gonna start off without a second set, only because I'm trying to keep the pump as low as possible. Thanks for the suggestion though. Without any sound insulation, I suspect this car is going to be plenty loud enough to mask any fuel pump noise!
Well, it's been a long week of work...but none of it on the Beetle. At work we have a Hagglunds BV-206 (google it) which has been taking up a lot of my time. Ford engine, Mercedes transmission, BMW distributor, Audi plug wires....it's a virtual United Nations of construction. Anyways...I'm off topic, and finally got back to the Bug today.
...I managed to snake the wiring harness through the factory holes in the heater channels. It wasn't easy, but I got it through. My seat rail is jammed up against the heater channel, which means running even a factory harness down beside it would be almost impossible. I might cut the seat rail, lay the wires and re weld it back in...or I might route the wires under the seat and simply cut some access for it. Haven't decided yet.
From there I moved onto the fuel tank. In order to make sure all the dash and trunk bits are going to fit, I need to get the fuel tank into the car...which means refinishing it. In order to refinish it, the first step was to sort out the fuel sender. The aftermarket senders are a wee bit different then the Super Beetle versions:
So I started slowly stripping down the VW unit, as I compared it to the Stewart Warner unit I'm going to be using....
...and, after a little while, I had this:
The factory Super Beetle gauge has two floats, which after playing around I figured our are required to get a proper reading at both full and empty. Trying to sort out a way to make it all work with the aftermarket gauge was going to be relatively futile. Or at least, far more engineering then a fuel gauge should require! With my short float I should show "empty" well before the tank is actually dry....so it's somewhat reflective of a reserve left, but it does have a very accurate "full" reading. That may come across as backwards...but really I could run without a gauge at all, simply knowing how many miles between full and empty. This adds a bit of security :P
With that finished, I prepped the top half of the tank, and took care of the finish. Tomorrow I'll paint the bottom half.
I've also moved onto the dash. With Carbon Joe AWOL, I've had to go onto plan B. I'll be using a factory looking dash, and giving it the "Audi Factory Team" look. Cut some panels for around the speedo hole, and a lexan panel which fits into the radio trim. Ideally I'd like to fit the Rally computer on the far side of the glove box, but I'm going to have to wait until install the dash to check clearances.
Until tomorrow...
-Dave