Company is finally out of the house so I was able to get a little bit of work done this weekend. Third and final coat of Spectrum has been applied to all four doors and the trunk lid.
I plan to hang the amp rack from the rear deck, so I measured out on some scrap 1/2" MDF that ended up being the perfect width. It'll be cut to length (~15"), primed and painted.
The distro blocks (fused pos, unfused neg) and barrier strips will be mounted on the underside of the board, and wires run through holes drilled. Crossover and gain controls will face rearward so I can tinker with them fairly easily when installed.
Sunday morning I started on the bass knob project. Started with this:
There's a small board attached to the potentiometer.
To minimize the number of rca cables I have in the install, I desoldered the female lead, and soldered in a longer male lead that'll plug into the sub out on the head unit.
I had to dremel out the back of the switch blank a little bit to get everything to fit in.
Looks pretty decent, and tested out fine, no audible loss of volume on my test rig, and no noise from the pot when turned.
Small victory for the weekend, but at least it's progress... and that's what counts.
Sell me those duostyling gauges. Awesome! I love those.
Nah, I won't be selling them any time soon. I've wanted a set since '06 or so, and have been hoarding these for the last two years. I finally think he stopped selling them, too.
I dunno if you'd be interested for your Golf, as this really looks best on a white/light one, but I'm selling the Treser heckblende & tails from my old Golf:
BTW, last week I met a friend of a friend who used to work at a stereo shop, and he's got a PPI DEQ-230 that I'm likely going to pick up. 30 channels of old school quality EQ! win
Not much of a progress report per se, but I picked up the DEQ-230 last night. Much to my delight, it's a grey unit and not a white one. (I, unlike most on this forum it seems, am not a fan of the looks of the white PPI stuff)
No progress is likely this weekend since I'm booked solid, but I hope to dig back in full force next week.
In the interest of thoroughness, I've been stripping the factory sound deadener off of the floors. I finally found the right method - heat gun with a scraper. My buddy Justin came over yesterday and brought a second heat gun, and we went at it until the floors are ready for the next stage - being taken down to bare metal.
This was a lot of work, and probably completely unnecessary. I only found a minute amount of surface rust, but the plan is to coat the floors with a couple coats of Por-15 to fend off any future rust growth. I've dealt with enough of these cars in the past rusting to smithereens to want to go through that again. Here's the floors as they sit:
In the interest of thoroughness, I've been stripping the factory sound deadener off of the floors. I finally found the right method - heat gun with a scraper. My buddy Justin came over yesterday and brought a second heat gun, and we went at it until the floors are ready for the next stage - being taken down to bare metal.
This was a lot of work, and probably completely unnecessary. I only found a minute amount of surface rust, but the plan is to coat the floors with a couple coats of Por-15 to fend off any future rust growth. I've dealt with enough of these cars in the past rusting to smithereens to want to go through that again. Here's the floors as they sit:
A giant pain in the ass, but worth the effort if you plan to keep the car for a while!
A giant pain in the ass, but worth the effort if you plan to keep the car for a while!
Yeah, I'm hoping I like it when it's done - I have a habit of going through cars pretty quickly (20 cars in 14 years). Regardless, I hate rust even more than most else automotive
Crazy, bigger than last year.. VWoA had the GTI-R there. Ton load of mk6 on RS, B5 S4s, mk5 on RS, cars on bags.. Overall, good show with a few asshats thrown around between saturday and sunday some people had small things stolen.. Oh, I drank too much and got sun burned..
Jose -06 Titan CC SE -See you in the lanes next year
DEX-P01/P9 - DEQ-P9 - XDV-P90 - Beyma Speakers - OS SS Ref Amps
(All Digital Source)
Crazy, bigger than last year.. VWoA had the GTI-R there. Ton load of mk6 on RS, B5 S4s, mk5 on RS, cars on bags.. Overall, good show with a few asshats thrown around between saturday and sunday some people had small things stolen.. Oh, I drank too much and got sun burned..
Ugh... the douchebag influx. I think they're what will keep me away from future shows.
That's cool tho - I would have liked to go, just wasn't in the cards. Maybe next year. Hopefully I'll have this car done by then LOL.
BTW - I got my replacement amp in yesterday. It incurred a little bit of shipping damage, unfortunately, but I can fix it. I'll have some pics up in a bit.
That;s cool, yes I need to get done with my A4 soon as well.. my kid is trying to do the full drive this time by himself. and me following in my A4.. should be interesting..
Jose -06 Titan CC SE -See you in the lanes next year
DEX-P01/P9 - DEQ-P9 - XDV-P90 - Beyma Speakers - OS SS Ref Amps
(All Digital Source)
That;s cool, yes I need to get done with my A4 soon as well.. my kid is trying to do the full drive this time by himself. and me following in my A4.. should be interesting..
I got a little more time this evening to work on a fairly small project.
On a junkyard trip a few years ago, my buddy and I found two of these half-DIN cupholders just sitting on the ground, already removed for us.
I finally got around to using it today
I cut the ash tray out, marked the hole for the cupholder to fit:
Cut it out and test fit.
I decided to flush fit the cupholder, then cut a piece out of a spare console to cover the big gaping hole I'd left over. Cut another hole in teh side and installed the cig lighter socket.
