Part 3 - SCORE!

Since we last met, progress has been slow but steady on our project truck.  The bad lifter from Part 2 was replaced.  Along with it a new timing belt and idler pulley were installed along with an accessory belt and cam cover gasket.  A complete set of relays fixed a majority of the truck's electrical problems, with a new horn rounding out those repairs.  Finally, we filled the big hole in the center of the dash with a Panasonic head unit.  Apart from a high clutch pedal, the truck is running pretty good.

With the mechanicals out of the way, the truck slipped into its intended role of a yard truck; taking the occasional trip to the local home improvement center, bulky waste, and being loaned out as a workhorse to friends and relatives.

A nice new replacement fender

Up to this point, the body work was not a high priority.  I've been working on securing a MIG welder to work on our '68 Fastback, and I figured I would use the truck to practice my welding.  Apart from that, getting the body work done on the truck was going to be a challenge.  Rabbit parts, particularly rust free front doors for the trucks and 4-door models are hard to come by.  For these two big reasons, and several smaller ones, making the truck pretty wasn't going to happen right away...

Until Theron Bliss and his brother Sean came along.  Theron is a club member who's brother runs a repair shop out of the family plot in Granville, Mass.  Their rather large chunk of land has contained up to a couple dozen parts cars; mostly watercooled VWs, along with a couple aircooled VWs and a random mix of other older cars.  After picking up a raging case of poison ivy mowing around the cars, Sean decided to once and for all clear out his junkyard.

On a steamy Sunday afternoon, I took off for Granville with a wish list of parts for the truck. 

Once scrubbed of all the barnacles, the new door (top) will replace the plastic filled (bottom) door currently on the truck.

Let there be light!

Sometimes its the little things that give you the most pleasure.  While the new fender and door were great scores, what made my day was the dome light.  I found a couple different designs in the donor vehicles, and cobbled together a correct set up for the North American wiring on the truck.  Snapped it into the hole in the roof and it worked!  This alone was worth the afternoon of sweat.

With so much progress in such a short time, another break in the momentum is inevitable.  We have a honeymoon coming up in a couple weeks, so the truck is going on the back burner.  I already have it lent out to a friend for the week we're gone, and exchange he's going to help me with a major wiring upgrade in my garage that will really get things going on this project and others.

For Part 4, we'll get the replacement front fender prepped, painted and installed.  If I get the garage wiring upgraded, we'll also fire up the recently acquired MIG welder and start working on some of the rust repair.

Jim with a MIG?  This can't be good...

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