Dave's 1971 1302 Not-So-Secret, Secret Project Build

[owdlvr]

Thanks Guys!


I'm super stoked and happy with it so far. Having the shots done this weekend by Andrew means that I've now got free reign to play with the car. Stone chips? Not a big deal now! The car does handle significantly differently from the last bug, so it's going to take some testing before I'm comfortable sliding it on Gravel. Sunday I swapped the seats back to my own, and prepped it for some gravel playing on Monday eve. A last minute group in whistler meant switching it back to street tires, and a day on the mountains until 11pm. Sigh. Probably won't get out on the gravel tires until Sunday

On the plus side, however, I am allowed to post this teaser shot!


-Dave

[buddy boy]

gnarly !!!

[Hansk]

    

[OUTKAST]

Great pictures, and Awesome finished car Nailed it : )

[owdlvr]

Ooh, I will take a look at that for sure!

So a project is never finished...I haven't been happy with the power level of the car, especially when accelerating from a standstill. The car is just slower then my white '69 was, both in acceleration and top speed. I attributed the top speed both to the massive ride-height and it's resulting instability with crosswinds. (aka part car, part my fear level)...but the acceleration just doesn't make sense. I finally had a chance to look at it last night and discovered a simple issue which is possibly causing the problem. A key step when setting up new carbs/engine?  Yeah, that would be determining if you can get full throttle with your pedal. Adjusted now to get to about 80% of the stops on the carbs, will need some reengineering to figure out how to get the last 20%, but I'll try it today on gravel and see how it is.

The other item I'm not fully sold on is the shifting. I tossed this in another thread, and it originally comes from a PM I wrote, but without having to retype it, I think it makes sense:

I'm using a stock bug shifter with EMPI aluminum short shift kit and then a custom carbon knob and custom carbon tube over the stock shift shaft. If I pull the knob and carbon tube off, it's 100% stock VW Beetle...even the lock out plate. I did double up the lockout springs (using two stock ones), and the shift rod is a cut-and-weld mix of stock beetle, steel tubing and Porsche shift rod.

I have a shorter-then-stock-beetle throw going forwards and backwards, but what feels like "stock" throw going side to side. It's easy to figure out where all the gears are and works quite well...most of the time. The problem is the Z-bend in the shift rod. This makes the side-to-side action somewhat vague at times, and appears to bind occasionally. A quick wiggle of the shifter in neutral sorts everything out and the gears become easy to find again, but this doesn't help much if you're on a race track! I believe I have some more R&D to do before I'm 100% happy.

My reverse (and 1st) lockout works well, but I need to build a single-spring that is heavier weight. The two springs occasionally bind and don't allow the shifter to snap up, thus the lockout "sticks on". If you're not careful it's easy to select reverse instead of second. I have learned that if I go into first, and the shifter snaps-up immediately, everything will be okay. If I don't hear the snap, I have to be super careful.

On the catching reverse front, instead of second, even when the shifter snaps up it's possible to 'rub' reverse on your way into second. I had a chance to talk to a couple of 901-Equipped Porsche owners, and the problem is found in those cars too.

Bottom line is that I have fully sorted out perfect shifting yet...I'm currently considering going back to the stock beetle shifter shaft (small diameter) and adding a "gate plate" and tower above the transmission tunnel. Imagine a Ferrari shift-gate-plate, but mounted on a 4-post tower. That should eliminate miss-shifts if it were precisely machined. Possibly ugly, but I will try and find the photo of a factory Audi rally car that used one. The other option is to go with two universal joints in the Z-bend so that when I move the shifter left and right the shaft rotates at the transmission as it should. Currently it rotates and "swings" due to the hard Z-bend. Going universals, however, would require between 2 and 4 mounts welded into the trans tunnel which could be a challenge with the body on.