Gotta clean everything up once it dries. It's a good five footer, which is pretty much all it needs to be.
I have no idea if it'll clear the shifter once it's installed. If not I'll scrap it and start again.
That brings back memories. My first car was a 1988 Volkswagen Jetta coupe. Bought it in '01 and got rid of it in '03. It had power nothing and was a 5-speed. Makes you appreciate power steering.
Had too many mechanical and electrical issues. Put A LOT of money into that car just to keep it running and then right before i got rid of it the radiator starting leaking due to a crack.
I modified the rear deck to fit 6x9s. I remember those door panels were practically thin cardboard.
Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X995 head unit l AudioControl DQX l Hertz ML165 Mids l Rainbow Germanium Cal 25 Silk Tweeters l JL Audio G6600 Amp l Pioneer TS-A6991R 5-way 6"x9" l 2x Hertz HX300 12" subwoofers l Memphis 16-MC1.1100 Amp
That brings back memories. My first car was a 1988 Volkswagen Jetta coupe. Bought it in '01 and got rid of it in '03. It had power nothing and was a 5-speed. Makes you appreciate power steering.
Had too many mechanical and electrical issues. Put A LOT of money into that car just to keep it running and then right before i got rid of it the radiator starting leaking due to a crack.
I modified the rear deck to fit 6x9s. I remember those door panels were practically thin cardboard.
Yeah, they're like any other old car and can eat your wallet up pretty quickly, especially if someone else is doing the work.
The door cards are some sort of pressed cardboard or hardboard. Either way they suck.
I got the floors fully stripped. There was a little bit of tar left here and there, but I got really tired of doing this part of the project and moved on. Here they are soaking in MetalReady in preparation for the Por-15.
After two coats of Por-15:
In between coats I put in one of the new front window seals and trunk seal from FAW-VW China.
A couple weeks ago, I fixed a burnt fuse holder (4th speed fan switch, so says the intarwebs), pulled the old cheesy amppower wires and leaking grommet, removed as much of the rest of the factory sound deadening schmutz as possilble, and laid down some raammat BXT2. It was hot as balls so I went back in and had a beer.
All of the raammat has been laid down as of this past weekend (on floors and firewall bulkhead) and Ensolite over top. Man this stuff really cut down echoes in the car!
The Ensolite conforms to floor contours pretty damn well, and sticks like a champ with the glue Raam provides. I have a few wrinkles, but I'm going to have another layer of padding over top of them, so I'm not worried.
Thanks to Justin for all the help with that!
I really wanted to switch back to the earlier hatch plinth, but I see why my buddy Tim (PO) converted to the later style cover. Old busted KMFDM sticker and some surface rust. Yuck.
Most of the clips for the rear plinth cover thing were pretty borked up, so I replaced them with these rubber compression grommets from Home Despot. There's a threaded insert in the end, and as you screw down they compress around the back to create an anchor and seal as well.
Here's how they sit installed
That's it for now. I'm kinda held up at the moment waiting for the replacement antenna. After that I'll button up the firewall and install the dash.
Hey, if you need anything Mk2 related, let me know, we sold my kid's GTI, to do a 5sp swap on a B5 A4. So I have a CE2 fuse blocks, MAFs, and a few other things..
Jose -06 Titan CC SE -See you in the lanes next year
DEX-P01/P9 - DEQ-P9 - XDV-P90 - Beyma Speakers - OS SS Ref Amps
(All Digital Source)
Hey, if you need anything Mk2 related, let me know, we sold my kid's GTI, to do a 5sp swap on a B5 A4. So I have a CE2 fuse blocks, MAFs, and a few other things..
Hmm, I'm pretty good on parts AFAIK - do you have a FS thread up that I could peruse?
Looking good! I've always liked these old school VW but I'm partial to Honda.
A little advice if I may. Try using dry ice next time on the factory deadener. You won't have to mess with scrapping tar if your lucky. It's never failed for me yet but the car is pretty old.
Most of the clips for the rear plinth cover thing were pretty borked up, so I replaced them with these rubber compression grommets from Home Despot. There's a threaded insert in the end, and as you screw down they compress around the back to create an anchor and seal as well.
FYI...the rubber things you used are called wellnuts. They are used pretty extensively on the bodywork of sportbikes.
Looking good! I've always liked these old school VW but I'm partial to Honda.
A little advice if I may. Try using dry ice next time on the factory deadener. You won't have to mess with scrapping tar if your lucky. It's never failed for me yet but the car is pretty old.
Thanks. I like my Hondas as well (owned a Civic for a while, considered an S2000 before going for the MINI), but have stuck with the VWs for a while - if for no other reason than I've been working on them, parting them out, and hoarding parts for them for about 8 years now.
The dry ice trick was the only one I'd heard of that I didn't try - I figured buying/transporting dry ice was going to be a PITA, especially since I didn't know when I was going to have time to work on it until shortly beforehand. Nonetheless, I appreciate the tip
Quote:
Originally Posted by SSCustoms
FYI...the rubber things you used are called wellnuts. They are used pretty extensively on the bodywork of sportbikes.
Oh sweet! I think you just saved me from having to buy those at Home Depot again. Thanks!
Re: ODJ's 1988 VW Jetta
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