Chris/Marc's project

[timberwolf177]

That helps.. are they stock fenders? (not fiberglass wide)

[Marc]

You'd never get that much rubber under a stock front fender with a stock-width beam (and with a narrowed beam, the tires'd hit the inner fender at the rear when you turned) - we chose wider fenders from Creative Car Craft.

[timberwolf177]

I was wondering. I was doing a lot of research yesterday and found a couple of places that explain it all pretty well.
From what they were saying, you can do a 17x7 et40 rim with 205/40 and 215/45 with a 4" narrowed beam and still get some turning out of it.

Cost wise, it is a toss up. To do the narrowed beam and all the goodies cost about the same as doing all the fenders.

Thanks for the reply's.. it's been helpfull. Getting ready to buy another bug and trying to decide which way I want to go with it. I like the way yours looks.. great job.

[timberwolf177]

Looking at your pics again.. the very first pic of the bug... looks like stock fenders.. what rim/tire set up was that and are those stock fenders?

[Chris V]

The first pic on the first page is a photo-shopped version of the car when we first brought it home...It's been lowered and the wheels have been copy and pasted onto the car.

Those wheels are 16x6's ET50's. Dad's daily driver has stock beam/stock fenders and has 17x6.5's ET 55 w/17mm spacer and a 195/45 tire - they provide a fair turning circle, but they rub the fenders in some situations...though not badly. I've had better luck with 195's than 205's with stock fenders.

[Chris V]

Finished assembling the windows and put the doors back on...then started on one of the pop-outs:

[Chris V]

Did some wiring today...hopefully a window tomorrow.

[Chris V]

Well, managed to get that window in, and started working on the stereo mounting too. Mario came through huge for me with a custom 1/4" thick spacer when space was too tight, looks like things are back on track now...

[supaninja]

Sweet build dude! I love those wheels.

[Chris V]

Thanks...I was lucky enough to find the rims w/super low miles on eBay.

So what's going on here...The ignition coil wire (terminal 15) from the ignition switch now goes to a 70A Bosch relay, which feeds the 12-space fusebox with power from the 60A fuse beside the battery. The fusebox feeds the ignition coil/heated & power seats/12VDC outlet/heater booster fan relay/back-up light(s)/rear window defroster relay. (this needs to be completed still)

Also, there's a 'hot start' relay - sharing the constant hot from the 70A relay terminal, that feeds power to the starter solenoid...that relay is actuated by the terminal 50 of the ignition switch...What sucks is that's the stereo next to that fusebox, but it's powered from the fusebox in front of the car via a Dakota Digital Retained Accessory module & relay...and sorta' hysterically, then another 12VDC leaves the stereo back to the trunk as an "amp turn-on" wire. So in the end, power flows from the battery, to the 60A fuse, to the distribution center, then onto the the fusebox, then to the Dakota Digital module, back to the fusebox, all the way to the luggage tray, through the stereo, then forward again to the trunk to turn on the amplifier.







Also, partly in view is this sort of abomination I've got going on...A tail light harness that's 8' long It began with the desire not to pass any wires along the firewall, and then with there being the fiberglass fenders there was a ground to add to the mix. In the end I drilled a hole in the luggage tray just above the starter motor itself and the right tail light wiring pops up through into the luggage tray here and continues to run down to the left side heaterchannel where the OEM voltage regulator would be mounted; where the wires are spliced into the main loom with OEM connectors. The ground and an additional wire do stop at the aux fusbox, the ground screws to the negative bus bar, and the wire lay waiting for a reason to need it...maybe one day I'll put a back-up light on the bumper or later taillights.

[Chris V]

So tonight I cut up my already painted decklid I installed a back-up light (OEM VW sidemarker) and a set of OEM thermostatically controlled flaps.

Here is the factory amber sidemarker illuminated by my 12V drill battery:


The flaps:


The flaps installed:

[Chris V]

Yesterday I drilled the factory turn signal holes in the top of my driver's front fender, and also cut it for the other WCVW sidemarker. Today I ran upto the Pick & Pull searching for some windshield squirters as the PO welded the cowl up. I found some hood mounted units from a Subaru I'll be attempting to graft onto the Beetle hood. The Subaru had one of the lower profile squirter designs, and the holes for fitting them into are very simple, a round hole with just one side having a notch for a plastic tang.

There was a `74 Std. there too... I pulled out the factory domelight wiring, Mexican Hella domelight w/lamp, glovebox door bumpers, night/day rear-view mirror, decklid bumper from the apron, B+ wire to the regulator from the battery & the factory 4-way alternator junction block, and the ext. alternator wiring in the engine bay. I might be back soon for some racecar parts, if anyone needs something in particular drop me a line.

[turbobaja]

This thing is going to be sweet! I like your taste. I never knew there were any factory thermo-controlled flaps like that for the rear deck lid, very cool.

Can you share some info on that head unit? I like how low-pro it is, assuming it must work with an external amp, cd changer, etc. I've got to make a decision on tunes pretty soon here for my baja.

[Chris V]

This thing is going to be sweet! I like your taste. I never knew there were any factory thermo-controlled flaps like that for the rear deck lid, very cool.

Can you share some info on that head unit? I like how low-pro it is, assuming it must work with an external amp, cd changer, etc. I've got to make a decision on tunes pretty soon here for my baja.

Yeah, trying to finish it so that it can be enjoyed, garage art is stupid. The flaps were `74 California model only I believe...You may know `74's also had things like one-year muffler/intake manifold with double pre-heat pipes too.


Here's a link to the unit:
http://www.casmfg.com/Secretaudio.htm

I haven't turned it on yet, I could, but haven't The 10' cable between the LCD display and the unit supplied with the kit was too short, so I had to pick up a 15' cable for a trunk mount CD changer...hoping it'll work just fine. They're both 'Big 8-DIN'.


It's expandable but comes with a 'normal' 200W amp built in, I just bought a vertical USB stick dock that's going to be mounted just aft of the shifter on the tunnel for Dad's tunes, and it's iPod ready too, which comes with a nice iPod cable. It also comes with hook-ups for Sirius and an optional 6-disc changer, front amp, back amp, and sub amp, and I think a pair of or RCA's for aux inputs (like from your MP3 player or disc man). I scoured the net for days before deciding upon this one, didn't really want a CD player behind the dash, so it was mechanism-less units for boating with remote controls mainly.

I dont' know how quiet this thing will be, but I'm thinking Bluetooth radio conversations will be out of the picture That seems about the 'biggest' thing this unit lacks. I put a JVC w/Bluetooth in Mom's Escape and she loves it - but with the 50k miles on her original tires they were so loud it was harder to talk (her new Michelins make it sweet).

[Chris V]

Mounted the Subaru squirters in the hood and got the hood on the car as well...I'll have to fiddle with it some more down the road and see if there's enough adjustment to make them useful They ended up being ~17" apart and two inches from the trailing edge of the hood...should just clear the fresh air-box and the hoses just clear the cowl. I didn't file the locating notches in the hood yet, only drilled the holes, so I have some wiggle room with adjustment.