December 4, 2009
Engine Bay Needs Love
Atomicalex
Here’s a shot of Tip’s engine bay. Pretty nasty, huh? You can still see the grass that was growing up around and under the car. Fortunately, I neither wanted nor needed another 1.7l engine, as this one’s headless. The engine side of the wiring harness looks pretty cut up, too, so I’ll be using the one from Jinjur when the time comes. The transmission is reportedly good, so I’m returning it to the previous owner. The bell housing on this unit is too small to work with the larger clutch I’ll need once I get the G60 built.
December 3, 2009
Sound Deadening Removal
Atomicalex
When the brown Rabbit arrived, one of the first things I did was pull the interior. Two reasons: it was trashed, and it smelled bad. The source of the smell was a bottle of Power Service Diesel anti-gel additive that had overturned under the driver’s seat. The law of unintended consequences applied in my favor – it had soaked into the asphalt-based sound deadening material (that weighs about 20 pounds!) and softened it sufficiently that I was able to scrape it off. I had a friend record the event as it seemed too good to be true. I’ll be experimenting with the other side of the car to see how to replicate this excellent mess and will report back when I figure it out. Meanwhile, check the video.
November 17, 2009
Aggressive Offset Deja VW
Antonio Alvendia
I was reading Yoshi Shindo’s Passat story the other day and it really jumped off the page at me when he said he had “never been the greatest fan of VWs”. Not that there’s anything wrong with liking what you like. It just reminded me of something my boy Steve told me about the VW scene awhile back. He said (I’m paraphrasing): “There’s nothing new about aggressive offset and rolled fenders. VW guys have been doing that for over 30 years.” Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!
November 10, 2009
Decision Time
Atomicalex
To make the decision about my Rabbit rot issue, I called on a few of my friends in the MkI VW world. The answer was unanimous: major frame repair on a unibody car is an expensive ordeal that is not always successful. Even if I restored the rear end, I’d still have to deal with the front end, which has its own host of rust and rot problems. By the time I got done with it all, I’d have the most expensive 160K mile VW Rabbit on the planet. I put out some feelers to see what I was looking at in the way of replacing it and turned up a tired but structurally sound example sitting in a field about 50 miles from my house. It was delivered last week for the princely sum of $50, and I’m well into stripping it bare after filling up every trash can I own with the ratty interior. It’s another 1982 (yay!) – a big plus as all of my year-specific trims will transfer over nicely. The few parts that require welding can be cut out of Jinjur’s shell. So here it is – meet my new bunny, Tip!
November 9, 2009
Frame Rot
Atomicalex
Earlier this summer, I posted about some of the problems I’d been having with my Rabbit. My rear axle swap turned into a nightmare of cut studs, mangled metal, and major frame rot. It seemed like every time I thought I’d found some good metal to weld to, well, I was wrong. I realized that the unitbody was pretty much beyond salvaging at that point, so I faced the decision no car person likes to make: scrap it and move on, or kill myself trying to fix it. I spent two months meditating on the matter. I made my decision last week. What would you do if you were staring at this, and this was the good side?
September 29, 2009
Busted!
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
Too much camber? Definitely looks unsafe at any speed… Via VWVortex More pics after the jump!
August 25, 2009
Mopar-powered MK1
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
My buddy Ralf over at Chromjuwelen just sent this to me. Pretty cool. Too bad it’s not a big block. More pics after the jump!
July 22, 2009
Bolts in Captivity
Atomicalex
Yesterday, I showed you the weld that was holding me back on my current Rabbit project. These bolts are considered the bane of rear axle work – they frequently become intractable and most people give up on the work or scrap the bodies. I posted up on the MkI forum over at VWVortex, and was told to cut the floor pan. I went out to the car and triangulated, and the welded bolt was right under the back seat pan. I shined my worklight down through a body vent, and yup, there it was on the floor, about an inch from where I needed to be. I enlarged the vent to get access to the bolts – take a peek after the jump. Next step is to drill out the welded bolt so I can weld a new one back in.
July 21, 2009
The Weld I Didn't Expect
Atomicalex
I’ve been moving along on getting the rear disc setup on the Rabbit, and with four of the six required nuts loose, I crawled underneath on Saturday morning to tackle the remaining pair. Only they weren’t a pair. One nut was rusty and nasty, but came loose after a four-day penetrating oil-a-thon. The other nut was not cooperating. Since I was working a bit blind, I hadn’t worried that I couldn’t get my socket onto it when I first tried it, and just moved on to the other one. Now, I had to get my head in there and find out what the hold up was. It turned out to be a weld—someone had welded the axle mount to the captive bolt on the body. I admit, I kind of panicked. But there’s a light at the end of the story—more on that tomorrow.
July 9, 2009
A Sign From Above?
Atomicalex
Just shoot me. I hopped into the Rabbit after my lunch errand yesterday and I heard a “plink” sound from the back end as I released the ebrake. Increased rolling resistance and a newly non-functioning ebrake cable meant I was not going anywhere fast. I babied the car home after work, and pulled the driver’s side rear spindle apart to find that the self-adjusting wedge on the drum brake mechanism had fallen and basically stuck the brakes on. Rear drums aren’t really that efficient, so it wasn’t a major crime to drive home on it, but what a pain in the butt. Now I either have to find a brake shoe to replace the fried one with, or finally get around to installing that rear disc conversion I started building last fall.