So shifting is another item I'll be looking into after I get back from two-weeks away.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well, finally got the chance to try out the tires and suspension setup on gravel. Rear suspension is pretty good, though I will probably swap out to a progressive spring as I've been thinking. Front suspension on the other hand could be a little stiffer. I'm loving the weight transfer under braking, but needs to be just a hair stiffer to match the front. The gravel tires, however, are awesome! To date I've always bought used tires for RallyX, and I can totally understand the difference between a fresh set and one that has been used for a few stages. The fresh blocks are square, and cut into the gravel like a track tire sticks to tarmac. Corners where I've nailed good sliding shots on a used set of tires were simply a matter of carving around the turn like it was tarmac. Gotta love when the performance of something is so good, it becomes boring!


I did toss the GoPro into the car, but I have to be honest and say the videos are too boring to watch. While doing some testing on the forest roads I have closest to the house, the tires don't even slide around corners until you're into the triple digits. Once you do get them sliding it's not even something you could pickup on a video. I'm going to need to find some tighter corners that require pitching the car in order to make a video that's interesting!

One thing is for sure though, these tires are going to take their toll on the paintwork. The light specs you can sort-of see on the fender are stone chips. That's 30km of gravel running...yikes.


-Dave

[85fastlane]

That looks like a lot of fun! Would love to see video 

[owdlvr]

Well, tis been a while. Worked on a few minor details over the weekend to try and adjust some issues. First up was grounding each of the temp senders to their own ground, I was getting some flaky readings or the feed-sensor dropping out, and the individual grounds seem to have solved that problem. The feed ground is a little messy, but I'll get in there again next weekend to make sure it's shrink-wrapped and permanent now that I've confirmed it's working.

My F150 was stolen, and recovered. But in the process of the body shop replacing all the locks and repairing the doors, they messed up the interior light. Battery was discharged and charged enough over the course of the week that it was 100% dead. Wouldn't even hold a charge for an hour. As I'm not sure if the problem is 100% solved, I stole the deep-cycle optima from the Bug since they can be discharged flat a number of times without damage. I tossed in a Honda S2000 battery I have kicking around, and Ziptied it in for emergency use   I figured I would get around to swapping it back soon, but then realized a RallyX is next weekend and I was more likely to show up at tech and then remember I haven't swapped the batteries! A metal-on-metal mount was made for the Honda battery. It's ugly, but will pass tech!


I've also been working on the cooling. The NACA duct flows too much air past the oil cooler, and running on the highway I can't actually get it up to 200deg running temperature. The thermostat I'm using to bypass the cooler still lets a small amount of oil pass through, and this is clearly a problem. A couple of tests with cardboard (blocking the duct) allows the car to come up to temperature...so a solution needs to be found! I honestly don't understand the aerodynamics of the duct well enough, but I know I need to keep the boundary layer intact as much as possible past the duct. This piece of lexan seems to be doing the job so far, might need to make it a little larger and/or adjust the shape.


Once I've got the shape/setup figured out I'll then swap the bolts out for Dzus 1500 fasteners. They will allow me to pull the panel at any point when the heat is getting to high for the fan to control. (Hot day at the track perhaps?).


I was up doing some gravel testing for the panel (high revs, long stints), which also highlighted another issue I need to deal with. The oil-level in the tank is quite sensitive, and it seems when I have it too high it will burp out of the dipstick tube under high-heat/revs! Will need to o-ring or otherwise seal the dipstick tube. Tough to see the top of the tank is all coated in oil.


...and, speaking of testing. Here's some proof that the car does indeed move under it's own power. I goofed on the front-mounted cam, and wasn't going to post a vid. But hey, if I keep waiting until I have a perfect one I will never post anything!

http://youtu.be/k7yPrwBifGw

-Dave

[rekka]

Nothing wrong with that vid. It was cool to see the drifting angles etc. It all looked very composed in the cabin.

[josh]

NICE!!! that angle is super cool to watch

[owdlvr]

I wish I had the front view working so you could see the road. Gives you a sense of how much pitch there is before the corners vs. after. But glad you guys enjoyed it. I've borrowed some other GoPros to add to mine, so the next one should have an edit of four views.

-------
Well,

Started cracking down on the various things I need to address before rallyXing the car on the 24th. First up was swapping the Oil pressure gauge with the Voltmeter. Let this be a lesson to everyone, before installing everything else in front of the dash (wipers, airbox, etc.)...put the steering wheel in and make sure you can see everything! Now with them swapped I can monitor the oil pressure without the need to look, and I can see just enough of the voltmeter needle to know if it's charging or not.

