Got home tonight to see this lil beauty waiting for me on my doorstep.

Vat es das?


Kate and I found a guy on ebay.de who was selling off his fathers old race shop supplies. OG in the box beauty circa the mid 80's and a total hidden gem =)


The photos on the box are worth the cost alone (which was a STEAL mind you.) Remember, this is a budget build!


Ohhhh sizzle...




Also got these in the mail as well. Couldn't decide which one so I got both. It was from the collection of world renowned plate collector James K. Fox, author of the license plate collector's bible, License Plates of the United States. Anyhoo, one is from Cambodia, the other is French. Reallllly cool texture and aged look which I think will be perfect for Rox's arse.

Foose shop tour makes me want to have sexy time in the pants

My buddy let me flame his new grill *winks*

Ok, well I haven't posted up a whiny emo blog in ages so here we go. I'll probably lose some of you with this but fuck it, I'm a sensitive car guy and if you don't like it you can eat a bag of dicks (*curtseys*)

My back has been kicking my ass lately so I took the weekend off from cars to relax and try and give my back a break from bending over engine bays. Friday was spent at the local dub GTG and I got to ask some questions to a fellow dubber who just got his MK3 back from schimmel with a fully built bottom end and a GT35 and air-water setup which was SICK and totally got me thinking...

Saturday we went to the junkyard looking for some pieces to clean up Rox's interior which was a bust as they moved the donor car we had there to some unforeseen corner of the lot so we went home empty handed.

Fast forward to the evening when kate and I met up with my mom and stepdad for dinner and then it all went to shit. A little back story here, I am renting my stepdads condo. It was a nice arrangement, I got to move out of my moms house and into his and he got to [edit]marry[/edit] my mom.

A month or so ago, they came over to the house on their way back from the airport or something and got to see my pad in the middle of a car build project. You know how it is, parts everywhere etc etc etc. I don't have the novelty of a garage or another room to store things in so each room has it's own car part in it at this point. Now mind you, my house has and will be spotless once again but for right now, I'm in car build mode.

Naturally, I told them that the house was a mess, I gave my apologies and I thought that was the end of it. I was sort of wrong.

Over dinner, it took about 20 minutes into the meal for my mom to look me in the eye and tell me it was time for a "come to jesus" talk. She said that she was appalled at the state of the house and that I should be ashamed at how I took my stepdads generosity for granted and disrespected his house by making such a mess. Then they started getting on about how I should really think about my future in terms of "becoming mature" and possibly giving up cars and generally just growing up and not be so wasteful with money on "cars".

And then she compared me to my father.

Kate started crying and I looked to her and asked if she wanted to take a walk, she nodded with tear-ridden eyes and we walked right out of the restaurant. We kept walking and 10 minutes later, we were walking back to my moms house to get my car and get the fuck out of Maryland. Kate was cold so I have her my shirt and we walked, in the dark, for close to two miles back to the house. For the first time in my life I felt so fucking rock and roll that I did that. I was so scared that she wouldn't want to take a walk and was so relieved when she said yes and we got up.

We took a short cut through this fucked up forest of pain that was filled with thorn bushes but it made us laugh so hard which was a major relief to me. There we were, trying to get through this forest in the fucking dark, getting stuck with thorns and running into tree branches that it just made us laugh uncontrollably.

We drove home and tried not to bitch about what just happened too much but it really started sinking in later that night once she was gone. I started drinking by myself and gave myself a pretty decent hangover the next day which sucked but whatevs I guess.

I shut my blog down that night. My mom mentioned to me in her tirade that she was so disappointed in seeing how I "spray painted car parts in my kitchen on my blog" and instead of defending myself and telling her that she was a fucking idiot for thinking I would be stupid enough to do so, I shut it down. Fuck them for making their own assumptions.

Anyhoo, here I am. Wondering if they are right. On one hand I should be an adult. I should own a house, I should be making babies and padding my 401k. On the other hand, I finally am good at something that I want to live and breath. I LOVE modding cars. I LOVE the culture it brings with it. I LOVE meeting new friends at shows and talking to people about cars and creating lasting relationships with them.

