Oh no, NOT AGAIN!

The plan today was for Sarah to take Oliver to Williamsburg to witness Linsey and her baby and for me to go to Richmond, maybe go to a car show, work on the Beetle, or sit around my mom's and do some school work.  Either way, I was determined to take Dudley.  So in my stupor, I got some things together, put some gas in Dudley, bought a quart of oil, and took off. 

I made it to Zion's Crossroads, and a guy in a big red truck pulled up next to me at a stop light.  He yelled that I had no brake lights and he looked reasonably pissed.  I was actually at a pretty good location at this cross roads of 250 and James Madison Hwy (whatever the fuck that is).  I pulled over and tried the few tricks I know...I checked the bulbs, put new bulbs in and nothing (I had gotten the brake pedal down using the rubber mallet and my book bag).  I checked the fuses and even changed them.  I played with the wires under the front trunk.   I sanded down the contacts.  Nothing nothing nothing nothing.  In the midst of all of this activity, I had called AAA to get a tow which was a pain in the ass, particularly because my fucking phone was on the verge of dying the whole time.  I also called Ken who after many rings finally picked up.  I told him what was going on and asked him if he could fix the problem.  He said "today" and I said ya to which he replied "bring her in." 

So the tow truck finally did come.  I buttoned Dudley up, got in the truck, and we drove in virtual silence from Zion's Crossroads (or was it Troy, VA) all the way to Fishersville.  This was a little tense and awkward and my mind wandered a bit.

When I got there, Ken was with a friend (what?!) talking.  I signed the papers and drove Dudley into the shop.  Ken got under him for a minute, did something with a wire, this that, and it was done.  Apparently it was the brake light switch.  $42.  Not too bad.

Broke

Turns out it was just the pedal assembly. The hook that the clutch cable latches on to had some corrosion, and after 42 years, it finally broke off. I had the car towed to NethKen Associations, and as usual, Ken did a nice job.  I also had him fiddle with the choke and lower the idle.  Car runs great now, though it doesn't seem like the choke is working properly when the car is cold.

Here's what I saw when I was on the side of the road waiting for AAA.  Looks broken to me, but I'm no expert.

No resistance in the wobbly, broken clutch pedal (left)

Buzz kill

Driving to STAB to do a little work, and something in the clutch pedal snapped. Maybe a clutch cable? Who knows. Fuck.

Poor Dudley.

Baby and Dudley

Party Mouth Baby!

Yay, Dudley!!

Baby and Dudley, Dudley and Baby

"Maybe I can get in there"

"Oh-poo?"

OMG is that a tank!? (aka how I broke the window mechanism)

I thought I'd grease up the window rubbers a little.  I put some lub on the window scrapers (first silicone spray, then WD-40), and wound the windows up and down to spread the lube around.  So far so good...particularly those stick rear windows.  I was working on the easiest-winding driver's side window, when all of a sudden, the window stopped winding up and down.  The crank still felt right, and I could feel the points when the window should have been all-the-way up and all-the-way down.  But the window wouldn't move.  Even stranger, I could pull it up, and it would stay!  I became very pissed and decided to see if I could identify the problem.  The first task was to remove the window winder, the door handle holder, and door panel.                

What did I find?  Absolutely nothing.  I wasn't able to diagnose the problem.  Enter Ken.

I called Ken of NethKen Associates in Fishersville, VA.  I had taken Bernie (parts) to Ken last year, and I knew he would be able to fix Dudley's window.  Though I didn't think he'd be there on a Saturday, but low and behold, there he was!  Upon my arrival, I remembered Ken's scary tank-Beetle.  Yup.  It's part tank.  Part Beetle.  Part middle launcher.  All CRAZY.  As the plate says, "YIKES."  

 While I busied myself walking back and forth to Sheetz and getting lunch at McDonalds, Ken figured out that some sort of rivet had busted due to corrosion.  Simple from old age, this little joint broke because of my repeated rolling of the window up and down.

 I don't know how Ken did it, but there's the hole the rivet fit through.  I don't know if the labels were "front" and "rear" were already there or if Ken made them, but hey, thanks for the clear labels!

I witnessed something impressive.  Rather than getting a massive rivet, Ken took a long bolt that fit through the hole perfectly and cut it.  Then, he put the bolt through the two parts of the mechanism and welded a washer to the end creating a make-shift, DIY, HARDCORE rivet.  WOW!  It works great!  Like a tank!

Hooked

So what I thought would be a very simple repair turned into something quite difficult.  The seatbelt hooks in Dudley were broken and yellowing.

