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  #196  
Old May 17th 2010, 12:17
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V8SuperBeetle V8SuperBeetle is offline
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Very nice bug. I've seen his bug before, but have never gotten any replies about it. He posts every now and then. Very cool build. I recall when he had a 283 in it, then swapped to the LS1 and later added a turbo.
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  #197  
Old May 17th 2010, 15:03
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Got a few things done this weekend. Really just testing things out and tweaking (checking valve lash, snugged up the headers / collectors and played with the fan in push / pull mode) to make sure everything is is running right before I move onto paint. All seems well except the alternator.

I wired up my alternator and took the car for a test drive. After driving around the neighborhood for about an hour, I parked the car in the garage, turned it off, and attempted to start it back up. Well, it was very slow to turn over and it wouldn't fire back up. I did let the car sit and cool for about 15 minutes and it fired back up. ???

So I'm not sure if the battery was drained some and the alternator isn't wired correctly or if there's another reason the engine wouldn't turn over while at operating temp, which has never been a case. I did have my electric fan running the whole time and it draws some amps.

Could someone look over how I wired my alternator and tell me if it's correct or what to do so it is correct?

I have about a 4 gauge wire going from the battery post on the alternator to the battery post on the starter. I have a 2 gauge ground wire going to the frame. On the #2 post, the plug to the right, I have going to the battery post on the alternator, but I have a switch between it to turn it on and off. I have a 12v indicator light, which has yet to work, hooked up to the number 1 post and is ground to the body.

The dummy light has never worked and I'm not quite sure the alternator is charging. Any help would be appreciated.









I now have all the parts I need to finish the car, just about. There's a couple small things I'll have to get off a parts car.

Rebel Wiring Harness




Parts from Bap/Geon.




Here's a project that's been taking some time away from the bug, but one I've enjoyed doing. I've been working on finished up painting the nursery and installing chair railing. I just need to touch up the paint. Still got to put together the crib, hang curtains, and whatnot.





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  #198  
Old May 18th 2010, 10:29
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Eatoniashoprat Eatoniashoprat is offline
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You sure the hot start issue isn't timing related? Too much advance when hot = no/slow turn over
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  #199  
Old May 24th 2010, 11:42
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V8SuperBeetle V8SuperBeetle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eatoniashoprat View Post
You sure the hot start issue isn't timing related? Too much advance when hot = no/slow turn over
I figured it out. It wasn't a timing issue. I wired the alternator wrong and the battery was somewhat drained. Now that it's wired correctly, it has no issues.
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  #200  
Old May 24th 2010, 12:02
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Finished up fabricating, for the most part, and now it's on to body work.

There were a couple rust holes I took care of. Out with the old and rusty.




In with the new. Ground and ready for filler.




I also reinforced the hood. It wasn't too bad before, but now it's much stronger. I basically cut out 1" strips of 22 gauge and lined the opening. I later sealed the underside of the seam with 3M seam sealer.






My hood hinges were screwed and I could get to them to fix them after welding in those panels. They worked OK before, but they've just gotten worse. So I just cut out the hinges and extended those panels all the way back.






I borrowed my old man's 33 gallon compressor and went and bought a DA sander. After a wipe down with some wax and grease remover, I went to town on the hood, deck lid, and front fenders with a 40 grit disk just to knock most of the primer and original paint off. I got most of it down to the previous body filler and metal.




I started to mask the car off to keep the dust from getting where I don't want it.




STILL waiting on my 4.5" wide fenders from VW Innovations. A month ago it was going to take 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago it was going to be here in a week. So far, I'm not impressed. I'm going to call and see what's up cause last time we spoke they were "just taken off of the mold". I know how that goes. Probably didn't even have them even made.

This week I'll be working on knocking most of the old paint down, which isn't in too bad a shape, and I'll be filling the low spots in hope to get some high build primer down soon.
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  #201  
Old June 7th 2010, 11:08
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Still plugging away on the bodywork. The area around the relocated gas tank door, the front passenger side quarter panel where the gas tank door was, and the roof has taken up quite a bit of time. Basically where ever I had to cut out some metal and weld it back in. Next time I weld on the body sheet metal, which wont be anytime soon, I'll be sure to take more precautions to keep distortion to a minimum.

These areas needed the most attention to get straight. The rest is cakewalk. It seems like just when I thought it was straight, they needed another skim coat to fill in a low spot. These sections are pretty much shaped / flat, but need to be skimmed over with some glaze putty to fill in pin holes, feathered a little more, then sanded with 100 and 150-180 grit to get ready for its first coat of primer.




This section here had the most distortion and it had a nice whisky dent next to it which required the bondo to be feather even further. PITA.








I still need to sand down the little bit of untouched filler you see. Other than that, it'll finally be nice and flat.




I can say this area has taken the most time. I still need to work on the area above the gas tank and around the door some more. It's almost there.




The rear clip is ready to go. Now I just need to smooth out the transition of the sheet metal around the "radiator shroud".




This area just needs to be sanded with finer and finer paper, glazed and repeated.




I have definitely missed my mark to get it in paint early this month. It's looking more like the middle to late next month it should be in paint. Body work is taking long then expected and I have to build one of these (the copper tubing which collects the moisture follow by an air filter / trap) to make sure I have no moisture in my lines when I go to put down any paint.




More soon.
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  #202  
Old June 9th 2010, 15:17
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Yesterday I pulled the bug out of the garage to sweep up a little, knock some dust off the car and to drive her around a little cause she's been sitting for a few weeks. I decided to take some pics while the car was out cause I just mounted the new fenders and to take a look at overall progress.

