The Bohemiath

Let's get nekkid

2010-09-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Started off the weekend by stripping the GTI decals off the sides of the GTI. I used this 3M vinyl removal Stripe off wheel worked like a charm. I got it from a buddy who used half of it on his truck. Brilliant little tool.

This is the drivers side. Didn't do the front fender as it's coming off anyway. My helper managed to squeeze in the pic too.

Passenger side. Both sides took maybe 20 minutes in total.

Oh and here's the shift knob...

Doing it again...

2010-09-01T16:14:00.001-07:00

My ability to keep up with a blog seems to be none.

Not much to report. Took the race car down to Woodburn to show at Pacific Waterlands. I didn't win but no surprise there.

Picked up a few needed parts at the swap meet for next to nothing; golf ball shift knob, ash tray, center console, and sun visors.

Things are coming together outside of the body work and the strut caps i need in the rear for 2.5 inch springs.

DEQ - Passed With Flying Colors

2010-08-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

The best part of passing DEQ with a 26 year old car is the look on the tech's face. Got the VIN check done as well so now it's title transfer and tags time. That should be the easy part.

Going to try and drop it off at the body shop early next week. I have to travel Wed - Fri so that'd be an ideal time for them to get some work done.

Back on all fours

2010-07-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

No pics today and just a small update. Got the GTI back on all four wheels and drivable. Fixed up the rear suspension and now it doesn't drift all over the road either.

Gotta get it over to the body shop to have them check out the front end. Once I get some direction there I'll start making more progress.

This weekend is the Rose City Bug In. I'll be taking the race car out there and hanging out looking at all the cool air cooled cars.

Bumper Off, Now What...

2010-07-22T23:19:00.000-07:00

Finally...

Now what do I do? The damage is about what I expected. I guess it's off to the body shop to see what they think. I'd rather not swap the whole core support but if it has to be done it has to be done.

Oh messed with the rear suspension tonight as well. What a f-ing mess. The previous owner complete messed up the assembly and it's basically garbage. I managed to get it off and assemble it correctly but I need a spring compressor to get everything back in place.

And found a gas leak. Looks pretty small but something that will have to be addressed eventually.

Don't expect updates this often in the future. I just happened to have some time this week. Kids went to bed on time.

Bumpers, do you really have to be this much of a PITA

2010-07-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get this bolt off for about a week. Granted not 8 hours a day or anything but each night I go out to the car and work on whatever I always end up back at this bolt. It may not look like much but there is only an inch or less of space to get to that sucker. That rules out any kind of socket. Then the lip on the frame rail sticks out and pushes wrenches to the very end of the bolt. So frustrating. Tonight I explored removing the alternator but that's an even bigger cluster. Guess I need more tools. Off to Sears tomorrow.

On a brighter note my rear springs came in the mail today. Hooray! If you need suspension help no matter what you drive talk to the guys at Ground Control (http://www.ground-control-store.com). Super helpful and I ordered these things on Monday, here it is Wednesday and viola. Now if I only had more time.

And we begin again...and again...and again

2010-07-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've come to the realization that I change my mind a lot. I like cars. I like having cars. I like having projects. If I get bored or find another shiny object I'll switch gears and start in on something else.

Right now I have two older rabbits. A '78 that is pretty much just a dedicated track car at this point. It's the blue one. Then a couple weeks ago an '84 GTI caught my eye in up in Seattle. Got up early on Sunday flew up, bought it and drove it back. It's the white one.

The '78 is really done. I can take it to the track and hammer on it all day long and then drive it home. It's really loud and has only the drivers seat so it's impractical for taking my kids or wife for a ride. That's where the '84 comes in. I wanted something I could pile at least one kid in and cruise around on the weekends.

The '84 needs some work hence it's current condition. I'll get it prepped but the body work guys have some work ahead of them. Mechanically it's solid, heck drove it 170 miles on it's first trip and it didn't give me any guff.

So I think now this space will become a progress report on the '84. It doesn't need much. As they say with old MK1s "nothing major ever breaks but nothing minor ever works".

With that here's where I'll be starting:

New DS fender and hood
Straighten out the core support
New suspension - I've got it just need to put it on
New grill
Drivers seat needs a little upholstery work
Bit of rust repair on the rear valance
Powder coat the bumpers
Clean the engine bay
New taillights
Good buffing and waxing

I'm sure there's more and well this is where you'll learn about it (if you are into that kind of thing).

On the Road Again

2008-03-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

Okay so everything is back together and looking good. Well the paint doesn't really match but it's close enough until I can find a better orignal fender.

Here's a better shot of the fender. I put the trim piece back on after the wash and dry. I also cleaned all the extra crap out of the channel that the trim goes in. The dude that painted it didn't bother, total lazyness.

And check out my grill

Next steps are new rims, I'm thinking some black steelies in 14x8. With small rubber. Then updating the suspension since the coilovers on it are way to stiff for my liking.

Until next time...

Accident Update

2008-02-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

At this pace of blogging I should just give up. But I'm not a quitter.

So I dismantled the GTI after finding all the right parts to put it back together. Looks kinda bad ass without the grill.