 To go along with my refreshed front seat belts, I purchased a pair of hooks from Chuck's Convertible Parts.  These two plastic hooks were $26 dollars for the pair!  What?!  You'd think for that amount of money, these would be quality hooks, made in German, perfect fit.   Nope.  First I discovered that the screw holes didn't fit the holes in the car.  This was an immediate sign of poor quality, though the plastic seemed clean.  No problem, I get the drill out and increased the size of a couple of screw holes so I could slide the hooks over ever so slightly.

  

Okay, that worked.  My next hurdle came when I tried to mount a seat belt...nope, wouldn't fit over the hook.  Come on!  So my next modification involved a metal file and some very fine white plastic shavings.   Yes, finally!  Got it!  Unfortunately what I found was that when the top is up, the seat belts become inaccessible when on the lower hook.  Fuck it, I'll just use the top hook.  Geez, I could have left things there way they were...

Like Father...

Oliver and Dudley made friends quickly. Ollie is a natural behind the wheel-- even at 17 months!

Boot Snaps

Here is a picture of 1 of 2 convertible boot snaps I bought from Chuck's. For some reason, there were two missing--one from either side. Based on what I saw, it appeared they had been missing at least since the last paint job.

Antique Plates!

Purchased on ebay--1971 VA Convertible Plates.  Now to register.  But I hate DMV.

Dudley with his new (old) plates

Seat Belt Struggle

A three day Easter weekend, so I decided to do some hard core Beetle work.  Earlier this week I order $100 of parts from Chuck's Convertible Parts--lots of odds and ends for the interior.

The first undertaking was replacing the rear seat belts which looked like they had seen better days.

Old Seat Belt Set-up

Old Seat Belt Seat-up Under Rear Seat

Ugly Long-ass Bolt

Turns out that this was much more difficult that I originally planned.  I got the two female ends of the seat belts out no problem, but the same bolts that held those in also held the rear seat back.  When I removed the bolts, the metal pieces on the seat backs that the bolts went through contracted.  Long story short, I couldn't get the seat belts and rear seat to bolt back onto the car.  I wound up going to Lowe's to get a longer bolt, but it totally looks like shit.

Oh well, I replaced everything, wiped the rear seat off, and put it back on.  Everything looks nice, but knowing that wack bolt is under the seat bothers me.  I have a topic on theSamba forum right now to get some help.

New Rear Seatbelts!

To the downtown mall!

Who's that little man trapped inside?

Weekend Warrior

So this weekend the sun was out, and even though it was a little cold, I decided to do a little minor work on Dudley.

First I replaced 3 of the hubcaps as they had a bit of corrosion.  I still had a few nice hubcaps left from my days with Bernie, so I shined them up and popped them on.  They look nice on top of the beauty trim rings!

New and Old

New and Old

I also tried to work on the dome light, buzzer, and door switch.  So far that has been a hideous disaster, but more on that later.

Old Tail Light Housing Seal

I also did battle with some West Coast Metric taillight seals I purchased on theSamba.com.  There wer many challenges associated with this silly little job that I had done before.  First, I had to figure out the best way to unbolt the tail light housing from the car.  I couldn't find the right socket for the socket wrench, but after much trial and error, I got it.

Then I got beside the car and found that I couldn't get to the nuts from the side.  I'd have to get under the car.  This required me to jack the car up.  Fine, I did that, got the car up, managed to get the taillight housing off, and then I mislabeled the colored wires.  Ugh.

Then my battles began with the taillight seals.  I hear WCM is quality, so I didn't get too bent out of shape when I found that the seals didn't fit the housing.  I spent an entire evening getting those seals on, putting them in the dryer, pulling, stretching, massaging, only to find the next morning that they still weren't on well.  Oops, I put the left seal on the right housing and so forth.  Goddamnit!  The next morning, this seals peeled right off.

I tried to stretch and lube the seals.  Nope, that didn't work.  Finally, Sarah suggested that I boil and stretch the seals.   Good idea!  That let me stretch the seals just enough to get them on the housing.

Boiling the WCM Seals

New Seal Mounted on Tail Light Housing--Done!

License to Plate

My 3rd set of plates for Dudley.  Dammit.