With that done, i decided to investigate why Fuel Pump #2 wasn't working. It hasn't worked since the first day I put a battery to the car. I recall testing the relay and all the wiring I could reach, and determining at some point that it had to be the wiring right up at the switch. Since the dash was apart I pulled it all out, and found the switch and wiring to be fine. Hmmmm. Testing all down the line I eventually discovered I bought a $30 dead fuel pump relay. Hmph. Tossed a regular relay in for now (which doesn't have the tach-input feature) and Fuel pump two was working properly. Sweet. Stuffed everything back in the dash, put the airbox back in, did a few other things and triple checked it before leaving the garage. Fuel pump two not working.

Hmph. Guess I'll be going back to deal with that tomorrow night

I decided since I'll be working on it tomorrow that I might as well drive my F150 for a day, and put the bug up on Axle stands. It will give me a good chance to look everything over after playing the gravel for over an hour on the weekend. Good thing I did!


My first thought was that I must have blown a Motorsport CV boot. But upon closer examination it would seem that my catch can drain came loose and the oil was being picked up by the airstream from the tire. The drain is right against the inside of the fender wall, and will need to be changed. The oil tank was slightly overfull before I hit the gravel, and I knew the catch cans were going to need draining...but I guess the bug decided to drain them a little earlier then me. Unfortunately it's all over the brake caliper:


And the inboard brake pad is wasted.


I've got the brakes and rotor cleaned up, but will need to check to see if I have any rear pads for the car. I know I have spare fronts, but not sure about rears.

...on the plus side, at least I have something to do?!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well, AVR has brake pads in stock...but I really don't want to drive down just for a set of brake pads. Especially since that means I would have to drive my Ford. Ugh.

So, what I did next comes from the "not recommended" and "historical" section of your library. Back in the earlier days of motoring, when brake linings were riveted to the shoes and a pain to replace, it was accepted practice to clean a pair of oil-soaked brake shoes. The problem being that brake linings are porous, so simply wiping them off isn't enough.  First step is to clean them with brake clean, to get the major surface gunk off. Then, using white-gas (called Naptha or camping fuel in Canada) you clean the pads a second time. Once that's done the pads will look new, with some light oil staining. Now the fun begins. Pour some white gas on the pad, wait about 5 min for some of it to soak into the pad...light it up and stand clear!


As the white gas burns, it draws the oil out of the pad like a candle wick. Repeat the soak/burn step about 4 more times. This next photo was after the second burn. You can see the pad is clearing up, and also that it had cracked during the burn. Oh, you thought this method was foolproof? lol.


Regardless...what I have is set of pads which are usable for the couple of days until my new set arrives.

uh, not recommended as a permanent solution...but does work for a roadside fix!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

I'm getting closer to sorting out a solution for the temperature issue. Cutting off a portion of the forced-airflow through the duct has helped quite a bit. Here are the three sensor readings after 45min at 120kph:  (Engine at front pressure plug, Bottom of tank, , Feed into engine)



All sensors the same brand, but I on the next oil-change I think I'm going to need to pull them and confirm they all read exactly the same at 100deg C.  The engine temp reading lower then the feed could be a product of the location, the case temp or the sensor. At this stage I'm most interested in the feed temperature, and so it would seem that I have a bit of trimming to do on my cover plate. I should also order in some of those Dzus fasteners pretty quickly.

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well that was an interesting weekend! To date I've done about 100km worth of testing up on the local forest roads here in Squamish. Switching from an Audi quattro (All-wheel-drive, massive amounts of front end weight ahead of the front axle), to the bug is quite the challenge. I've been getting used to it up on the mountains, though I have to be honest it occasionally catches me out...let it get away from you and it will just spin regardless of what you try