I know this is ghey and on the edge of cockyness but sometimes I think to myself that maybe the point I'm at is similar to when foose and von dutch where at this same time in their lives. I know I'm good at what I do but I want to be so much more and I want to create things that will blow people away. I don't want money, I just want the life experiences that creating cars will give me.

But what if that never happens? What if when I stray from graphic design to persue cars I end up in a place that isn't right for me or maybe I'll ruin the stability that I need to create for a wife and family down the road?

I'm scared right now because I don't really like where I'm at and I feel that I'm right at the crossroads of my life. And it's weird that I'm feeling this way because part of me wants to tell myself that I should be on the right direction by now. Hell, I thought I was 2 years ago and now I don't.

What kind of a parent tells their child to give up their passion?

with 19 GAZILLION camphone pics of cars that are green, I think we have a winner. I would like to thank Dave Thomas for creating the world's tastiest burger (next to In 'n Out of course) because that was where I saw Rox's new color (for now)...

Behold! Honda's CR-V Green Tea Metallic (oooh ahhh)


It's either that or keep it in the family with t-regs reed green?


Or just copy my buddies shoe:

AboutJon:
ya ever work on something and then kinda get chills when you realize how awesome it is?
and then stay up all night when you should've been writing your 5 page paper
that's how I feel about DubUniversity right now. So far...awesome




Fuck I can't wait =)

Again, I want to thank EVERYONE who is commenting and lending their 2¢ to the blog posts here. Kate and I really look forward to hearing from you guys and gals so please, keep it up.

The biggest PITA is that I can't really reply back ya know? Maybe I should get my buddy Macaroni to code up a messageboard of sorts or maybe I'll just get back on that place that starts with the V. I mean, who am I to let a bunch of fucksticks to keep me away right?

So here are my replys:

The wheel question:
I think I'm gonna go with the 15's just because I think 17's look a hair too big on MK3's (did someone say 17's were TOO BIG???) wow, never thought I'd see the day... but yeah, a lot of you have a point with the larger amount of tire options for 15's so I think that's what sold me.

I just got Dara some 18's mounted on smaller tires so now Roxy will get hand me down shoes from Dara and we will finally see what 15's look like on her with a larger sidewall. Bubba, the painter who is gonna make Rox look sexay demanded I come by the shop this week so he can install the coils on Rox as her ride height now just looks horrendous. p.s., if yer in the Virginia area, seriously go to http://www.suburbanautobodyva.com/ for all of your bodywork and paint needs. That isn't even a plug, I love that place that much. Went there yesterday and it looked like a damn dub show out front haha

The seat question:
Kate and I scored some 20 year old Recaro's from a buddy at work which are fucking SICK. I have NEVER seen these seats before so I know they will be a hit at the shows. They go in for reupholstering this weekend possibly if I can pull the cash together.

We'll be only running fronts in this project so we need to come up with a solution for the rear of the car. Door cards? Carpet? Paint the interior frame? Shave the useless brackets etc etc that aren't needed?

Projects in the works:
• been working on the side view mirrors this week and should have the bases finished by the end of the weekend. Pics soon.
• seats to go to be recovered this weekend. Thinking brown leather maybe?
• stereo should be started this weekend and thats when kate can finally come in and add her expertise at installation help
• super secret pop-out window project should start this weekend too... stay tuned!


Spread the word folks! We're getting lots of new traffic here and for that I thank you all soooo much. Get the word out if you can. I'd love more feedback from new faces as well as the old ones ;)

-Jason and Kate

Virtually all VW names since the late 70s and early 80s are based on winds... it was a marketing thing with VW when they switched over to fuel injection and wanted cunsumers to see the "winds of change"

Golf: Gulf stream (not golf the game)
Bora: north-eastern katabatic wind
Scirocco: southeasterly to southwesterly wind over the Mediterranean
Passat: Passat is short for passatwind, a German word meaning "trade wind"
Vento: just translates to wind
Corrado: Not a wind, it's derived from Spanish Correr which means to run. The original name for the car was Taifun (Typhoon) which means huricane except it was already a registered trade mark for a GM truck.
Santana: hot desert wind accross the Sea of Cortez.

