Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT My Mini Garagemahal

[zmotorsports]

I agree Mike, that new handle makes a huge difference. Is there any way you can scuff and repaint the faded one with something like SEM interior paint/stain? I've used SEM before on interior plastics with excellent results, just a thought.

 

[fouckhest]

I agree Mike, that new handle makes a huge difference. Is there any way you can scuff and repaint the faded one with something like SEM interior paint/stain? I've used SEM before on interior plastics with excellent results, just a thought.

Hey Mike, thanks I knew many here would appreciate!

I expect that they could be repainted with SEM, I've used their interior paint before and also had excellent results. Couple variable played in to my decision, when I really went down the "cleaning rabbit hole" it was too cold outside to paint any of the black interior bits, and to paint inside meant too much moving cars around to keep over spray off them, but I'm not a big fan of painting inside b/c where the shop attaches to the house is on the opposite wall of our master bedroom, so fumes get back quick. So kept kicking that down the road, then one day in a lunchtime search, I stumbled across these on a VW OEM parts site, they were reasonably priced, I need 4x (2 seats in 2 cars), so picked them up. I will certainly save the old ones for the chance down the road someone needs a spare and they become NLA.

All that being said, there are several things that I started to make the buy new vs restore decision in the name of getting the car out of the garage so I can start working on the v8 car again.

 

[zmotorsports]

I completely understand the whole not wanting to paint inside the shop Mike. Mine isn't attached to the house, but I still have a no painting in the shop rule. Been there done that enough to know it makes a mess out of the shop in a hurry. While mine is not a showroom and is a working shop, I still don't like the idea of overspray or spray dust in the shop.

I remember when I painted one of our Harley's at our old home in the middle of winter. I got the parts warm inside the shop, even heated them somewhat above shop temperature with a heat gun, then had everything mixed and ready to spray in the gun. With the parts warm, I quickly moved them outside, sprayed them and then quickly moved them back inside to cure. Then repeated the process with clear. I waffled on waiting until a 70~ish degree spring day but wanted it ready to ride some spring. Turned out to be some the nicest and cleanest parts I had painted actually. No dust or bugs around to get in the paint or clearcoat.

 

[fouckhest]

Turned out to be some the nicest and cleanest parts I had painted actually. No dust or bugs around to get in the paint or clearcoat.

Unique problems require unique solutions! LOL

That is awesome though, I'm sure that was a stressful endeavor!

 

[zmotorsports]

Unique problems require unique solutions! LOL

That is awesome though, I'm sure that was a stressful endeavor!

Stressful? Yes, very much so, especially due to the high cost of Harley Davidson paint codes. Their colors have the highest cost paint codes. That was the most expensive bike I ever painted solely because I wanted to keep the HD factory color code, just "tweaked" the application a bit.

 

[fouckhest]

Progress is progress, right?

Not much glamourous photo wise last night, but got the front seat belts, door sill trim and front seats installed! Kind of a milestone until I can get the door cards, pillars and headline re-upholstered, then it will really seem done....until then, it is finally to a point that I could take it or a test drive....so that's kinda cool! Now just need to wait for the weather to not be so cruddy so I can give it a bath and take it for its maiden voyage

Don't mind the missing adjustment knob, it needed a little 25yr old plastic repair....

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[zmotorsports]

Those cleaned up quite nice Mike. Well done.

 

[fouckhest]

Those cleaned up quite nice Mike. Well done.

Thanks, Mike.

Given the car has >375k on the clock, I cant complain. Although, seeing that photo now and the door jam, it is certainly going to need a, "detail after the detail" to clean out all the jams, nooks and crannies where water, compound, etc has built up.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks, Mike.

Given the car has >375k on the clock, I cant complain. Although, seeing that photo now and the door jam, it is certainly going to need a, "detail after the detail" to clean out all the jams, nooks and crannies where water, compound, etc has built up.

I didn't want to say anything but glad you saw that. Door jams are one of my pet peeves though.

 

[fouckhest]

I didn't want to say anything but glad you saw that. Door jams are one of my pet peeves though.

SAME!

But yes, I've noticed a couple places this week that seemed to have dulled the light at the end of the tunnel....womp womp

 

[MrPink]

I am glad you decided to keep the tan interior, most swap it for black. I love the Mk4 tan interior.

 

[fouckhest]

I am glad you decided to keep the tan interior, most swap it for black. I love the Mk4 tan interior.

Man, it grew on me so fast it, if it hadn't started cleaning up so well, I may have punted.....but here we are! LOL

As I wrap up a long/frustrating day at work, this was a nice surprise in the mail....also, I fully disclose as a child of the 80s from small town rural USA, there has always be some allure to personalized/vanity plates

This seemed fitting

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[rharman]

Grace Slick fan?

 

[fouckhest]

Grace Slick fan?

Something like that, maybe just as much of a fan of all the craziness that was the late 60's.....Although, "white rabbit" is one of my wakeup / alarm songs!

 

[jonshonda]

Sure is a lot of fun when the parts start going back ON the project!