Sunday was a local RallyX event though, so it was up at 4:30am and the three hour drive to Hope BC. Unfortunately I didn't wake up to my alarm, and woke up at 6am. Whoops! Lets just say the bug gets real light up front at speed, and I will be starting to look at front spoiler options Made it in time for registration, and even early enough to end up tech'ing the other cars. The course we've got out in Hope is pretty tight. Depending on the configuration you can get up into second gear, but it's down to first for most corners. Considering I have the 901 gear box with dog-leg first, and a pretty heavy lockout, dropping down into first gear isn't the easiest proposition. I made the attempt for the gear change on a couple of runs, sacrificing some syncros along the way. After a couple of laps I decided the time lost hunting for first wasn't worth the gain made in second gear along a short section. This, of course, was mostly irrelevant seeing as I was mowing down cones with almost every run.  With low momentum I just couldn't get the car to transfer weight under braking, resulting in understeer into corners. When it would transfer it would grab so hard I'd end up taking out the inside cone. Mostly humorous, but frustrating as I wasn't correcting my errors for future runs. Definitely need more play time in the tight stuff if I'm going to do well in RallyX in this car. Oops, isn't that one of the things I built it for?





For the afternoon the course was reversed, increasing the overall speeds significantly. For RallyX, however, the 901 as I've got it set just isn't precise enough for the 2-1 shift. Second gear really would have helped coming across the mid section, but I ended up just wailing off the rev-limiter in first. The back section was my arch-nemesis, a missed gate in run one...the same cone mowed down in the next 3 or 4 runs. For the last couple of runs I stopped caring about the back half and just focused on enjoying the first half where the speeds were higher. Figures that on the final run I finally cleaned the afternoon course with no penalties

While I wasn't able to link up a single run to my satisfaction, I did have some great "segments" where I was able to pitch and flick the car exactly the way I had planned. Essentially the stuff I had practiced on the forest roads was dialed...now I just need to back it down to some tight stuff and get re-learning for the Rear-Engine 2wd setup. Either that, or I need to find a larger venue so the courses can be faster! I'd love to try the car out on some rally-sprints, where the gear box wouldn't be an issue and you could really work the car over a longer, quicker, section.







As you can see, the course was pretty wet...and the mud accumulation was incredible. After the morning runs...





...end of the day was a bit worse...





Rob was commenting on some different Tin he has to seal up the engine bay better. I think I'm going to take him up on the offer.


Pretty sure this is the first DVKK badge to be treated this way...




So, last night I figured I should start taking care of the cleaning process. I posted this photo up on Facebook with the question "this is normal, right?". #1 comment was the fact that "No Handwashing" definitely means no removing the tires and putting the car on Axle-stands!









...40min of pressure washing later, and I have *most* of the mud off the car. Seriously, the stuff was like concrete. Thankfully a buddy works at Sea to Sky carwash, so I had a semi-sponsorship last night!



 I'm not sure how I'm going to get it out of all the fender lips, but I won't leave it in there as it will just hold moisture and cause the fenders to rust. I guess you could say "stage one" of cleaning is complete? I anticipate an other 3 or 4 evenings to get the car clean. One to wash the body with soap and water as per normal, one to work on cleaning out all the fender lips and any missed areas on the underside, one to clean the engine bay and a fourth to clean out the interior. Racin' is hard work! haha

I did have two casualties this weekend while racing. The car performed absolutely flawlessly, and was only hindered by my driving talent and the gear selection. There is something satisfying about tearing the car on the rev-limit knowing you're just running it for exactly what it was built for. Back off? heck no!  I may consider trailering the car to the next event, only because there is such limited space for carrying the four gravel tires. The bakelight heater outlet was casualty #1 from loading tires in the back. As we all know, the body needs to be removed if I'm going to replace this. For now I think I'll epoxy the parts back together!  (and shhhhh...don't look at those welds)



The second casualty was on the Accusump. Kind of hard to tell, but the tire slipped back and crushed the pressure gauge. The gauge is bent back, and the face is broken. Accusump seems to be working fine still, but I'll need to swap out the gauge for piece of mind.



At the end of the event I was second in 2wd class, and 5th overall. The field was small, however, and based on my driving I have work to do before I would be "happy" with my performance. But honestly, who cares? I built the car to race it, and I was out racing it. That in the end is the important part. I was having a blast, and will look upon all of it's new stone chips with satisfaction. I've now got 6,300km on the build and will be busy scouring the Pacific Northwest for other events. Maybe a track day next so I can avoid the week of cleaning?