Removed the fender too

While I had it up in the air I not only changed the oil but replaced the oil pan. Someone over tightened the drain plug and stripped all the threads. That's unfortunate but a new pan and gasket was like $20.

New pan up on the roof, along with the Load Ranger for my wife's car

More updates on the reassembly coming soon. My fixed fender doesn't want to fit right. The gaps are way off and it's not camera worthy.

Ups and Downs...

2007-11-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

Okay so the brown bunny is officially gone. To a good home I believe. The owner is a VW gear head and plans to restore it.

So last week (maybe two weeks ago) I go out to my GTI and find a note on the windshield, that is never good. As I am picking up the note I glance down and the front of my car and notice the turn signal is hanging there just by it's wires. Guh...What a complete downer. These parts don't just grow on trees. The car is 23 years old. Especially the red line grill in perfect condition. I am not sure how insurance is going to handle the repairs. Let's hope they let me source the parts.

Here's a couple very sad pics.

So now for the up. I found the car I have been searching for. It's been months but the right one finally came around. It's not a VW however. It's an 03 BMW 330i. It has the performance package and only 20k miles. It's a beautiful awesome machine. Here's a couple quick shots.

While the accident was bad finding the BMW was good. You'll probably see pics and updates on both over the next few months.

Has it really been 7 months

2007-11-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Okay lots of changes to talk about.

The brown bunny is on it's way out. Just too much work and not enough time (see baby in picture). I went out and bought this instead.

It's an 84 GTI in pretty pristine shape. 132,000 original miles on the 1.8 liter 8v engine. The things I'll be doing to it are pretty minor overall; convert the rear brakes to disc, add a taller (faster) fifth gear to the transmission, and repaint the entire car. It looks good from 10ft but up close it's, well it's 23 year old paint.

Here's an interior shot. Check out those seats!

Now that I have new daily driver I can actually park this one and start working on it. It should keep me busy this winter. The baby is getting to the point where she can entertain herself in the pack-n-play for a couple hours so that should give me some time to do some actual work.

One more shot for good measure.

Rims, rims, and more rims

2007-04-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

I seem to just be collecting parts and not actually getting any work done these days. Maybe that's my plan just collect as much junk as I possibly can. It feels like I am doing something but not really. I did fire the rabbit up and swap out the stock rims for the steelies

There was motivation for the swap. Some guy wanted 13 inch stock rims and he was willing to trade for some sweet gold BBS rims. I simply could not pass these up. They even have new tires on them. I figure there worth around $300 and the rims I traded them for are worth essentially nothing. I was going to give them away. Major score. Gotta love Craigslist.

Lastly grabbed up some new to me tailights that are in perfect shape. Once I get the rear end fixed these will be going on.

Parts, Parts, and More Parts

2007-04-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

So I got some cool new stuff over the past couple weeks. I'm pretty excited about them. Let's review shall we.

First up the new steering wheel. Came out of an early (75-77) scirocco. Note the nifty wolfsburg emblem on the horn ring. The wheel itself is brown and the horn ring is black. Currnetly looking for a replacement for the horn ring in brown but can live with it as is.

Picked up some sweet seats out of a cabriolet that the owner recnetly had recovered in...TAN, perfect! and cheap.

Same dude that had the seats had these bumpers too. Not my first choice but the price was right and once I get the body work done they'll work. They are aluminium so no rust, just a little polish and they'll look like new.

New to me steelies. Nice and wide with a low profile. I'll probably paint them white eventually. We'll see. The rust is just on the surface.

Lastly I got this. Know what it is? Take a guess

If you said passenger side axle with rebuilt CV joints give yourself a pat on the back. My boots were shot and that usually means the joints are shot so figured I'd just replace the entire axle, $30 killer deal.

Gutting Cont.

2007-03-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I continued removing the crap that was covering the floor of the rabbit. A generally smelly and dirty task where things end up looking worse than when you started. I did end up finding a small rust hole in the passenger seat foot well.

This will slow progress on the interior a bit but not too much. It's a hole from the inside out so it should be an easy patch/fix.

Dug into the engine a bit as well. Starting taking bits and pieces apart to clean them up and replace some seals. Another dirty job.

Oh and the seats and catalytic converter totally fell through. Total bummer, but the great thing about VWs is there is always another part around the corner.

Gutting the Rabbit

2007-03-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

So I made some progress this weekend. Gutted the interior. Found some interesting stuff, lots of tools, a brand new air freshener, but surprisingly no rust. This made me very happy. This week I'm going to the Couv to pick up some new(er) seats and then to Newberg to get a new catalytic converter and muffler. I know exciting stuff but it will make it so the car can pass DEQ. Some progress pics.

Oh and check out how sweet the door cards are, almost look like new, good times.
Oh and one more thing original manual, sweet.

Brown Bunny

2007-03-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

So I went out and bought myself a 78 vw rabbit that happens to be very brown:
and very dented:

I have plans for this bunny. I want to keep it brown, remove the dents and make it fast(er). I guess I'll document the process as best I can. So far I've done nothing but drive it home and park it in the garage.

Riddle me this, why do I park a $600 car in my garage and let my $10K GTI sit outside? The answer is simple really people are actually more likely to steal a $600 rabbit than a GTI.