Bubba told me today that tomorrow we would paint the interior. That's great but that also means I had to strip the sound deadening tonight. Yay?
So, armed with a 300º heat gun and a metal spatula thingamabob I got to work. If anyone ever wondered what a job in hell would be like, I know know what it is and it's what I just did for the past two hours.
The job is simple enough until you factor in using a heat gun on high, inside a black car, in the trunk, trying to melt sound deadening tar that has been firmly in place for 12 years. Good times.
And if anyone was wondering... 4.8 pounds of sound stripping to the ounce.
So Angel and I were at it again today for the last time before paint. This was the toughest job yet as I had VERY specific needs and today, the language barrier reared it's ugly head the worst so I had to resort to crude pictures. What I wanted to do was have a side exit cutout that came through the body. The only cutouts I have seen are simple "under the sideskirt" jobs that look horrible or really poor boxy cuts in the rocker panel that never flow with the body. I wanted this one to be perfect without sacrificing the cars structural integrity.
After 10 minutes of going back and forth, Angel told me he had been thinking all week how he wanted to do this so I stepped back and just let him work. Now, I know the man is quite capable but this was just one of those things where it could have gone really bad or really good. In the end, I'm glad I trusted him as the work is 110% flawless.
After tracing out a 3" diameter, Angel got to cutting. Meanwhile I was looking the other way as poor Roxy got severed and her dealer trade in value (BAHAHAHAHA what trade in value?!) finally disapeared completely.
Now we mean business...
Poor Roxy.
After cutting out a perfect fit, he started tacking it all up.
Then it was on to the final fender that the previous owner butchered trying to roll.
While Angel was busy with the sides, I started sanding down the bumper mold lines.
A few hours later while in the 102º heat, we were done.
I think I love that tiny little Mexican =) Paint is next week!
Behold... the Donkey Show in all it's perverse glory
... you know... I posted the video but well, it's probably the most offensive thing on the, well... ever. Man, you know something is fucked up if I won't post it.
So I'm sick or something. Took the day off yesterday and it was totally weird to sit on the couch and do NOTHING. I even put the airbox together to work on it and decided not to and nap instead. Kinda strange.
Anyhoo, kate came over to take care of me after a long day of her own so yay to her xoxo. (I'll save the mushy gushy stuff for when I see her next.)
As far as the Roxy news goes, I should be taking her to see Angel for the last time Friday to do the side exit cutout and finish up some tiny nicks and dents here and there. The tire that I got from http://edgeracing.com that had the puncture in the sidewall was discontinued. *doh* BUT, an email to Alex over in customer service did the trick as he went over to the warehouse and found THE LAST ONE. w00t! So the tire is being sent my way and we should have the final rollers ready to mount soon.
Not sure if we will have time to paint this weekend but once the bodywork is done, all we have to do is prep some last minute things and get Rox in the booth.
This is a project car buildup site that my fiance and I are involved in. It has blog entries dating all the way back to the beginning of the build and is updated almost daily until the project is completed. It is almost 100% custom and has photographs showing each step along the way.
This is gonna be a long one so I'll just keep it short and to the point. Rolled over to Bubba's around 10am to get to workin' bright and early.
Started fixing/smoothing out the seams I had welded waaaay back in the day (man... April seems sooo far away now haha)
Then it was on to the rear hatch wiper hole... (I mean honestly, who needs a wiper right?)
Then he fixed that horrid arch (yes, the Bondo was around the whole thing...ugh)
I decided to be somewhat useful with my time and prepped the early coolant bottle I found in the junker ages ago.
Beautiful Kate came by for lunch and to lend a hand.
Then we fixed the hole that some UK dubber drilled into his hatch for a spoiler. Gross.
Found some cancer behind the rub strips so Kate took a crack at the air tool. So hawt.
I used a rubber wheel to get rid of the panel adhesive that was used to stick the sideskirts to the body.
And lastly but definately not least... Angel spent a good two hours trying to smooth out the roof line after a botched weld job trying to delete the radio antenna. Too much heat equals wavey sheet metal. Doh. Buut, as Angel has a knack for such a thing, it came out perfect and we called it a day after that.
Angel is a body guy over at Bubba's shop. Tonight is the first time I have ever hung out with him. Angel is a true-blooded Mexican who has been working body for over 22 years and this is his story.
I got to Bubba's a six where he promptly told me he was off to his second job dishing pies (look forward to a future feature where I do a ride a long with him for a night coming soon.) So there we were, Angel and I, looking at my car and one BIG ASS LANGUAGE BARRIER... all alone. In the silence.
So, being how I used to date Spanish Satan™ for eight years, I found myself digging deep for that ounce of memory when I used to have long gringo vs. padre talks over at her pop's crib back in the day. As soon as I look back, Angel is already feverishly grinding my hood down to bare freaking metal shouting "sirty!"
Two minutes later, I have this.