Well, saturday was a crap day for both kate and I (although Hot Fuzz was fucking AWESOME) so we couldn't really get much accomplished in terms of Roxy so we got up early on sunday to get cracking on the fuel cell. Kate was a MASSIVE help with this project in terms of art direction/colour choice/bolt choice etc etc so I really have to admit, it wouldn't have come out as badass as it did without her help and budding eye for car design. It really is comforting knowing that I plan to marry such a talented woman =) (xoxo)

Sunday:
The fuel cell filler cap FINALLY came in from Summit (shameless plug) and we could finally get started. The fuel cap was too tall for the sub box so I had to cut it in half, cut a piece of rebar, drill a hole in it to insert a retaining pin to hold down the little twirly lock thingamabob. This project really tested my ability to custom fabricate little bits here and there and I must say I'm excited that I'm learning how to do so albiet slowly.

Measure out the cap hole (note the piece of metal connecting the cap twirly lock thang):


Drill a pilot hole for the jigsaw:


get to cuttin':


Drilled out the bolt holes:


Voila:






Drilled some holes for the "fuel" lines:


Then I sanded the whole thing down with 60 grit once all of the bolt holes were drilled and de-burred:


Sprayed on some automotive primer in white to make the red coat pop:




Monday night:
Thanks to my neighbour who has a sticker cutting machine!


Test fit everything and then install all of the bolts:


Bang (so stoked!)

Sad to say but this is the first time she's been properly washed ever. EVAR. The OG owner NEVER washed her.

It's like introducing an adopted cambodian child to soap for the first time.

*wipes tear of pride from eye

I need some help here... it's about that time to order wheels and although I've finally found the PERFECT wheel for this project, I'm not sure what to get in terms of tire size etc etc.

I can go two routes here as the wheels in question only come in two sizes:

15x6 +38 or +44
17x7 +38 or +44

Now, the shite part is 15's are almost too small and 17's are almost too big. If I run 17's I'll have to go low profile tires but if I go with 15's I want to try something different and go with a taller sidewall to mimick the oldschool bobber harleys (remember, this build is all about vintage... see figure 1)

Figure 1


Soooo, I need help, can any of you faithful readers help with tire suggestions as well as suggestions for the ET's? Maybe provide pictures of similiar setups? I'm assuming no one has really done the taller sidewall thing as that is frowned upon on the tex but if anyone HAS done it with say, a winter wheel setup, pics of that would be great as well.

Thanks for the help folks!

You know you're a dubber when not only have you waited around for the delivery man to drop off parts, usually knowing when each part will arrive to the day, you also know the delivery guy by name.

Finally done. I'd like to thank God, little baby jesus, Kate and the number 6.

Stealth like whoa.

I still want it post haste.



http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/04/17/giant-treadmill-built-for-nascar-testing/

Well, seeing how God has decided to make winter last that much longer, my abilities to work on Roxy after work are still somewhat limited. I tried to get as much wired up tonight as well as finding a solution to make the fog lights fit without cutting the subframe out proved difficult until I came up with a pretty ghetto-rigged idea (wheeee!) that actually worked.

These pictures aren't gonna do crap for ya if you aren't already familiar with the OEM fog units (sorry)...

With the lights attached to the grilles which were attached to the bumper, I was hitting the subframe with the endcaps of the lights and needed to shave almost 1" off the overall length soooo, I hacked the light caps up and cut off the entire end cap altogether...


Then I cut out some plastic circles out of ABF, drilled holes for the wires to come through and plastic welded them to the end of the freshly cut lights so they would still be waterproof...


Then I ran the light wires through the holes and connected them to the cut off caps which had the wire plug connector. Now the light wires can run to the factory plug location with ease and the light assemblies now fight with room to spare w00t!


Note above the fiberglass laid down to keep everything stable with the bumpy roads...

Buuuut of course, it got too dark for me to finish so tomorrow I'll wire everything up, replace busted bulbs and finally be able to drive Roxstar again =)

http://www.dubuniversity.com/

Sunday rolled around during the weekend of flooding and pissing down rain and kate and I drove out to the infamous turbo_pumpkin's crib to do a lil welding for our fuel cell project.

