Day 22 ~ Door cuts, brake line replaced, shifter box work

     Smyth recommends using a circular saw (with metal-cutting blade of course) for the door cuts. This is extremely handy. I probably could think of a few other areas it would have made life so much easier than the reciprocating saw, but especially the doors. It's definitely a lot more dangerous of a tool if it gets caught and you lose control, but proper use and situation awareness can prevent accidents. Other recommendations I'll add are to cut these with the doors installed so they're their own stabilizer, and make sure you have room enough to open the doors fully. That area near the front of the door is the hardest part with all the extra layers, and whatever you can't reach easily with the circular saw, you'll need to finish with the reciprocating saw (which is more tricky and time consuming). It took me a while to finish marking the lines between the dimensions I'd already measured and marked, so between that, the cutting, and a little cleanup, I burned about an hour and a half on the doors.
     Since I had an extra pair of rear brake lines laying on the G3F from another Jetta body, I decided it was time to install that so it wouldn't get bent or damaged just being in my way. If you remember, I had cut the line going to the right rear wheel when I made my rear seat area cut. See notes on that to avoid the same mistake. Otherwise it's likely to cost you more than I because you probably won't have an extra Jetta body sitting there for spare parts.
     Next I unbolted the original shifter box assembly (2 (10mm) nuts in front on top, 2 bolts underneath and to the rear). I gently used some groove joint pliers ("channel locks") to remove the bottom cover by prying each tab. I'd like to keep it in tact to re-install as a dust cover. I think I'll only need to trim the front corners, and drill a drain hole to make it work with the modified box. Getting all the parts sorted out and put together took a lot of time and trial-and-error from the pictures in the build manual. Let me just note here that you really need to peruse the manual by major sections, not step by step. There's a lot of good tips and necessary steps that come later on in the section. If you try to replicate the picture and progress of the first few steps, you'll be ahead of yourself, and will likely have to redo some things based on the notes to follow. Also, I had quite a time with clearances. The end result will work the same, and looks close, but has a couple washers used as spacers in a different area than the one in the manual. NOTE: When you drill out the ball-end on the longer shifter box thread rod, use at least a 9/32" drill bit. A 1/4" will fit over the post tightly and will bind in a Reverse, 1st, or 2nd gear position. I also used a round file to just widen the hole a tiny bit in that direction. NOTE: Also, when you get your hardware, check the length. If it's over 1" long, you'll be better off getting a couple shorter ones as clearances get pretty tight, and there was a ton of thread left out the end from 1/4" to 1/2". I will update the measurements after my trip to Lowe's either tomorrow or Monday. Hopefully, my feedback to Smyth on the different hardware sent vs. pictured will keep you from having anything but the right size anyway. That's what beta is all about ;) working out the little stuff on production.
     Well that's about it for today. I'd have put some pics in, but my camera app is misbehaving lately, crashing and rebooting my device, so I'll get some from another source soon. Have a great day, and thanx for reading! = )