I’ve been fighting a losing battle for about four weeks now, and I’m about to give up. About two years ago, I had the bright idea to do a rear disc brake conversion on my Rabbit, and started stockpiling the parts needed. But this project seems like it’s been cursed from day one. First, the $70 I spent on a "ready to install" set of spindles, calipers, and carriers netted me one good spindle and no good calipers, and now the new rear beam I snagged for $25 has two bolts stuck in it that are so rust-welded into place that I finally just cut the bushing mounts off with with my Sawzall last night. Junkyarding has netted me no good parts, either. I’m staring down the idea of buying a NOS axle for $100, and it’s looking better every day. This was supposed to be an inexpensive upgrade, but so far it’s just been throwing money away. Grrrrrrr!

The journey of a thousand steps starts with the first one, which I took, oh, about a year ago when I started designing a new headliner for my Rabbit. About a week ago, I took the thousandth step–I finished installing the new convertible top, pad and headliner just in time for decent weather here in the D. This was, hands down, the most complex job I’ve done on the car. It’s right up there with doing a head rebuild on an OHC engine with chains, only there are about twice as many steps! I hesitated to tell you about it until the car saw some rain and didn’t leak, and as of yesterday, that’s the case. There are some jobs that you just can’t call a success until Mother Nature has her say. I can see some spots where it’s pretty clear this was my first top install, but it fits and is watertight enough to stand up to a spring rain. I’ve had the car on the road for a week solid and it’s running great aside from a small vacuum leak at idle and a possible motor mount issue. I’ll take a look at those this week–it’s hard to even think of putting her back in the garage for any length of time right now as the sun is shining and warm summer nights await. More pics on my ride page.