[owdlvr]

Hmmm...not sure what happened between 2018 and today, probably a fair bit, but we'll toss up some new updates to this thread as of this week.



I haven't used the Rally Bug at all in the last few years, and I've begun wondering why I'm still keeping it around. On the one hand, I don't ever want to sell it...being my first _real_ build. On the other hand, it's taking up a whole lot of space if I don't use it. With two weeks at home, I figured I should at least pull it out of the house garage and determine what it is that keeps me from using it.

1) The brakes aren't setup correctly - it feels like you're pushing on a brick wall, which means the master cylinder sizing isn't correct. I need to swap smaller masters in.
2) It's far too soft and wallowy in comparison to the German Look and the '58, and lets be honest...I'm going to be using it 90% on the street if I start driving it again, so it needs to become a little more fun for that.
3) It's hot, and loud inside.
4) Lastly, when I was cleaning up the shop from my March madness, I rediscovered the 16" wheels I had planned to put on the car...and that's the real reason I pulled it out of the garage. Lets see if we can't at least solve the first two on the list at the same time?

A set of backup struts were torn down for their spindles. This allows me to keep the Gravel setup for the front, in case I want to switch back for some reason.



Pulled the pedal assembly out of the car, which on this particular car is not easy. I had to split the clutch pedal off of the brake and gas just to squeeze it all in. Much swearing is involved with removal of the pedal cluster, which probably would have gone twice as fast if I had just called Bob to give me a hand. My arms are *just* long enough to reach both sides of nut and bolt on either sides of the floor through the door opening.



New rotors were prepped in Porsche and other patterns...


...and then I basically waited for UPS, Fedex and DHL to deliver more bits.

After getting very creative in the shop (safety third!) in order to assemble them. My new front Maxx Struts were put in the car. I bought these from memory, without paying much attention, because I remember them being threaded like a standard coil-over. Turns out that was the "Maxx Extreme" setup, which doesn't appear to be available anymore. Hmmm. Whelp, toss it in the car anyways, and see where we sit.







Tell me you built the car ten years ago in one picture...


Pedals wrestled back in.






3D printed bearing caps...and then, after realizing the struts allow for a tonne of water and stuff into the trunk, 3D printed ABS strut top covers. What did we do before 3D printing??






Tires mounted. Because I'm not sure how much I'm actually going to use this car, I put the cheapest set possible on it. The red German Look and the '58 both need new tires this summer, and they'll get proper rubber. If I start using this car more, I'll quickly swap it over to some quality rubber.


Right. Forgot the "trim the balljoints" step. Sigh. I really should do these things more often so I don't forget.


That hurt. It only hits the wheel once the car is lowered to the ground, and I totally forgot to check given these are 16" wheels and not 15's.






Given the brake dust, I'm going to presume that the brakes are bedded-in well! :P




These wheels are pretty special. They are 16" by 5.5" wide wheels, off of Travis Pastrana's Subaru rally car. They were used for winter rallies, and when the team was selling off wheels, one of the guys grabbed the set for me because he thought they'd work well on the Beetle. Now that I've got them on the car, I'm not sure I'm sold on the Gold. Thought I'd love it, I might actually hate it. Will need to run them for a while to see if they grow on me.

The initial test drive was just "okay". There is still air in the rear brake line, due to the hydraulic hand brake, but I cannot remember for the life of me what the trick to bleeding it out was. A buddy suggested cracking the fitting on the handbrake (high point) work the pedal, and then bleed the rear brakes. That definitely helped, but it's not great (yet). The left-front corner also rubs on the tire. I have to figure out if it's sitting lower on the right front, or if the fender is rubbing. Left-Front always rubbed before the right side, so I suspect I just need to massage the fender a little bit.

Lastly, I'm not happy with the rear setup. I lowered it as far as I could go without changing up the limit strap setup - but it's not low enough. Going to have to play with that as well. Nothing like leaving it all until the last two nights before Volksfest! :P



-Dave