I was going to pay some dude in bumblefuck to weld the box up but the quote I recieved for 600$ was juuuust a little too much so we did it the old fashioned way, we had one of our buddies do it for us! As most of you know already, kate and I are sort of known for our last subwoofer project on the tex, (well, at least in the lovely MK2 forums *sheds tear) and why would this project be any different right? It's still hush hush but I'm sure most of you can figure it out already *wink*

Here are some photos and paybe you can piece together what we have planned =)









Our buddy scott who is finally wrapping up his air to water setup in his MK2 16v turbo'd beast


Homemade short runner with a TB from a mustang haha


Back to welding


Then will jumped in to TIG the t-joints (which are waay tricky to do mind you)


More of scotts beast (homemade goodness all around)


And finally, the semi-finished fuel cell (now we're just waiting on the filler cap to get here from summit and then we can plumb the wires and paint er up!

Will update manana with pics =)

stupid evap canister... *shakes fist

We don't have too many Roxy updates today so here's some Bugatti fo yo booty.



Pure sex

thanks gary!

Special thanks to the hostrocket team as we now have a bigger assed server for all of our gearheaded needs w00t!

Why do we need a bigger assed server? Well, a few folks from the website that shall not be spoken of that rhymes with whoremex and I are teaming up to bring to you (and every other dubber out there) the most kickass thing since forced induction.

So yeah, hold yer horses for a few weeks but I swear it will be totally kickass...

*cue sponsor music*

Here's a banner ad with some creepy-ass horse toothed gal just waiting to take your money!



So, with that out of the way, we'll get back to wrenching on roxy. Big plans this weekend:
- gonna finish up the front bumper and get roxy on the road
- going to Jason's house to TIG up the fuel cell (my first time TIG'ing bytheway
- kate is bringing her BFF to Jason's so we can introduce her to my BFF. Gearhead love is in the air perhaps?

Finally getting our own dedicated url space so we can have direct links. Should be down for a few hours so bear with us =)

Regarding this post

kate : 9:53 am
hahahaha
is david seriously using the widow maker?


Man, I love that woman haha

Not sure if anyone has done this before but well, like staring at Angelina Jolie's enormous lips (politics makes me soooo horny - just for you kate), it just seemed right to do.

Add that to the fact that I haven't driven Roxy in damn near two weeks because I removed the bumper for the shaving project, I'm itching to get her back on the road. Buuut, after said shaving project, I now have no turn signals, parking lights or the nicety of fog lights (it's safe mom, trust me). That won't do. I was going to graft in some cayenne lights but they are just too damn big for the MK3 bumper so I was stuck with no options. And then after I was staring at all of the parts on the floor of the kitchen, it seemed like both turn signals AND fogs would fit on the duct grille. w00t!

Now don't start shaving up them bumpers so quick folks, it isn't plug and play. MANY things have to be relocated in the engine bay for the lights to fit including the radiator overflow tank, the factory horn and alarm horm as well as somehow notching the drivers side frame rail (yeah, that's gonna be fun). But fuck it, it will be dope when finished right?

So yeah, construction was pretty damn easy. Begin with cleaning everything up so the glue will stick to the plastic. I was gonna wet sand the lenses to clean up 180,000+ miles of debris pitting but decided not to because a) I was tired and that would have cut into miller time and b) I don't want Roxy to be perfect anyways...

Oh and p.s., a few of you have mailed me asking what's up with the summit hat. Trust me, it's not product placement, just my inability to keep a clean house =)



Take a dremel or a cutoff wheel and trim some tabs (denoted in red)


Take a hot glue gun and glue the lights to the grille for placeholder purposes only. I'll be using flexible epoxy to attach them permanently later.


I took some scrap ABF plastic sheet and cut a small piece to fit between the lenses and clean up the overall look to be more OEM-ish


The drivers side grill had these lame filled in sections so I decided to first roughly dremel them out and then finally take a file (perfect fit too!) and file the sides down (yeah, I'm anal haha)


Viola. This weekend, I'll finish up the gluing as well as the final installation so I can finally drive the Roxster.

I think this is the same part number for the shifter rebuild kit hahaha



thanks dave! ;)

and hello to the new visitors to the site lately. We love the support we have gotten so far and would further like to request y'all keep up with the comments and questions. Also, if any of you want to contribute stories, photos or other how-to's, feel free to shoot me an email at jkrew [at] jkrew.com =)

Get the word out and tell other dubbers about the site!

