63Ragtop

I been wanting to build a wee work/welding table for awhile now, the main reason is to have home for my two cheap wee welders to live, as the power is in the one spot, the generic trolley was in the way, the cables were always on the ground and would jam the wheels when I moved it, so... I found a GC on marketplace that was a lazercutter in his shed, got this plate cut, 900x600, plus 40mm strips. Got some 40mm for legs. Made some feet. Not part of the original plan, but thought these old drawer would be good to keep welding stuff in. Made less room for the welders so I removed that big plastic handles off the top. Found this thick black plate for the bottle to sit on, fabbed a big hook to secure the top, made another hook for the torches, used the off cuts from the last project for shelves. Pretty happy with that! Stuck on so old wheels I had, painted the frame with penitrol, done.

I spoke to the excellent Barry at Weber specialists ages ago, I asked about jetting, first thing he says is what size chokes are you running? 30mm, 1600 vw with 36mm Dellortos DRLAs need 28mm chokes. I'm sure you can buy them but I thought it was a good idea to try and make some. And it doesn't work, then I'll buy some! Haha. Halfway done. Done. Could not be fucked pulling the carb and manifold out so swapped out the venturis in place. Managed to not drop anything inside the motor. Turns out I had one of the upper vents in backwards, why is it possible to put them in backwards!!? Happy with the changes, car is much nicer around town to drive, now I can get the jetting better. Stoked to have made parts for my engine and have improved things!

I did do one other thing recently. I removed the little air filter from the catch can and plumbed them into the air intakes, the can was catching the oil spray outta the crank case but I was still getting leakage outta the pulley and dip stick area, this set up creates a vacuum like the factory setup, much better. But I was still getting a drip here from this connection no matter how hard I tightened the hose clamp. So I hatch a plan, I had this pipe end left over from building the catch can, amazingly the same diameter as the vw part. After some tricky welding and even tricker grinding, all sorted. Even managed to not burn the paint So far no more drips!

Bath time.

Finally got around to installing a bit of fancy new technology in the bug. No not a working fuel gauge. I was going to mount it inside the glovebox but realized that it would take up a lot of space. So mounted it through the side. Fancy usb plugs.

Oh yeah! Another step forwards.

Solid progress today! I had the wrong board setting! Still doesn't work, but it's getting there.

First crack at coding is finally making progress. Shit is backwards and sideways. Then I realized the touch screen doesn't work, because I didn't ask the AI code maker to make it work, and the equalizer was jumping around randomly, because I didn't tell it to react to the music. Baby steps.

Made me a backboard for the lathe. Cut and bent up a bit of alloy, mounted with some decking off cuts and a couple old shelf brackets. Made some smaller brackets from rhs and stuck a handy shelf on top for beers and tools. The one tricky thing was it had to be back far enough for the cross slide to go all the way back as the lantern post holds the boring bar in this position. So much wasted space behind here, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Finally got around to replacing the front of my bora ruined drawer. Got busy with the hammer and the chisel. Nailed the nails. And I lick of paint, you'd never know.

Anyone else ever built a custom mp3 player with a cheap yellow screen? Thought it might be a fun project, see if I can hide it in the ashtray. Phase 1, design and print a case. Ideally somekind of mechanism will pop the screen up as I open the tray. Be rad if I can repurpose the knob to be volume.

After removing a wall during the reno our old shelves didn't fit, also they were ugly and didn't gel with our decor. I acquired these oak veneer floating shelves from my former corporate overlords. Bought some 30mm steel and made the frame. The shelves are pretty strong but kinda narrow, decided to add a cross bar. Which made the top an issue. So I extended the vertical 30mm. And zapped it all together. 3D printed these TPU feet I designed. Fit perfectly and protect the floor from what is now a fairly heavy shelf. Screws. Fits like a german. That's a weird auto prompt. We got to much shit but the main thing it's not in my garage.

Haven't done fuck all on this thing for awhile, haven't needed to!! Apart from what turned out to be a lose fuel pipe it been pretty reliable. I did balance the carbs again, which made a huge difference as it would stall at the lights.

Yes, thats the plan, but I think you put resin on the fleece to make it hard, then build it up with fibre glass etc.

I been wanting to build some proper front enclosures for the bug. You can buy these ugly plastic things but where's the fun in that!? I spotted this stuff in bunnings today. I noticed the mat is polyester resin and the cloth is epoxy, thoughts??

To cut a long boring story short, I ended up making one good wheelbarrow from two fucked ones. Had to drill a couple extra holes in the frame because of small differences, major problem was the axle I had was to short. So I made these. Most over engineered wheelbarrow ever. Actually works too.

Finished up the mill table.

As seen elsewhere on os.ng, I acquired a rong-fu mill drill, which necessitated a complete rejigger of the place. No wanting to lose my fuckin sick old chest of bank drawers, I have a plan. Moving this thing means first removing all 22 separate double sinked, adjustable depth drawer, I once tried to walk it across the floor, and as strong as it is the weight started crushing the corner. Chopped four draws high off, the bottom 1.5 draw were missing anyway. Used a spot weld drill, removed the floor, squared up the edges and bent it over with a pair of wide flat vice grips, worked really well. Tucked the corners in nice. Then realized I couldn't actually fit the floor and and to unbend it! And back up, you'd never know bar the plug weld burn through. Less drawers forces me to be more efficient and throw some crap out. Spent ages cleaning and chopping up metal. Nearly went with this design as the mill footprint is only 320 between bolt holes. Fully weldy now, I've got a 2x6 plank for the top.

Think I may have solved my flooding problem, put everything back together, turned on the fuel pump to prime the carbs and it pissed out the side of the banjo fitting! Seems this fibre washer fucked out. So that's the fuel leak sorted, now onto the massive oil leak and yet another broken exhaust mount! VW life!

Yeah I think the china carbs are a super common upgrade. What size engine did these DRLA dells come on @Thousand Dollar Supercar? 1800-2000cc?

Guwd damn, I'd love me some rack and pinion steering in the vw!!

Well, that was inconclusive. It was about now I remembered my eyes aren't as good as I thought. Cleaned everything, needle seems good, floats look okay, float and aren't full of gas. Guess I'll hook it up and see if it over flows again.

Thanks guys, will inspect tonight. I usually change the oil when it's warm, should I dump it cold in this case?

Got given this thing the other day. Brown 80s tiles had to go. Nice solid timber, smashed a bit of ply on the end. And the best bit! Mmmmm boil linseed oil.

Had my first major problem for a while with the bug on Monday evening. Id moved the car outside to work on garage stuff, went to start it later and the motor wouldn't turn over. The left carb was wet and dripping fuel everywhere, got the car pushed inside, removed the carb and sparkplugs, engine turns over by hand, carb was making a gurgling sound!? So hopefully the piston rings and bearings are okay. After a Google it looks like I've got a stuck needle valve or broken float? How or what do I need to look for? Is that the valve attached to the float mechanism? How do I actually diagnose this? Any wisdom from the carb Barrys?