Angel lights up a menthol cigarette and asks me who the skinny girl was... "oh, es mi esposa." (I totally didn't remember what girlfriend was but it did feel kind of cool to break out the "ole esposa" talk). Angel told me he has a family back in Mexico. He works in the states to help them live.
Angel then laid down a coat of Polyflex. I said "es Polyflex?" and Angel breaks out a smile and tells me "yes. yes." His menthol was teetering on his lip while he talked, sanded and smoothed over the car body with his hand over and over again.
Angel's daughter just had a baby making him a proud grandfather. The shite thing is is that the daughter just had appendicitis.
He lays down another layer and then tells me "sisty!"
I ask if she is ok and he replies yes, today she just had surgery. I stupidly ask if she has health insurance and he laughs. "No, all cash" he stutters, "five thousand dolares."
I cough and tell him that sucks hardcore. He then lays down more skimcoat on my attempt at a shaved bumper and ask "is first time? Is good. Except here. This shit" and points to my fuckups and then skims em right on over.
Sand sand sand. Skim skim skim.
Then back to the hood. I ask if he has more kids and he starts to tell me that he not only has to pay for his oldest to go to university in mexico, he also has to pay for his other sons high school.
Jesus, this guy is crazy. I then ask if he is saving to bring them to America and he laughs, "they don't like America. They are happy in Mexico. America is only good for making money." We both laugh and agree.
More sanding.
Back to the bumper.
"How long have you been doing this? This work body." "Oh, dunno, 22 years." I smile... noting that I am getting this near master at such an unbelievable price, I nearly laugh out loud. "You like it?" "Yeah, is only thing I like doing." I smile as he continues to work.
It's been 2 straight hours of non-stop work. I start to get bored and give those who drive behind me a kind message.
And there is Angel, still working, so I decide to walk on over to see his progress and lo and behold, what do I see?
So, uh, what's the white? VW never used a primer before color? That should be metal. Um, yeah what the fuuu... and then it clicks. That is fucking bondo. The douche owner before me almost filled the entire arch with filler and never told me.
Angel laughs when my eyes bug out and tells me "no problemo" while laughing some more.
It's dark now. Been close to 3 hours and I take some pics of the body filler glow on the pavement.
It's alost 10 now. Angel tells me to meet him here at 10 in the morning to finish. This man is a machine. I help him close up shop and lock the gate. He hops in my car, rolls the window down and doesn't say a word for almost 20 minutes while I drive him home. He's probably worked since 8 in the morning and now he's going to go sleep and do it all over again tomorrow.
I'm not gonna end this with a cheesy doogie howser ending but today has taught me a lot of things.
So... actually doing something worthwhile while in CSS class today, I added a lil tagboard over thur to the right (see figure 1)
(figure 1)
You can basically leave a more public(er) message for everyone to see. Now we can all talk shit about whatever we want. Wheee.
Anyhoo, you can be annon. if ya want, you DON'T need to enter in an email or URL so go nuts. I'm sure this will last for exactly 2 hours before the trolls sink their teeth into it hahaha Anyways, have fun =)
It's been a long month eh? What started out as a simple plug and play swap, simple taped-off engine spray job and other odds and ends mission has turned into a month filled of many upsets, setbacks and achievements as well as a MASSIVE learning experience for both myself and kate (myself especially!).
I won't even begin to try and fathom the amount of energy and time my friends have spent on this project, Jason especially and I really don't know if I will ever be able to thank them all. This project rode the very fine line of "asking friends for help" and "being a time-stealing prick" and I'm sure I crossed over many many times in the whole ordeal but in the end, it was just a bunch of buddies having fun, getting drunk and bruising some knuckles all in the name of making a great project car.
The car runs PERFECTLY albeit a small issue with low-end power loss that I am attributing to either a 2.9 manifold or CAI filter slapped on the MAF. I mean don't get me wrong, after 5 grand, Roxy pulls HARDER than any VR I've ever driven but I'm a low-end guy and this won't do ;)
We rolled over to Jason's last night around 7ish and had the car doing road tests by 9. After a few things that had to be tightened up, Kate and I were on our way home with one phase behind us and a few big ones left to tackle. Bodywork and paint are next, then it's reassembly and then it's vacation time haha
So again, THANK YOU to everyone who has helped so far; blog supporters, folks sending emails and IM's of encouragement, all the sponsors, all the haters who keep my nose to the grindstone, kate for the support when I become a bleeding woman, all of the Homegrown crew and an extra special thanks to Jason who let me turn his garage into a three ring circus for the past 4 weeks!
On with the pics!
While I was waiting for parts last week, I shaved my airbox once more (got rid of the secondary air outlet and cleaned up the top) and finally finished it with paint.
Gross, lets get rid of that outlet STAT
Grind grind grind
Lil bit of sanding to smooth things out
Taped off the hole and then glassed in the hole from the inside
Took the tape off and viola... perfectly flush
Sprayed the corners metallic silver (super secret finishing move to be revealed later *wink*)
600 grit wetsanding to get the overspray rise off of everything
Then a final few coats of black to match the engine manny. Issa nice.