Oh no.  I just wasted an incredible amount of money.  First, I went to DMV to register Dudley and purchased black and white antique plates.  I received them in the mail yesterday.  I went to put them on yesterday, only to find that the holes on the plates were too small for Dudley's front license plate holder.  To make matters worse, these stupid plates didn't have to bottom holes I needed to mount the EU plate. Ugh.  Sooo, I went to Lowe's and purchased two drill bits for metal as well as four nuts and bolts.  Long story short, I widened the holes, drilled new holes and successfully mounted Dudley's new antique plates.  Then I made a big mistake--I went on theSamba.com and ebay to look for VA plates from 1971.  Oh dear.  I found some!  Low price!  I made an offer and got them for $27 total.  Apparently, if you make an offer, you wind up buying the plates if the offer is accepted.  So there's no going back.  Okay, no big deal.  Until I won another set of antique plates for a convertible.  Dammit.  This must be about $100.00 in plates!  Ugh!  I already put the $27 plates on theSamba.com.  

First Steps

Today Dudley and I had our first bonding session.  Sarah went to Culpepper to have lunch with her friend Erica.  It was a perfect Beetle day. I waited anxiously until she got home, and when she did, I ran outside to begin work on Dudley

The first project was to make use of the NOS Hella taillight lens that I never installed on Bernie.  Dudley had a lens that was looking a bit rough, so I replaced it.


I also noticed that the passenger side window crank was wearing away at the door panel.  Fortunately I had a couple of collars remaining, so I installed one.

Finally, I got under the front trunk, pulled on of the fresh air hoses out (or the connector to the fan box) and replaced the turn signal bulb.  It wasn't so hard, but it does appear that the bulb holder needs replacing.

Let the Buying Begin!

Today I made my first online purchase for Dudley via J. Bugs.  They're jerks, but they sure do stock a lot of parts.

Good luck, Charlie

Fayetteville
Brenda's Mean Green '76 Super Beetle

Mean Green SB Engine.  Damn, look at that shiny chrome!

After purchasing Dudley today, and can't help but feel pangs of guilt about "Charlie" or whatever in Fayetteville, NC.  This metallic green, 1976 VW Super Beetle was the first car I seriously looked at on my tour of the Mid-Atlantic.  Though it drove well (gear shift was very tight and brakes seemed a little TOO tight-whoa there horsey!), there was something about the car that just seem quite right.  Maybe it was the tricked out non-VW seats?  Maybe it was the curvy, wrap around Super Beetle windshield?  Maybe it was the mean grown (and no fweem) of the engine?  Maybe it was the kickin' stereo in the back?  Or maybe it was just Brenda, the lunatic owner.  Either way, I left there for Wilmington thinking, "pretty good, but not a perfect fit." And "what the fuck is the matter with that lady?"

 Of course, then I went to Wilmington and Newport News and looked at two clunkers.  By the time I got home, I was ready to make an offer to crazy Brenda.  We settled on $5,000--a steal!  And I spent the rest of the weekend trying to set up a pick-up time.  Nope, not Monday, she'd be out of town.  Tuesday?  Nope. Out of town.  She said that it would just have to wait till the weekend.  In the meantime, I got antsier.  I emailed her again, asking about maybe Thursday or Friday.  No answer.  I waited.  And waited.  Still no answer.  However, in the meantime, I went to Annapolis and looked at a really cool '67 convertible.  Well, it looked cool in the pictures.  A real 20-footer.  In real life, it was a faded, red clunker with Porsche hub-caps.  There was no Porsche in that car.  My last trip was to Winchester, VA where I met Dudley...

Wilmington, NC
1978 Fuel Injected VW Piece of Super Beetle

Annapolis
The Red '67 20-footer

Winchester
Dudley, the 1971 Super Beetle Convertible

Coming Home

Today Dudley came home from Yuri's garage over in Winchester.  Zack and I drove all the way from Winchester on 340.  We stopped at a Wendy's in Front Royal and then continued on to Waynesboro.  From there we hopped on 250E over to Charlottesville.

Dudley drove incredibly well.  The first thing I noticed about Dudley was his incredible fweem.  Beautiful and music to my ears, particularly since Bernie never fweem-ed.

The second thing I noticed was how solid Dudley felt.  No rattle, no shaking (maybe a little at 55mph). He handled very well, particularly around curves, and I appreciated the comfort of the Super Beetle.  What they say about MacPherson struts versus torsion bar suspension is true.

Driving along, I also noticed the whistle Yuri told me about coming from the driver's side vent window.  Not sure what to do about this.  I might have to take Dudley to see Ken in the summer as I'm scared of fooling with rubber.

I'm thinking of rummaging through my parts box in the basement.  I think I might have a glovebox door to donate to Dudley and maybe some other random parts.  Fortunately, he's very complete and the parts are in excellent condition.