The new fenders are pretty decent. They'll be perfect for when I upgrade my rear with a 8.8 explorer unit which is a direct bolt in upgrade for S10s (the rear is 3" wider). I think the car would look even better if I do about a 1.5-2" drop in the rear. So I'm going to look into some SOLID drop blocks from JTR.

The body and the fenders will need some work to make them fit right, but not too bad. There were some cracks in the center of the fenders and I'm guessing it's cause they flexed during shipping. They were just plastic wrapped / bagged and tagged. They seemed to do fine packaged that way for the most part.


















Here are the cracks I was talking about, which I have already filled and blocked sanded after I took these pictures. Below you'll see some gaps that'll need work on both fenders.










Over all, they're decent fenders. I have nothing to really compare them too, but I would think they're a little on the thin side, but that's probably cause I have no paint on them yet.

Fitment was OK. I guess it could be worse. I drilled where they had dimples molded into the fenders for the bolt holes. They weren't exactly spot on, but close enough. I had to widen about half of the holes so the bolts would line up.

I'll have more after this weekend.
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  #203  
Old June 10th 2010, 11:36
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volkdent volkdent is offline
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If you already have those cracks there they will reappear shortly undless you beef up the fiberglass on the backside there. Just rough up an area 6x4 around the crack and put a couple of layers of fiberglass over it. You will really be upset when a nice crack appears in such a noticable area.

Jason
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  #204  
Old June 16th 2010, 15:08
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V8SuperBeetle V8SuperBeetle is offline
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Thanks! I'm going to look into that.
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  #205  
Old June 16th 2010, 17:12
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volkdent volkdent is offline
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Thought you might like these, a local guy went nuts.

Jason







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1960 VW Bug UBRDUB
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  #206  
Old June 16th 2010, 22:09
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hahahahah

overkill
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  #207  
Old June 21st 2010, 10:12
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V8SuperBeetle V8SuperBeetle is offline
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That's a cool looking car. It looks unfinished though which I'm sure that's the look he (or she ) was going for. Personally, I'd put the one piece tilting clip back on (looks like that's what it had), I'd put a better intake on cause I'm not a big fan of those tunnel rams (I guess it's just for show) and I'd put a deck lid back on. Other that, it looks well done.
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  #208  
Old June 21st 2010, 10:15
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Still doing body work. It's been tough lately cause of the heat. It's been 95-100º. So I try and do as much work in the morning and the evening as possible.

I have the hood just about ready to rock. There's one small low spot that needs taken care of.




The b-pillars are pretty much ready. Just need to glaze and sand up to 150-180 grit.






The doors had so holes drilled in them I'm sure for some accessory. Don't quite know what. So i had to weld the holes up, grid, and tap them down.

There was also a rusted corner on the driver's side door that needed fixing. So I cut out the rust, welded in new metal, ground the welds, and filled the low spot with bondo.

The doors are ready other than some glazing and to be sanded with finer paper.






Almost there. Thing left to do are:

1. Radiator area.
2. Engine bay.
3. Front clip.
4. Finish detail work around the gas tank filler door.
5. Finsh driver's side front quarter panel.


The whole, where body work has been done, still needs a paper thin layer of glaze to fill in pin holes. Then I need to sand the entire car with the DA working my way to 150-180 grit.

Then we can paint. That's not too much more to do, right? LOL
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  #209  
Old June 28th 2010, 11:21
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Almost there! I know this stage has seemed to drag on, but I'm trying to make sure it's as perfect as possible so I'm not using filler during the primer stage. It seems just when I have a section done, I run my hand over it and I can feel just the slightest wave or imperfection.

This gas door has been the biggest PITA because of the body line just above the door. Once I get the shape right it'll be on like Donkey Kong.




I have the radiator area nice and flat. Just a couple more spots that need work and it'll be good.




The front clip needed some help. Some high spots and lows.




Just about finished with the other front quarter panel. Just a little more blocking. And another skim coat to make sure it's flat.




I'm hoping to have the remaining body work done by this weekend and to have some primer down. I have a 3 day weekend and the wife is working late tonight so I should be able to get it done. We'll see.
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  #210  
Old July 13th 2010, 11:03
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V8SuperBeetle V8SuperBeetle is offline
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Well, I didn't get the body work finished. I kind of needed a break from it so I tackled some other things and cooling issues that needed to be worked out.

I made brackets for my locking hood pins. Everything was lining up great. The passenger side was slightly off after welding up everything. I tried to bend it a little and the pin broke. > I figured, no problem, I can weld it on. Little did I know it's made out of aluminum. Figures why it broke so easily. So I have to buy a whole new kit just so I can redo the passenger side. Oh well.

The locking units mocked up.




The good pin.




And the jacked up one that'll need redoing.





My new replacement radiator. I had to replace it cause when the guys welded up my exhaust / plumbing, some slag put pin holes in it.




Here you can see where the water was leaking out. See the rust from the leak. If you look at the inlet, you'll see it was leaking there too cause I had the wrong size hose. So I replaced it with the correct size.




You can see just how much the hose was pinched and it still didn't seal. No more leaks here.




I also moved the overflow outlet to the radiator in the rear and I capped off the inline water neck. Now hot rusty water doesn't spew on my engine. I also installed a 20 psi can on the inline neck. The radiator has 18 psi cap. I might go a little lower, just incase.




Having replaced the radiator, fixed the hose leak, all the water gets back to the radiator, and not on my engine. I also installed a high flow 160º thermostat and I finally put in a 50/50 mix of coolant / water. The engine runs a constant 160-190º. I'll never have overheating issues again, I hope.


Onto body work. I just need to finished sanding down a few skim coats I put down the make her as flat as I can possibly get at this stage. These are the problem areas I'm still working on.







If I'm not too tired from our Saturday night gig I'll get a temporary booth setup and I'll spray some high build primer.

More updates soon.
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