Rust is not my friend

Sorry I have been a little slow about posting the last few days. We went out of town for the weekend and then I have been tied up with some other things. Lori is out of town this weekend, so I am going to be hitting it hard. Now for the bad news...The body seems to be in good shape, but all of the bolts, nuts, screws, fuel line connections, brake line connections, etc, etc on the underside of the car all seem to have a healthy coating of rust on them. What does that mean to me? Crap is breaking and stripping out of the welds and bolts are snapping off. This isn't a big problem for the stuff that is exposed, but some of these are welded through the frame and I need to be able to get these things loose. I have the rear end of the car partially broken loose, but now the bolt is spinning and to access it, I have to get into the frame. Rumor has it that there is access cut through the inside of the vehicle, but I won't know until tomorrow night. I should have some good pics for you tomorrow evening.

To see what I am shooting for

Just to give everyone an idea of what I am going for, here is the original GTI I had WAY back in the day! The scan didn't turn out all that well, so I'll update it when I get a chance. But for now, enjoy!!

It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milkbone undies

Some days you're the fly, other days you're the two day old doggie poo. Either way, you're in it up to your....Well anyway. I think I am getting in some practice for my new career as a professional gasoline thief. In order to drop the fuel tank and remove the fuel lines, I needed to get all of the fuel out of the tank. Mind you, these things are not easy to get to. I finally got one of the lines off, but had the car jacked-up to get to the tank. All of the fuel was at the wrong end of the tank to drain it out. So, it's siphon time at the makeshift GTI repair shop. Can you see where this is heading? First off, gasoline still tastes as bad as I remember it tasting. Secondly, I watched the stupid thing siphon at a snail's pace because the only size hose I could fit through the lines to get into the tank would barely allow a BB to pass through it. Staring at it for 10 minutes straight, I figured I was in the clear and could move on to the next task. I guess it was right about time to add another item to the task list. I left it alone for no time at all, but apparently, no time at all is exactly the amount of time it takes to make a solid effort in filling up one side of the garage with gasoline. You guessed it, the hose slipped out of the gas can I was using to drain the gas into and decided it would have much more room to spread out and stretch it's tiny little petroleum based arms across my garage. Needless to say, the tank is still where it was hanging last night and the fuel lines have not budged an inch.

Vroom Vroom

Well, I am amazed to be able to say this at this point. I got the car running. It has a fuel leak and can't be driven, but it started and ran. Somehow, I got lucky with some of the wiring and was able to finally get power to the fuel pump. I also was lucky enough to give the garage floor a good "gasoline bath"--Not part of the original plan tonight. The PO had mentioned that when he loaded it onto a trailer, he thought that he might have snagged the fuel line. He was right.

The next step is to get some fuel lines and drop the fuel tank. I'll keep you posted.

Cleaned up a bit

It looks a lot different after a little cleaning

May 17th

Well, it looks pretty rough. The electrical system was toast due to getting some water behind the dash. The Previous Owner (PO) had picked up another fuse block and a wiring harness from somewhere. The fuse block is not exactly the same, so this will end up being a lot of fun. I'm not sure which car it came from, but it isn't a GTI. My initial thought is that this is going to require a TON of patience. As far as the car goes, the PO has been working on it for a couple months, and possibly living in it based on the cans and junk in it.

The fuel tank needs replaced, which the PO provided. The rear shocks need replaced, which he also provided. I have some work ahead of me, but I am excited about the possibilities.

A friend of mine is going to help me repaint it. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Just brought it Home - May 17th