thursday's child... has far to go...

so, the car was finally washed. coated it with purple power and scrubbed the hell out of it. rat poop and moss farewell.

even found the original color and a shiny spot!

also did a little test fit of the rims and flares. look good.

now comes the test fitting and engine mount mock up and construction...

WOW what a disappointment...

just got my adapter plate and flywheel to mount the 1.8t to the toyota trans... all i have to say is what an overpriced piece of shit it is... flywheel is a 32lb monster stock toyota flywheel that is "custom redrilled" from the toyota to the vw crank bolt pattern - what a joke. the adapter plate is a nice anodized yellow piece, and came with new bolts - but at $600 for the plate, flywheel, and a chintzy looking oilite pilot bushing, it could have come with a reach around and a kiss on the back...

ACME Adapters sucks!

no way there is anywhere close to the $600 asking price in R&D and materials. the stock flywheel is $40 at Advance Auto. pay some monkey $10/hr to use a drill press to "customize" the bolt pattern. the plate probably has about $50 in plate steel and $10 in bolts, and $20 in anodizing... rip off...

oh, and i will have the plate measured and put into CAD - i plan on making a much improved version as well as an actual UN-redrilled flywheel and an actual bearing as a kit for, oh, about half the price... i had all the measurements, but i thought i'd give the "professionals" a chance and buy their kit. sorry i did - should have used my own measurements i had and made my own first... live and learn.

progress...

so, the project is progressing at a reasonable rate of speed. tires are in, and have 2 testers mounted. look about what i expected, but are very acceptable considering the fact that i bought the set of 4 and tires for less than the cost of 1 "real" BBS rim...

 

the rims will be housed under worked vw rabbit fender flares on all 4 corners. on a rabbit, they don't look that aggressive, but on the flat sides of the 2002 they look like monsters - which is good. plus, they will be metal, and will have the proper vw inner arches as well. and they aren't the added-on looking turbo 2002 flares either...

all the glass is stripped from the car, as is the interior save for the steering wheel and e-brake handle. all the tar will come out, and the interior will be sanded and coated with POR-15 rustproofing, then rhino lining, and finally painted body color. should provide durability and rust proofing.

 

the removable nosepiece is now removable. more work will need to be done to make it a sturdy stand-alone piece, but the basic frame is there, and the nose is off the car. the thought behind this is ultimate serviceability - blame vw and audi for spoiling me with their "service position" on their longitudinally mounted engine cars. this way it can be removed to service the engine, intercooler, radiator or whatever...

 

plenty more to come...

so, progress has been made. the interior is totally stripped out of it, save for the dash and headliner - they will come out with a little more "care" as i need to reuse them if possible. the doors and trunk have been removed, and the gas tank has been dropped out. tank was gone due to the gas cap being left off for god knows how many years - it rotted out the bottom of the tank. surprisingly, for being left with the trunk open and the windows rolled down, there is very little rot in the trunk, and none on the floors. guess the huge trees it was stuck under did the best they could to keep the rain out - good job trees.

 

also got some time to start cutting the underhood metal, and building a frame for the nose. the nose will have to hold the radiator, plus an intercooler and an A/C condenser - things the original metal made no provisions for. so, the metal was cut out, and i've started on a frame to support the nose. the nose will also be fully removable for service, and will be held on by 16 bolts.

notice that the retarded booster/master/pedal box/levers and rods/guillotene/??? setup are now gone as well. they will never see the car again, as i'm going a reverse master pedal setup from Wilwood that will mount totally under the dash, with remote reservoirs that will go in the raintray. if i could do away with the steering box for under $1k and lots of heartache, i would. however, that would prompt me to do a chevy smallblock into the car, and cause me to go even crazier - so the steering box will stay.

also going to totally rewire the car. so i ripped out all the 40+ year old wiring, and the stupid german bullet fuse block. will install this EZ2Wire kit that i bought for $200 less than a comparable Painless kit. it looks really well built, and uses USA made Packard Electronics (same people that made the cars) components. each vehicle system is labeled, grouped, and bound together for easy install. plus, each wire is labeled as to where it goes and what it does, so no more home made wiring diagram or searching.

also sourced all the front trim - grille and kidneys. this shit is super overpriced on ebay, as bmw changed them from aluminum/stainless after '73 to plastic and a different headlight bucket. pre '73 is $200+ on ebay, 74+ is like $25... so glad to get what i got for the price.

notice the '66 galaxie ranch wagon doing work as a table. was supposed to go to a friend, Jason, but he seems to have literally fallen off the face of the earth about 6 months ago...