This thing is more of a pain in the ass than it's worth. I'm not digging this mod one bit and it will probably be scrapped soon. Did this mod with a buddy before doing mine and both of our lips fit like complete ass and that's after trimming the shit out of the north american bumpers. Perhaps we got a bad batch of lips or something... I dunno. Whatevs.

Essentially to those who don't know, the euro VR6 bumper valence/lip/spoiler is deeper than the NA (north american) lip but it obviously wasn't meant to fit on NA bumpers so trimming is needed.

At the top corner of the lip, the tabs need to be trimmed and notched so they bend easier with the curve of the NA bumper. Instead of just cutting "V's" and leaving the chance of cracking at the v point, drill holes first and then notch them out. This will prevent cracking.

Drilled


Cut


Now, flip the bumper and remove the old lip if you haven't done so already. You will notice a small notch going along the perimeter of the edge (denoted in red). This has to be trimmed so the lip will seat correctly. I used a dremel with a rotary cutoff wheel. Start by trimming 1/8" and go from there. I eventually trimmed nearly 1/2".



Trimmed


Here is my final result which was pretty close to my buddies. We trimmed a shit load off the bumper and still get the gap. We even inspected to see if the lip was touching the bumper where it should be trimmed and there is ample space between the two so trimming more isn't an issue. I suppose it's just a bad batch of lips or something. I guess I could deal with the gap but I'll probably just pull the fucking thing off. Kinda irks me that such an easy install turned out to be such a clusterfuck.

Gotta give 'em props, he knows more shit now than I knew nearly 2 years ago. Does his own work albeit having a problematic dub at times.

Took me damn near 3 months to score this piece but after almost 10 auctions, I finally got one =) Grabbed the buffing rouge and got to work. Not sure if I want to get a more polished look or leave it the way it is. Dirty/shiny stylz...

Well, been a crazy week. Totally jumped into the car last week and worked my booty off. Nice little vacay for myself and I gladly thank kate for letting me become totally preoccupied with Roxy =)

Anyhoo, started a bazillion lil projects. Let's start with the sub box...

This is still in teaser territory but essentially we took the standard MDF and got to cutting an average sized box. About .4 - .6 CF if I remember my measurements right.





Grab a drill, countersink and screw in...




After drilling a hole, use a scroll saw and cut out the hole for the sub. (We're using a JL Audio 10" sub for this application)


Some trimming of a sheet of metal... teaser like whoa


And just to show how fucking NUTS kate's pops garage is hahaha

These are fucking sick as sick can be.



Leather wrapped wheels = drooooool =)

I wash calipers in the kitchen sink. I'm going on day 5 of not shaving too. Just fyi.

Today was a shite day outside so I kept things to the living room and relaxed a bit. I later became bored out of my skull so I slapped on some jeans and started with the mirrors. (Granted, I haven't showered in two days because vacation is fucking awesome...)

I'm kind of sick of seeing the same old mirros... stock/OEM, M3 mirrors (when will they just die!) and the racing DTM/Hagus-look that are still cool but are way played out. So I decided to make my own. I picked up some Shelby Cobra mirrors off the net and now I need to make bases for them. A lot of the people I see in the dub world buy a set of aftermarket universal mirrors from Moon and then just drill them into a shitty blanking plate and call it a day. Why? It looks like ass and kills the side flow of the entire car.

So yeah, I haven't used clay since 5th grade but it seemed like a good idea at the time so I got a slab of clay and started molding what I thought fit best.



My neighbours must think I'm out of my mind:


Finally after getting a good angle, I decided the bottom base should be removed.


But if you own a MK3, you would know their bases are made of SOLID STEEL... fuck haha. To Sears for new tools!
After picking up a sweet bench grinder, I got to cutting and smoothed out the curves a bit as well...




Then, as I felt like a 4 year old, I sat on my ass and played with clay for an hour. That shit is hard man. Too soft and if you move one side, you move the opposite side. Ugh.


Anyways, I think I have a good match and will fiberglass over tomorrow to see how much bondo I need to use.


