (actually an
update of a Mk.1 Golf/Rabbit), the wheel itself is rather affordable, thanks to a
favorable currency rate between the U.S. and South Africa. Unfortunately, any
savings made thanks to the exchange rate would be eaten up by the shipping cost, estimated
to be somewhere north of $150. |
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Random Updates
I hope that the doors will be ready
shortly. They made a lot of progress in a short period of time. Once they are
jambed, painted, and reassembled. We'll bring them back to Project Hole-In-One to be
installed. Before they are installed, I will do some interesting detail touches that
will really make the car stand out.
In Part 5, our complete Techtonics
exhaust system; from down pipe to tailpipe, will be installed, so that the car can be
driven to the body shop without attracting any untoward attention.
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