My boring Prius refresh project has been a lot of fun as I'm basically saving a Prius from the junkyard. But it's a Prius and isn't something I would really take pride in (no offense to Prius owners).

The problem for me in Wisconsin is that anything over 15 years old that was garaged and spared from road salt is usually very expensive. And as I'm experiencing with the 2007 Prius, it's disheartening when you finish a project and have a big dust pan full of rusted metal laying on the garage floor.

But I keep looking around for a but of a diamond in the rough. I've been looking for Lexus LS430, Acura TSX 6-speed, BMW 128i 6-speed, Golf Alltrack, etc that is reasonably priced and from a southern climate.

 

[Xti04]

My neighbor just let a really clean LS 430 go for nothing! They needed a tcm and were having trouble finding one. Im doubtful that was the actual issue but I was never asked to look into it.

 

[zmotorsports]

My neighbor just let a really clean LS 430 go for nothing! They needed a tcm and were having trouble finding one. Im doubtful that was the actual issue but I was never asked to look into it.

That would have been a good one to pick up. Those are really nice cars and well built for long term reliability.

 

[jonshonda]

My neighbor just let a really clean LS 430 go for nothing! They needed a tcm and were having trouble finding one. Im doubtful that was the actual issue but I was never asked to look into it.

You SOB you didn't let me know!?!? And here I thought we were family.

 

[Xti04]

I acquired a very clean ls430 back around 2018. Plan was to catch up all the maintenance and sell it. Well I ended up giving it to this girl who had been through an awful assault experience. she drove it for a bit and instead of her mom bringing it to me for service( which I would have done for free) she deemed it to be " one of Mark's crappy cars" and sold it for peanuts. She then bought her daughter a huge POS Jeep compass which cost her far more than it was worth. I lost the 1600 I paid for the car plus the parts I had already installed trying to do what was seemed right at the time. There was never a thank you or anything like that. I learned that some people expect you to do for them and when you quit they drop you like a bad habit. Anyways lesson learned, back to Mikes regularly scheduled VW time!

 

[SilverJimmy]

A buddy of mine bought his wife a 4Runner new back when they had the V-8 edition. He told me that he was thinking of selling it cuz it was getting “HIGH” mileage, just rolled to 100k and was worried that it was going to start to be unreliable. Didn’t really pay much attention to what he was saying cuz we had a 92 LandCruiser and didn’t need another set of wheels. A couple months later I asked if he was still trying to sell it. He told me that he was finally able to sell it to a guy a week ago. Said he’d been asking $8000 and was “lucky” to sell it for 7k! I almost choked him out! WTF! Why didn’t he tell me he only wanted 8k! It was perfect, had every service done at the dealer and had nearly new tires! Nobody was buying cuz he had it listed so cheaply there had to be something wrong with it!!! Our LandCrusher has 300k and I’d laugh at someone offering me 7K!! His 4Runner wasn’t even broken in yet!

 

[Bob Heine]

Sterling, maybe he didn't see this Virginia one, 2003, 217,086 mi. for $36,780:

 

[SilverJimmy]

I really wanted to kick him right in his Jimmy!!!

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, Saturday was one of those rainy miserable days here, so after some morning errand running, I spent the afternoon in the shop cleaning and assembling the white golf tdi

Got the rear bumper reinstalled along with the tail lights and some other misc trim parts, then got the new to me/this car parcel shelf cleaned/installed
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Then just needed something to keep me busy, so kept on with the cleaning program, decided to go all in on the door jams in honor of @zmotorsports
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Admittedly it is rather satisfying! LOL

Sunday had an outlook of much better weather, so after some morning chores and breakfast with the wife, I asked if after a quick cleanup of the car if she wanted to go for a test drive....so got the car cleaned up, also since it was nice I got out a can of SEM trim black to give the wiper arms a quick cleanup....cleaned, scuffed with 400g, then a quick acetone wipe down and things are looking much better
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Coming soon, new windshield!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

All-in-all, test drive did what it was supposed to....found a couple issues:
1. Boost leak, thought I found it when we stopped at a friends house to say hi, but we left, still hear the leak, got home, racked the car and found this...which is okay, I like obvious problems
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

2. One of the original problems with this car was the ebrake warning light going nuts, I fixed it back when I got the car, but now it has reappeared, going to need to do some research, I think I've got a wire broken somewhere b/c jumping the wires to the switch doesn't change anything....so a little stumped at this point and the warning alarm is supper annoying and I am not sure if I can code it out or not...womp womp

 

[zmotorsports]

Door jams look great Mike. Cleaned up very nice.

 

[fouckhest]

Found some time last night to troubleshoot the e-brake warning buzzer. After validating the switch still works, I dug out the FSM (Bentley for VW folks), started tracing wires, found that the switch the circuit operates on runs directly to the cluster, so after trying to test at the female end of the connector, not feeling confident it had good contact, I removed the inner body from connector housing and sure enough, no continuity from switch plug to the cluster. All I can hypothesize is that during the heater core replacement the wire that was problematic before much have finally broken causing the open circuit.