Still have no idea how I am going to make these things strong but that's for another day I guess.

Well, upon further inspection, the duct work had to be modified a bit for the left guage to tuck away completely. Now, could I have nixxed the duct altogether and sealed off the arm? Sure but fuck it, the main idea behind this build was that it was ALL in the details. Plus, doing things half-assed is for those not ready to take the next step right?

I decided to notch the duct a bit instead of cutting it all out.


After hinging the piece a bit, I burred away to a nice smooth curve and made a quick mold out of greased foil.


Laid down some resin...


Voila. While it was still curing, I wrapped it into place and trimmed off the jaggies.


Now the guage sits snug as a bug =)

Well, I decided to tackle the guage pod today after putting it off for weeks. I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass so after fucking around for nearly 2 hours on the hinge system, I finally came up with a way to mount the pod and have it hinge perfectly.

But the best part is, somehow, I came away with the following:

• a hinge system that lets me take the pod out of the dash in seconds to change out guages etc etc
• the use of the factory tweeter (albeit hacked to shit but sound is sound)
• full use of the air duct! Holy crap w00t!

So yeah, awesome day. All I have to do now is mount the dash and find a place for the actuator which shouldn't be a problem as I am going to use a lengthened rod attached to the actuator so I can mount the actuator lower in the dash.

But damn man, I was so stoked when I noticed more room in the dash than expected so I ran and got the duct I removed waaay back in the day and damn if it didn't fit =)

Duct w00t!


Hinge works like a champ now


Hacked tweet =)

Well, let me preface this entry with this: I have no experience with autobody techniques. 0%. I just used Bondo for the first time about 3 months ago. So, that being said, if you have a brain larger than a chimp with downes syndrome, you can do this exercise.

(My apologies to anyone out there who have any chimps with downes syndrome.)

I wanted to shave the front end because I just think it looks clean as hell and who the hell needs turn signals or foglights anyways?



There are the tools I used. I think in total, the body filler goodies cost me around 100 bucks but I only used about 15% of it so do the math.

Fusor 142: This is "extreme body panel repair". It has a work time of 90 seconds. Yeah, um, first mistake getting the "super fast" curing Fusor but fuck it, I can work fast.

Polyflex: This is a bendable filler that should be used as an aftercoat. Works just like bondo.

Versa-tool: It's a glorified soldering iron but it has 19 cool-ass tips that are PERFECT for plastic welding. I found it at Micheals (craft store) for 30 bucks, laid down the 50% off coupon in their mailer at the front of the store and was on my way with a sweet 15$ plastic welder.

Cut-off wheel, belt sander and jig saw are optional but certainly help...

Let's get cutting. Mask off your front bumper and git to ruining a perfectly good bumper:




Voila:


The cut pieces:


Now, roughly measure the cut area and transfer to a rear doner bumper. I have heard that you can take from the center but I cut on the curve so I tried to grab from the rear curve as well...


Now, once the pieces are cut, make sure everything lines up and, most importantly, make sure the main bumper line, lines up as well. Turn the soldering iron on and wait for it to get hot. Once it's ready, place the cut piece on the bumper and literally melt the two together. Make sure both pieces melt together as this will create the strongest bond. Don't be afraid to make shitty "welds" as yer gonna sand over them later. The main goal here is to make sure both pieces melt together. I'f you've ever welded, yer looking for a "roll of nickles" here in your welds.









Now, take some plastic from the side of the doner bumper to fill the turn signal holes if you want... I'm grafting in something different later *wink*



This is where the belt sander is handy (and after using this fucking thing ONCE, I was happy to find another use for it.)




Like a glove...


Now, once the welding is done, crank out the fusor and go over all of the welds and fill in the holes that weren't welded. Also, flip the bumper over and glue up the seams. Be generous here.

Once it's dry, sand it with 60 grit.




Now, sand some more with 150 grit. Now, it's time for the polyflex.



Skim thin coats, let dry and sand some more. The goal here is to sand away most of the polyflex. Notice the low spots that are now filled? w00t!



Once everything is smooth, slap on some primer and go have a beer =)

Or kate would kick my ass over this kitchen floor project

hahaha