Day 19 ~ Rolling Chassis

  Due to the work I need to do to sell my Firebird, I'd like the jacks back. So today I set out to remove the outer CV joints from my old spare set of half shafts. It's pretty simple, just super greasy. The only really tricky part is once you've tapped the end off the splines, getting the balls and cages out. If you like those metal puzzles in Cracker Barrel, then you'll get them out fine. No matter. I got them both cleaned up and installed in the front hubs. This is important for support of the bearings. Do not ever load weight on the wheels without these in place as damage to the bearing will likely result. Well enough about that. I threw the old wheels on and lowered her down...
   Woohoo! It looks pretty sweet sitting nice and low. Clearance is pretty tight on stock offset to the new struts. Looks pretty good now, but I'll be getting the aftermarket wheels on eventually anyway.
  Well, a short night relatively, but some progress, answers from Mark, and preparation for several other big things going on around here this weekend means I'm plenty satisfied with today's work. Peace out!

Day 18 ~ Rear K frame & suspension

  Almost have a rolling frame! In fact I almost went ahead and bolted the wheels on just for fun to get the G3F off the jacks tonight, but in lieu of needing to hook up the rear calipers, rotors, brake lines, and tie rods, I figured it would just waste time for an appearance. The tie rods that are stock have ball ends in the power steering boots and threaded portions (14mm) at the outside ends. I unscrewed the rods to remove the power steering assembly (4 bolts) from the K frame.

  Taking up the most time tonight was the strut assemblies' replacements. You would think with all the practice that this would have been easy by now. Not really. Even after replacing the front suspension in my TDI this week, I still had plenty of difficulty getting those spindles loose. There's a tool on ebay ($19.99 free shipping: search "vw suspension tool"), and a set on amazon ($60ish) that looks like a socket with a flat tip screwdriver bit in the end. They're not really expensive, so I highly recommend purchasing one to do the spreading for you. I also had to burn time filing both of the bottoms of the new struts at the welds. So that's 3 of 4 that wouldn't fit down the spread tube without filing the welds that left a lip just wider than the tube. Maybe I can get Mark to make a quality assurance call to the manufacturer he's getting these from. The welds are nicely done. It's just the really tight tolerances don't leave much margin for any excess material.

See both the tie rod end and the cylinder clamp of the VR6

  NOTE: There is a difference between the TDI and the VR6 spindle where it clamps the bottom of the strut. The VR6 is basically one solid cylinder vs. the TDI which looks the same from the outside, but has two 1/2" bands that contact the strut. I found the VR6 to be much tighter and more of a pain to spread adequately.

Using an extra donor mat to keep scratches away as I drag the rear K frame assembly into place ; )

Hoisted K frame up into place. Nice fit!

  I have a bit of work to do getting the brakes looking nice and being functional, but my biggest hold-up for now on the rear spindles is the tie rod modification. In case you're wondering how we get away with a front (turnable) suspension on the rear, Mark made a place to bolt the tie rods into the tubular subframe to lock the wheels in place and also give a toe adjustment for alignment. My only problem is that we don't use the stock tie rods, but I don't have any hardware that substitutes the tie rod. I'll put that on my list of things to request from Smyth Performance tomorrow when I call. No matter, though, I'm sure he has a little goodies list of things to send me soon. We just want to make sure all the kinks are worked out before production hits. The last estimate I heard on that was the end of this month, but I believe that's optimistic by several months. I'd guess high 80's to 90% completion by this month. There's the finished top to consider, VR6 exhaust and manual tweaking, any 1.8T differences in development, and probably a few more things that need to be buttoned up before a full-scale production operation gets underway. In the mean time, that high percentage of finished items can keep any further buyers busy for quite some time, so no worries here. I've been kind of slow getting to things around here because I'm finding parts I don't yet have are "next" in my assembly, and I've had an overwhelming amount of maintenance and other issues coming up lately. As usual, there's still plenty to keep me busy before I run out of things to do. I plan to get the windshield frame, rear brake lines, rotors, and calipers installed, and put the wheels on the ground next. Then I work on swapping the tranny to the replacement motor, and giving that all a good once-over. Once I remount the engine in the back, I can begin plumbing and routing of all the systems and components. Sounds like fun!

Day 17 ~ Wiring 2 and Misc.

  I put in about 2.5 hrs on wire splicing until I ran out of connectors for the larger gauge wires. I got plenty of the small ones, but only half the larger ones I needed in the shipment. I'll make sure there's an inventory adjustment so you won't have to worry about it when you get your kit. Simple fixes . . . beta = )
  After going at it for a long time, I found myself starting to make a couple mistakes, so I took a break from the wiring so as not to mess up something critical. I need some coffee or a Monster energy drink or something to finish up those last couple connector extensions. Still waiting to hear from Mike on a double-check of the VR6 wiring, but I can finish all but the 2-pin connector according to the manual so far. If any other betas working on (or finished with) wiring want to point us in the right direction, what component is the 2-pin extension going to/from? I found 8 identical connectors, of which 3 or 4 could be eliminated, but could use some help figuring out which component I'm running an extension to. We'll get it double checked and clarified in the manual. Other than that, the rest seemed easy to find and extend so far.
   The goal is to get the G3F off the jack stands and onto its own wheels, so I spent some time getting the extra K-frame et al ready for installation. I still have to pull the OEM struts, source some calipers, and figure out the tie-rods and half shafts configuration. Then I'll bolt the frame on, hook up the new struts, and put the wheels back on for "rolling frame" status.
   Sorry about my long silence, last week was spent heavily in dismantling the spare VR6 I bought for the engine. I got that one completely gutted, kept anything usable, and scrapped the rest. Then I cleaned the engine a bit and pulled off anything that was deteriorated or damaged. I'll be dividing some efforts between electrical extensions, suspension installation, and engine preparation until I get some more parts. After that, I expect to fill up the tunnel with heater hoses, shift cables, and all the rest of the plumbing. Seems simple enough, but I'm learning everything is taking longer than I expected. ;)