-Dave

[Geoff]

First off... you have 12hrs to post a "Clean" pic of that emblem  with a newspaper showing todays date or your outa the club!




{
 I may consider trailering the car to the next event, only because there is such limited space for carrying the four gravel tires. }

Spoken like a true DVKK member muah hahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!

[buddy boy]

buy some "spray wax" after you have cleaned all that mud off , spray that stuff under your fenders and any where else next time you go to wash her it will be easier to get the crud off ,.. you should give her a full wax , then the crud comes off real easy,.. i know you don'y like to detail,. so the next time i'm upand we have time i'll do it ,.. i actualy find it relaxing !!

[owdlvr]

buy some "spray wax" after you have cleaned all that mud off , spray that stuff under your fenders and any where else next time you go to wash her it will be easier to get the crud off ,.. you should give her a full wax , then the crud comes off real easy,.. i know you don'y like to detail,. so the next time i'm upand we have time i'll do it ,.. i actualy find it relaxing !!

Yeah, that was something I thought of right after the first lap   I'm thinking about using SC1 on the inside of the fenders. Works great on motorcross bikes, but I'm worried about the "silicone" portion...always avoided silicone around cars.

Maxima SC1 Silicone Detailer

High gloss SC1 Clear Coat is specifically formulated for the Powersports industry. SC1 coats plastic, fiberglass and painted surfaces. Makes the clean up process easier - excellent for use on M/C and ATV fenders to prevent mud and dirt from adhering to plastic. Sc1 dries completely and is water resistant, leaving a long lasting luster without attracting dirt and dust

...But in other news, I'll fully take you up on the waxing offer!

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well, not much progress in the past few weeks. I've been traveling for work, so the car has been resting in the garage. I've currently got Redline MT-90 in the transmission, but it needs to be replaced with Motul Gear300. I've noticed the Redline gets worse the hotter the trans gets, and I've always had great success with Motul. Just can't buy it here in small-town Squamish. Anyone have a Lower-mainland source for Motul fluids?

In the meantime, I've been making a list for the next stage of development. Some of the items are ridiculously simple, like the radio antenna delete plate, and others will be more complex (like the skid plates). While I do love the "sport" style wheels, and they are definitely my preference, they aren't correct for that "period look". The factory cars ran 5.5" wide hub-cap style Porsche wheels:



So I figured I better pick up a set.



I was hoping to sandblast and powdercoat them, but my friend's shop is currently "clean" for painting, and not messy for blasting...so the wirewheel, hand sanding and spraybomb will have to suffice for now. Once you run any wheels on gravel the finish doesn't last anyways, so powdercoating is really just lazy not better. Of course, the wheel purchase means I'm going to need to buy more gravel tires. As the set I have are narrows for use on the 4.5" wheels! These wider wheels would be perfect for my A032r's...but that kind of defeats the purpose of making the car fully period looking. Hmmm, maybe I'll just have to buy another set of them

-Dave

[owdlvr]

Looking better in silver...



-Dave

[beetlemandan]

i'd say powder coat is way better for wheels. my bajas rims were coated 13 years ago and the only damage is where a sharp piece of tire machine put a nice polished edge on the bead. heck, water still beads on them when i give it a wash every other year! that being said, if powdercoat starts to chip, it was a shoddy job. a proper powdercoat job will never chip, at best you can maybe "mash" it off with a sledgehammer. it will still gouge and scratch and mar up just like good ole paint. i'm not saying this to dispute you dave, its just i know there is a lot of hack job powdercoaters out there.

fyi, to get that water beading thing without ever waxing, you need to clear the powder with "tiger drylac" (german powdercoat company) and have it applied with a "tribocharging" gun, not the electrostatic " corona" gun. only tiger makes tribo compatable paints. the difference between the guns is the corona gun adds an electron to the paint molecule, and the tribo removes one, as it gets its static charge through the friction in the paint. the paint lays down WAY smoother this way

[beetlemandan]

i should also add that now that i no longer have access to near free powdercoating, i  just opt for fake tremclad shot through an old primer gun!

