Carbon Fiber!

Well, Dixie let me spend yet another Saturday working on things for the Bug. This time I went into work and made a carbon fiber firewall for it. We had a bunch of expired carbon fiber at work that needed to be thrown out so I used some for the firewall. It turned out pretty good. It was actually an easy thing to make but if you are familiar with composite work, it is very time consuming. Here are some pics of the process.

Here it is bagged and being heated up to 350 degrees while being sucked down at the same time

Here is the machine that does it all

And here is a close up of the corner to show how it looks after it is finished

Now I just have to clean up the edges, lightly sand it and add a clear coat finish to it. I have to get this done before I put the engine in. It looks like I have some time since they haven't even shipped my parts yet. AAARRRGGGHHH. That is frustrating. What do they think it is Christmas or something?



Hurry and Wait.

Progress on the engine is going good. I have put everything back together that I can. Now I am waiting for some parts I need before I can do much more. Here is how it looks right now.



I need some gaskets for the intake manifold and then I can install that and the doghouse. Until I get them I am going to adjust the valves and put some exhaust clamps on that are missing. It won't be long now, I can already hear it running in my mind. Oh and I need to make the carbon fiber firewall. Hopefully I will get that done Saturday.

Finished powder coating the last engine parts!

Well, Today I snuck off in the morning to finish powder coating the last pieces of the motor so we can begin putting it all back together. I had to do black and white. The white is just going to accent a few pieces on the engine. The rest will be black. Here are some pictures.

First to be done is the white. I hung them up on the rack.

                          

 I then hooked the machine up so it would be statically charged.

    
                                    

  I then put the powder on it.
 

And baked it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes

Here is the finished product for the white batch

Then the black batch got done.

I think we are finally ready to start putting the engine back together. Everything is cleaned and painted, all the new seals are in, and the new parts are ready to be installed. Hopefully it goes quick and the bug can be driven again. I know I have missed it something terrible.

I guess its time for Christmas.

Well, Isaac informed me a week ago that I had to be home on Saturday so we could decorate the Christmas Tree. I promised him I would so here are the pictures to prove it.

You can tell in these pictures who is doing most of the work.

Here I am doing my part.

I can't complain, Dixie let me play in the garage for a couple hours after and I was able to get the rear seal in the transmission and fill it with gear oil. It was a fun day with the family and most of the Christmas decorations are out and on display!

Engine tin

Well, here are some new pics of the engine tin I powder coated and the engine on the engine stand that I modified so it would fit the bug motor on.

 

Progress has been a little slow but it is moving forward. Today I installed a new front oil seal on the engine, reinstalled the flywheel and removed the oil cooler so I could replace the seals there. Still have to powder coat a few more engine parts, the back wheels and install everything. I am still working on the firewall and 

then it will be ready for the engine to go back in. I really miss driving the bug. I just wish I had some more time to get things done. I always seem to run out of time, but I guess that's life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have had the annual stomach flu that seems to come around every year right before Thanksgiving. Isaac always seems to be the one who gets it. We are still very Thankful for all the blessings in our lives. Here's a little Thanksgiving humor to brighten the day.

I had to steal this picture because we still haven't found/bought a new camera yet. Maybe there will be a great Black Friday sale on them!

Engine progress

Well, all the sheetmetal has been removed from the engine and the paint has been stripped. We just got the powder to powdercoat the metal in the mail. Just need to sandblast it and it will be ready.
I had to modify the engine stand I have so it would fit the bug motor. Steven and I finished that up tonight and it is ready for the engine to be put on it.
The engine compartment seals are all installed and the firewall has been stripped and is ready for new tarboard and some custom made carbon fiber panels that I still need to make.
Some more cleaning and some powdercoating and the engine will be ready to go back in. I would of had pictures of all the progress but someone decided they needed our camera more then we did. Maybe we will replace it someday. Until then its all words. Sorry. If you want to see the progress I guess you'll have to come by and check it out.

Harvesting for Halloween!

Well, it's that time of year again for harvesting the pumpkins that have grown in the garden. We grow pumpkins every year in hopes that we will get enough to make Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween. We usually can squeak out about 2 to 3 small pumpkins for the boys and Dixie to carve. This year we had good soil or rain or pumpkin plants and ended up with 3 huge pumpkins. They are the biggest ones we have ever grown. Dixie's favorite part of Halloween is carving pumpkins so I let her and the boys take care of that. While they were having fun gutting the pumpkins, I tore out the rest of the garden.

Here are the finished products with the boys in their costumes.

And Dixie came up with the perfect design for Ellie's pumpkin

Can you see the resemblance?

Here is Ellie's costume

Last VW show for the year

 Well, the bug boys went to the last VW show for the year. The weather was rainy and gray. We still had a good time. It was a smaller show at a VW dealer near southtowne mall. I kinda wished I would of held off pulling the bugs motor so that we could of drove it there. It was still fun and there were a lot of really cool VW's there. Hopefully our bug will be ready for some shows next year. I forgot the camera so I had to steal some pics from another guy that was there. Here they are:

And the motor comes out!

 Well, I wanted to wait until it got colder but I just couldn't resist pulling the motor on the bug today. The weather was so nice and I really wanted to remove it so I could get a closer look at the throwout bearing and the front oil seal of the engine. It was probably a good thing because I found that the upper left bolt was completely missing! That doesn't seem to be a big deal but when there are only 4 holding the engine on then it does matter. I don't know if it fell out or it was never installed by the guy that put this engine in. Anyways, We are going to take the time to clean/detail and powdercoat the engine while it is out. The engines comes out really easy in a bug. The hardest part is jacking the bug up 3 feet to get it high enough to drop the engine and get it out from under the car. As usual here are some pics.

 

The Bug Girl?

Well, it may be time to change the name of this blog to The Bug Boys and Girls! We had a wonderful addition to our family on Tuesday at 4:07PM. A little girl! She is healthy and for the most part happy. Dixie is doing well. She weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long. In our family that is pretty small. Both the boys weighed 9 pounds. Her name is Ellie and she already has me wrapped around her finger. Here are some pics

Welcome back to having a newborn!


Ha Ha actually she is a real sweety and doesn't cry very often. Here is what she is usually like :




and here She is with the Family: