Irie Mafia

[user01]

wutsup everybody.

My name is jimmy, i'm 31 and I live in San Diego, CA where i was born and raised. I just looked at my profile and realized I've been on here for almost a year and half. Been just pouring through these archives and kinda soaking it all in before I get started.

Before I get any further into my intro I'll say this. I've never posted before this intro (at the request of you all) but I've been using this site for a while. It has been an indispensable asset to me while I figured out some of the basics of volksrodding. I'm pumped on what you all are doing, and appreciate this site and those of you taking your time to post up your stuff. It has helped me immensely.

I bought my first VW a couple of years ago. Before that, I had a ford pickup that I had whacked all apart and made into a ghetto pre-runner. It was a shitty truck, and I did some shitty things to it, but in the end I learned a lot about basic monkey-wrenching, and drove that thing into the dirt. perfect.

Onto my VW. I bought a 1969 VW bug. I had some rust issues that I had to deal with right away. it was really a pain in the ass because the A-pillar that attaches to the heater channels rusted through and actually broke off (with the help of a driveway fender bender with a concrete wall... long story - don't ask... unless you really wanna know). Anyway, my first experience with VW's was replacing a section of the heater channel, the bottom section of the A-pillar, and the entire front panel.











Welcome to vw's, right? Anyway, managed to get that to all line up close enough to close the door! Very exciting for me, because when I made this work, I realized that with enough four-letter words and busted knuckles, I could make almost anything work with this car.

Since then, I've been keeping it running strong as a daily driver and doing my homework on chops and everything other damn thing I could find on this site.

Do to an unfortunate death in the family, I have come up on a toyota avalon at a price that I couldnt turn down, and now have other transportation which allows me get started on this car.

The plan is a Capella chop modeled primarily after "fat chicks & mopeds", and then all the fixins; beam extension, pans, channels, electric, the works. I'll post pics and updates as often as I can.

Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you all. keep kickin-ass.

[user01]

So much for a "slight" delay...

Anyway, I'm back. My car has been out at my old man's property while I bought a house and remodeled it. But now that that's done, he says he's getting tired of looking at it, so I've got my excuse to hand to the ball-and-chain so that I can get back to work on it!!

Last weekend I went over there and got the bug stripped down damn near all the way. My favorite part was tearing out that rat's nest of wires behind the steering wheel. I got the cab emptied except for the steering wheel because I'll need to push this thing over to the level slab for the chop. I also got the fenders, glass and motor out. I think I'll pull the transmission after I do the chop and get the body off. If that's no good, someone let me know??

I'm heading back over this weekend with the high hopes of at least tacking the chop into into place. I'm only gonna have a day so that may be a stretch, but that's the plan. I'm not going to strip all the paint off yet because I only get to work on it on the weekends, and not even all of em. I'll just strip back enough to do my roof chop for now. And even after that, the body will sit until the pans are replaced, so no reason speeding along the degradation of the metal. Here's pics of where I'm at...

[user01]

I ended up having to build some stuff for my sister in law's wedding so I only got half a day in. I didn't even start the chop. The car wasn't ready anyway. I did get my car and hence, my work area relocated to the shade...



much better. I also managed to level the car. I had been thinking about this for a while because the slab I had planned on working on is slanted pretty hard for water-shed. I ended up jacking the car up and setting the wheels onto boards or blocks until I got pretty damn level. It may not be perfect, but its very close. A lot closer than the slab would have been and I can leave the car here for longer periods of time if necessary. Glad to get that figured out.

I also finished all the "demo". I cut the back off the car, pulled the gas tank, the steering wheel, and everything else that I could out of or off the car. I think I really am ready to start the chop next time I go over. Hopefully this weekend, we'll see. Here's a few more pics...

[user01]

I cut the roof off yesterday.

Check out my saw...


Made my measurements




and chopped it off


checking the fit








It ended up being a 5" chop in the front and 2.5" in the back. Mostly as a result of trimming until everything fit in close enough. Ran out of daylight before making the relief cuts and tacking it in place. Making progress though.

[user01]

More progress.

Made my relief cuts to the roof and body and got started making everything fit. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, so here they are...

















So far, so good. No major hang-ups, and things seem to be fitting close enough that I can make it work.

[user01]

I finished up all the welding except for the inside of the firewall area and and back panels.







I also got a soda blaster from harbor freight to blast out areas I can't grind, and to clean up parts that I'm going keep (transmission, front-end etc.). I read that you can blast paint away while not destroying rubber seals and trim. I had to test it.



It worked. Like a charm. That's the 40lb soda blaster from harbor freight. Waited for a good coupon and ended paying $100 for it. Money well spent as far as I'm concerned. Plus it makes it look like its snowing.



Here's the body, ready for body work. Then I'm gonna strip her down.



You can see where I havent finished welding on the firewall and back inside panels on this one...



And the pans. Which are being replaced.

[user01]

I've done quite a bit since my last update. I got the old pans out, and the new pans in. Got the front beam off, got the rear suspension taken apart, and got the transmission out. I flipped the pans over to prep the bottom for materseries, and noticed my first "problem". The inside of the tunnel is rusting. And it looks like someone was throwing trash in there when they did a janky repair of the clutch cable guide. Bastards. What I'm gonna do it is cut the section of the tunnel out from underneath (see pictures), clean it up in there, and then weld the bottom section back in. I'm not going to be running the stock heater setup, so all of that jazz can come out of the tunnel, and I'm eliminating the emergency break (for now) so that stuff can come out too. I may put the emergency break back in, but even if i do, I'll relocate the lever and have the cables running inside the cabin. You'll see below where someone cut an access panel into the tunnel to fix that clutch cable guide. It needs to be properly repaired. Also, instead of using the copper plumbing pipe that the original fix was done with, I'll take a section of the e-break tubing and weld in a patch (makes more sense when u look at pictures below.)















Here's where the clutch cable guide needs to be repaired:


And here's the same pic, but you can see where someone cut an access panel into the tunnel:


Here's parts...


replacing these with disc breaks...


think these are shot...


new bushings and a soda blasting... these will be good as new!


Just need to make those metal repairs, and then I can get into some paint.

QUESTION!! Anybody ever get one of those total car bushings kits? They go for about a buck twenty on the interweb, and I feel like I'll forget something and have to wait on it if I try to order bushing separately. If anyone has advice, I'll take it.