[owdlvr]

When run on a rally car, even powder coating doesn't hold up long. I have quite a few Audi wheels to prove that! Any of my non-gravel wheels get powder coated, usually, but I figure with gravels the old tremclad saves my wallet down the road.

--------

Despite a lack of posting here (Summer will do that to a guy), I have been tinkering with the bug on a weekly basis. One of the main things that bothered me was my lack of working headsets for the intercom. Peltor transit headsets are about $290 a piece, and the quality leaves a lot to be desired. Most rally folks won't loan them to buddies for events when not used, as they are so well known for breaking. The Peltor intercom, however, is relatively cheap and bulletproof. Go figure. I've tested a lot of broken Peltor headsets over the years and when it's not user-error breaking the cables, it's always the microphone that fails.

A few years ago I did make up my own intercom headsets, but I could never get the microphone circuit to work properly. The FMT110 intercom, which I own, requires a dynamic microphone. Even with piggyback circuitry I couldn't get the electret mics I had working. For the most part I didn't worry about it, as my last car wasn't so loud that you needed them to talk to each other. The bug, however, is pretty loud inside. To make matters worse, Mom was coming out to visit last week...so I needed a solution! A pilot friend brought me over a bin of broken airplane headsets, and after a day of breaking, testing and soldering...I combined about 8 different headsets, and some bits from radio-shack to create four good working headsets which are compatible with a Peltor Rally intercom. Success! I picked mom up in the airport, and we spent the week using the bug able to simply talk to each other instead of yelling. Once I dropped her back to the airport (5 days later), I started on the hit list for up coming events.



As you can see, the events are coming up fast...and there isn't much time between them! I'm going to start with a High Performance Driving Event on August 9th. I've done quite a few back east, but due to the length of time and record keeping I'm considered "beginner" status out West, and will need to start fresh again for Track & Lapping events. I still haven't sorted out a good stiff Tarmac setup for the car, but I figure even if I run it as-is, that's going to be more fun then not running the car at all! Following that, it Classic Car Adventure's mixed gravel/pavement event the "Rush to Gold Bridge". Should be a good and dusty time, which I poorly planned when setting the dates. Why did I plan a dirty gravel event that ends just FOUR DAYS before the Great Canadian VW show?! I'm going to have to pull the engine and the interior just to clean it in time. Eek!

The hit lists for the events is starting to pile up too:


But no worries, I'll get it all done!

As a start to chipping things off the list, I tried to take care of the big chips I put in the B-Pillars. The match isn't bad...and I actually think when this is dry it will be passable.



-Dave

[owdlvr]

Such a good weekend!

A buddy of mine does snowboard, mountain bike & outdoors films/videos, he and I have been talking about shooting the bug since it was a project in my garage. We've bounced around different ideas, but still haven't gotten around to doing anything. This past week, Taylor sweetened the pot the little with the addition of a RED Epic Camera. As if that wasn't good enough, his friends from Sea to Sky Cable Cams were looking to do some testing with a rally car. Hmmmmm....

Taylor's current demo reel.
Sea to Sky Cable Cam's demo reel.

For those who don't know what an Red camera is, think the Porsche GT3 of the camera world. It shoots in 5k, and super high frames per second (super slow-mo). To give you an idea of the quality...


Can't really turn down an opportunity like that!

Started off in the garage. David prepping a shot.


Later, Taylor setting up the Red as a POV cam. A wee bit bigger then a GoPro


Cable Cam rigging...


I won't have the video for a while, but will be sure to post it up once Taylor's had a change to edit something for me. In the meantime though, I did lap after lap of the section of road we had set aside. "faster", "slower", "can you put the car here?", "more show-ie", "that was great...we nailed it...better do it again just in case". Now I remember why I avoid video shoots! haha

One of the lines required getting close to the raspberry bushes. They ended up all down the side of the car.


iphone pic...I think


The road section we were working on was less then a half km long, with 6 corners and an uphill section. It was top of third gear type of stuff, though I was making it 7 to 8 corners for the runs they wanted it more "showy".  For some of the shots I wasn't running it end to end. So as you can see, a lot of laps and takes to get all the shots they wanted to get. I'm not complaining, getting to play on a closed road at full bore is worth every second!