Then we drove over to Jason's to pick up Roxy. I left my camera unnatended while refueling hahaha
Jason made a quick bracket for the power steering bottle
Then a quick test drive up and down the street and we were on our way
So we finally picked up our baby last night at Jason's pad. Got everything buttoned up and at 10pm, kate and I bravely trekked home with Roxy for the first time in over a month. Special, special thanks to Jason for making sure she was road worthy before making the 45 minute hike home so props to him for actually caring if I died in some horrible ball of VW-made fire on the highway.
Jason will upload photos later when he gets a chance but I wanted to let you all know roxy is back home. it was so exciting following Jason home seeing roxy on the road.
But damn if I didn't just sit here for 3 minutes with my mouth open in awe. And considering how I left my media card at home, there won't be any crazy pictoral updates today anyways.
You can't have the awesomely powerful VR6 without having decent brakes right? Tonight we installed the DE calipers and drilled rotors to the front, added super blue and then bled the lines. Still have to find a solution to bleed the ABS so if anyone has any insight, lemme know.
(p.s. Look at how much more we can drop the coils !!!)
Will started re-building his 1.8t big turbo project after blowing the bish up a month or so back (haha)
It's bigger than my head!
Ran Roxy for about 10 minutes to find out there was a clog in the line. Nobodies fault here... was funny as hell to see chris struggle to get the cap off though. Good thing it was just water for now!
Only main issues left to get her 100% is an ABS light, airbag light (no steering wheel yet) and the brake light is lit in the cluster... could be the ABS deal. Not sure until we vag it. Should be on the road this weekend, paint and body next week and then re-construction to make two more shows this year.
Too bad for Waterfest but who wants to go to dirty-ass Jersey anyways?!
yeah it sounds rough... thats what you get with a point and shoot camera microphone. Not one single tick, knock, rub, stutter or grind. Like a brand new heart. Fuck it feels good to be a gangsta =) Thanks goes out to my dumbass "mechanic" who doesn't know shit from his elbow hahaha
So about a year ago, I started looking for up-to-date vintage cloth-covered spark plug wires that could handle current distributor loads and what not but I found NO ONE. So I gave up the search.
Six months ago I acquire Roxy and come up with the vintage plug wire again after buying a Shinya Kimura bike book and see a bike with the same damn wires I wanted...
...the '41 Flat Head
So I start looking for replacement wires for vintage bikes and all I could find were reproduction wires buuuut for vintage electrical systems... (I asked if my V6 F.I. automobile would be safe with the wires... they laughed. A lot.)
So then I found a Harley dealer who offered the wires... at 12" lengths AND at $50 a pop. Fuck that.
So... finally, with a twist of fate, I found a guy on ebay who restored vintage Indians and skinned current day plug wires with the vintage cloth wrap that had that sweeeet lacquer overcoat. JACKPOT.
"Ohh, never done car wires before. They the same ends as motorbikes?" "Um, noo, not mine. Want a extra set of mine to gut for parts?" "Yeah, that'd be a good idea I reckon." "haha. you sure you can make these?" "Yeah yeah, wires is wires."
After a few weeks asking specific questions over painfully slow Ebay messaging service, I was boxing up a set of my old wires and sending it to middle-fucking america Missouri and I waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
And then, after an awesome day at the beach with Kate, I found these waiting on my doorstep...
Ok, Ok. I know. The lack of updates is killing me so I gather it must be annoying to you faithful readers out there as well (pssst, thanks for sticking with us!). Big things are coming so stay tuned but until then, Kate and I will try our best to give you updates or at least attempt to make the boring updates fun(er).
Today I snuck out of work early (well, not really early... we just get out at 2 on fridays w00t!) and Kate and I drove on over to Artisan Autobody in Mannasas.
< shameless plug >Artisan Autobody: 8228 Conner Dr, Manassas Park, VA 20111 (703) 368-3488< /shameless plug >
*cough* and with kevin's help, we finally got the rollers all mounted up. One issue I just noticed is that one of the wheels isn't holding any air due to the low-profile air stem being a piece of shit and not seating properly. Anyways, on with the pics!
Hey folks, first off, wanted to thank EVERYONE for the [+] comments on the blog, over AIM and the likes. Kate and I really appreciate it. Secondly, Roxy is/will be fine. Got some surprises in store for everyone but for now, we're taking a break from everything and will forcibly cool it for a week or so. This project got a little too serious too quickly. This is all about fun right?
So yeah, keep the comments coming but for now, no real deal updates until monday of next week (after we go on a lil vacay to the beach to unwind).
But, for now, it's question time! Kate and I got to talking this weekend while going for a drive... what is the perfect job? Not, just ok, but PERFECT in every way. Now before you go off spouting answers like Gynacologist or Condom Tester, think about all of the stress or unhappyness that can come with a job like that i.e. would you get tired of it after 3 years of doing the same thing etc etc
So far, we only came up with race car driver haha Your thoughts?
Jason and Kate are engaged to be married and like cars. A lot.