At this point, I am happy I have some what of an issue, quickly went on a hunt for some extra wire, made a small jumper from back of the cluster plug, jumped it to the switch connector and sure enough, the switch now operates (turns warning light on/off) as intended. With that complete it was time to run new jumper wire outside of the harness, it got snaked down through the dash and behind the center console, hooked back up and all the interior re-installed.

Unfortunately no photos of this project, I was too heavily focused on the task at hand, while trying to stay as clean as possible to not dirty up the freshly cleaned interior lol....hopefully get it back out this weekend for another test drive!

 

[fouckhest]

Bit of a silly update, but after all my cleaning, I really started to miss the look of the under hood carpet. My first thought was to make something more OEM+, but figured a quick search wouldn't hurt and much to my surprise, I was able to source a brand new hood mat!

Arrived today at lunch time...so caught 15min break after a call to throw it on the car
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Before
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

After
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

....now to find the trunk carpet that is providing more of a challenge than I would like

 

[zmotorsports]

That looks much better than the bare underside of the hood Mike. However, I'm a bit biased as I like the overall appearance of the hood mats personally.

 

[fouckhest]

That looks much better than the bare underside of the hood Mike. However, I'm a bit biased as I like the overall appearance of the hood mats personally.

Thanks, Mike.

I was hesitent to go back with the full OEM unit, I've seen many show cars make inserts for the little triangles that look nice, but unless CNC cut, I knew that would be another internal demon to fight! LOL

That said, I am happy with how it looks, so much that I will likely order one for the silver car.

 

[MrPink]

Bit of a silly update, but after all my cleaning, I really started to miss the look of the under hood carpet. My first thought was to make something more OEM+, but figured a quick search wouldn't hurt and much to my surprise, I was able to source a brand new hood mat!

Arrived today at lunch time...so caught 15min break after a call to throw it on the car
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Before
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

After
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

....now to find the trunk carpet that is providing more of a challenge than I would like

Whats the part number, and did it come with the clips?

 

[fouckhest]

Whats the part number, and did it come with the clips?

I ordered it from amazon, it did come with clips

Amazon.com

Here is the actual part number
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[jonshonda]

The hood insulation looks great! There is something so satisfying about the fit and finish as well as scoring older oem parts.

 

[MrPink]

Thanks Mike!

 

[fouckhest]

I was scrolling the interwebz the other day and came across an advertisement from Benchmark Abrasives that they had an offer for a free mixed pack of flap disc's. I've been debating trying them out for a while, especially after @quadrcr87 recommended them for steel cutting blades......with that said, this little care package showed up today, excited to try these out!

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[zmotorsports]

I think you'll like them Mike. I've also had great performance from Benchmark Abrasives and have used them in the past. Great products and service both.

 

[jonshonda]

I've used my fair share of BMAstuff and have nothing but good things to say.

 

[fouckhest]

I think you'll like them Mike. I've also had great performance from Benchmark Abrasives and have used them in the past. Great products and service both.

I've used my fair share of BMAstuff and have nothing but good things to say.

Great to hear! Thanks for the reinforcing my change of supplier for a trial.

....also, the note in the box saying it was packed and shipped by: "fingerless fran" gave me a chuckle for sure!

 

[Bob Heine]

Not that you need it but I also have nothing but good things to say about Benchmark Abrasives. When you visit their website, concentrate hard and search for what you went there for.

I won't mention any names but a 'close friend' is in rehab learning a 12-step process because he lingered on the website for far too long. The "free mixed pack of flapdisks" is just like the guy on the street corner offering a "free mixed pack of crack, heroin and ecstasy." They know you'll be back for more.

Pretty sure "fingerless fran" tried to ****** one of those stainless cutting wheels when she thought no one was looking. She learned it's better to grab one from the shelf rather than one from a running angle grinder. Without fingers there won't be much grabbing of anything in the future. Hey, at least she didn't try to hide the grinder in her armpit like my friend in rehab did.

 

[fouckhest]

Not that you need it but I also have nothing but good things to say about Benchmark Abrasives. When you visit their website, concentrate hard and search for what you went there for.

LOL! Noted, Bob....I am very curious to see how they hold up to the different variants you can get from HF or Lowes.

 

[fouckhest]

Rather productive weekend, but not much photo worthy unfortunately, but catching up on projects sometimes isn't always exciting....

I've been putting off finishing the flooring project by means of needing to do the shoe molding, the misses asked that I get that on the radar sooner than later, so took that has my signal that it wasnt going to be a car project weekend! LOL

That said, after enjoying a sunny but cold morning at Cars & Coffee, I came home to tackle getting the garage cleaned up and back in some type of order, which needed to happen so that I could get the v8 car out of the basement so I could turn the basement into my makeshift wood shop. Few hours later, garage and basement are clean, cars rearranged and now we have a clean work space again!

Note - it wasnt a thorough cleaning, just had to get the floor somewhat cleaned up.....but its nice to see the project car back in the project car area!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


Now to find the time to get back to work on it!

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Looking good. Glad to see the toys back in the lift spot.