At one point in the early half I smoked a big rock, and following a large bang was sure I flatted the driver's side tire. We stopped, jumped out and my tire was fine. Hmmm…as I was going around the front side, my buddy Taylor (who was 'co-driving' at the time) says to me "pretty sure it's your side", yup no flat on his side either. Remember all those to-do lists I wrote down in my notebook, crossing off items as go? There was one item on the front suspension that I didn't do, and figured I would catch in that "check all the lists" step before running. Cotter pins on the sway bar ends? Based on the fact that the passenger side one didn't have a pin, and the driver's side had spat it's parts all down the road…I'm gonna guess I missed that step! Only part of the car (beside the rear axles) where I didn't replace everything with nylock nuts and/or safety wire. A quick zip home (in a friend's truck) to get some spare bits, jack and axle stands…and we were on our way to a backwoods repair. Ever try and compress/jam those stupid things together in the middle of nowhere? Yeah, not wanting to do that again! Other then this potentially disastrous event, the car ran flawless all day.

-----

Today, it was all about clean up, damage assessment and check of all fasteners to ensure I hadn't missed anything else. I washed the car twice, first at the coin-wash to pressure wash as much dust and dirt off as I could, and then a regular hand wash upon returning home. The inside was filthy, even the dust had dust on it.




Once the interior was cleaned out, I started on the damage assessment. The paint on the wheels took the expected beating and chipping.


And the raspberry bushes left me with some passenger side stripes that I'll need to polish out this week. Hard to photograph on a silver car, sadly not hard to see in person though!


The gravel road isn't a polished prepared "loose surface" road designed for road traffic. We were using a logging access road, so the stones are bigger. Sometimes much bigger. But hey, gotta use what you got! The rocks do take their toll on the car though...

Slight dent on the driver's side rear fender...


Slightly larger dent on the passenger side rear fender. Kinda wish I had made that flap just 1" longer! The rock has completely crushed the lip of the fender and pushed it out about 1/4".


The muffler is saying "make the skidplates dumbass!"


About this time I was thinking to myself "why don't I build track cars?" And then I removed the wheels. Seems I might be switching to alloy wheels sooner then I had anticipated! This is the passenger rear wheel:


The passenger front has one small dent/flatspot on the inside edge. In true rally fashion, however, both driver's side wheels are 100% perfect. Why anyone chooses to be a co-driver I'll never understand. Now, initially I was a little down on myself for doing this, as i have to go find a replacement. But then I checked the wheel and it's holding air to the exact psi I had set it to. My friend Gord has repaired a number of rally wheels (steel and alloy) using a special tool, so really this shouldn't be so bad. I grabbed my copy of Gord's special tool, and went to work. Good as new! (or in this case, good enough )


The engine bay is starting to look quite scruffy, but I have a gravel rally event before our local VW show..so I figure I'll do the full detail after that. For now it was just a quick clean to get the main dirt out.


I did decide to do an airfilter cleaning, as they showed some signs of needing it.


Car is now cleaned, checked and ready for work tomorrow. Just need to pop the re-oiled air filters back on.

-Dave

[silas]

that's cool dave! it's going to be a great vid and i love the fact that you continue to beat the piss out of this car! (cant get the demo reels to work tho).

i love this s#!t...totally reminds me of my younger years on denman island spending days getting sideways in the dirt in my first car, a 71 super.

[Jeremy]

 You can't  feel too bad about the scratches and dents when your getting out and using the car for what it was built for. Great thread Dave.

[Chris W]

Agree on all the above! Can't wait to see some RED footage.

[owdlvr]

Thanks Guys.

I wanted to at least make it through GCVW's with a "new" car...but I'm the only one who's really going to see all the flaws. Well, me and anyone who reads this

Demo Reel links fixed.

-Dave

[buddy boy]

those dents and sratches were earned !!

[owdlvr]

...At Rocket Rally getting the rear skid plate fitted for this weeks Rush to Gold Bridge event.



-Dave

[Geoff]

Did you make your own or use one of the "classic style" ones?