My wife brought her digital camera home from the office this weekend, so I snapped some more pics in the sunlight today.

http://home1.gte.net/res0holb/index.htm

I sprayed the engine bay down with Westley's rubberized undercoating spray. It turned out pretty good, I think.

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

looks good but why did you paint the jackpoint area the same color as the body? shouldn it be dark grey or black?

Yes. The body shop painted it that way.. I thought he would have known to mask it off. I'll probably spray it with the same undercoating as I used in the engine bay.

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

Nathan - a BRILLIANT job!

:)

What is in the works for the engine???
rebuilt???
Car Looks GREAT!
Is the interior excellent?

Yes, I'm rebuilding the engine. An over-ambitious DIY project that kept snowballing and finally resulted in a full body & engine overhaul.. just a few steps shy of a frame-off restoration. The interior is very good: on a scale of 10, probably an 8 that I could push up to a 9 with some effort. No cracks in the dash, good seats (need to clean the sheepskin covers), carpet needs a steam cleaning but is otherwise good. Brakes, electrical, vacuum system, sound system are also all good. A/C needs something but I haven't decided what yet. It's still R12 but needs a charge.. I might convert it to R134a but it gets hot here (Central FL) and R134a might not get as cold. Anyway, I plan to keep it for a long time! Thanks for the kind comments, all.

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI

It might be a good time to check your sway bar. Someone recently posted a picture of a sway bar that sheared off its threads in the upper control arm. Looks like you're 10 minutes away from replacing the sway bar and/or associated bushings at this point.

Nice to see these cars getting the respect they deserve. Mine sure don't :(

Sixto
91 300SE
81 300SD

My A/C was converted to the R134 system by the previous owner. I don't recommend it. It cannot keep up with the southern California heat, it will definitely disappoint you in Florida.

I hate to ask, but how much was this?

I'm facing minor body repair/paint down the road, what kind of budget?

Looks great!

Yes, it was $1200 for rust removal (including cutting out and welding to patch the metal on the fenders), hand & machine sanding, and painting. I used a little independent shop, a guy who just has two bays in a small industrial complex near here. He used the factory color codes and said he did 8 (!) coats, including two top coats of a mixture of the paint and a clearcoat/sunscreen compound. Since his shop wasn't perfect it's got a few flecks here and there where dust settled onto the paint as it was drying, but a 2500-grit wet sand should make it perfect.

My total for parts is going to be between $1800 and $2000 (including engine rebuild w/ new pistons and liners; some front suspension; rubber seals around door, trunk, & sunroof; and lots of little things like miscellaneous broken trim pieces and "wear" pieces). I don't know how much the machine shop is going to charge for the cylinder liner replacement and valve job.

The only things remaining are the aforementioned A/C and the cruise control. I'll probably use GDL's (http://www.gdl-online.com/begin1.html) troubleshooting guide for the cruise control *after* I get it running again. I'll probably also need new tires soon too, and an alignment since I'm replacing suspension parts.

My wife has made some comments about the expenses, but there's NO WAY I'll be able to find a car this solid for the ~$3500 that I'm putting into it. Luckily, my time is cheap. If I charged myself the usual $50/hour, I wouldn't be able to afford myself ;)

Er, as for the apartment... I haven't had any complaints yet. My building is on the end of the row and there are about a half dozen boats (on trailers, of course) also parked down here at the end. I only had the body outside for a short time while I disassembled the engine in the garage, then I pushed the body back into the garage to strip it for painting. Now I am in the process of putting all the trim and such back on (a tedious process since I'm trying to thoroughly clean & restore every piece as it goes back on)... after that I'll push the body back out into the parking lot while I put the engine back together, then back into the garage to drop the engine in and reconnect everything.

As for the A/C, I'm still undecided as to what to do. I managed to get this far *WITHOUT* opening the refrigerant lines (yes, I took out the engine and tranny but left the compressor and lines intact). But, I also noticed a kink in the refrigerant line at the condenser, actually on the condenser side of the fitting. It looks like the condenser and/or nearby hose were replaced in the past, and someone twisted and kinked the refrigerant line while wrenching on the nuts at the fittings. I guess if I want to fix it right I probably ought to replace the condenser. I don't think I could safely un-kink the line without significantly weakening it .. that's the high pressure side, right? It's been a while since I took thermodynamics.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on, I'm tired and it's been a long and emotionally draining day.

Thanks for the kind and supportive comments, all!

- Nathan
'83 240D "Steiner"
'00 New Beetle TDI