The Beetle

Just a quick pic today.  Here's a digital pic of a hard copy pic of my '69 Beetle.  This was the day I got it, waaaay back in 1997. This is also the first time ever that my Beetle's been seen on the internet in it's original pre-painted condition.

Scraping

I'm used to driving very low cars, heck for many years, my '55 Plymouth had just 3/4" between the skid plate and the ground.  Because of that, I'm used to watching where I drive and occasionally scraping the road.  Sometimes though, I get myself into an unavoidable scraping situation.  When I got the Viper, I noticed that the bottom of the bumper was very scraped up from it's previous owners.  The air dam section I can live with(and I have to fix it anyway), but a large section of the chin is very scuffed and I'd rather not wear a hole in it.

There is a company that makes a bolt on chin guard, but it stands out too much for my liking, and if you really smack something, you'll bend the "fingers" and then it looks really bad.  I decided to make my own.  I used 1/8" x 1" aluminum with some 3M trim and emblem tape.  The bars are curved to match the bumper, and the paint rubs told me where to put them.  You can just barely see the tips sticking out when the car is on the ground, not enough that most people ever notice.  I've had them on for a month or so and they've taken a few minor scrapes alright.  My thinking is that if they ever do fall off or get scraped off, I'm only out a few bucks vs. the protection they offer for every day driving.

Wheels

The first of the 5 spoke Viper wheels were cast instead of forged.  Because of this, they have a tendency to crack.  It's primarily the '96 cars that were affected.  The easy way to tell is that the cast wheels have a weld going around the inside of the center, where the center is welded to the hoop.  My wheels are different though.  They have no weld, indicating that they're the later forged wheels, but they have a '96 build date.  Hmm...

Robot!

Here's a robot I built not to long ago.  He's a Graymark Scrambler, a copy of a kit Dad and I built nearly 20 years ago.  I made all the plastic frame bits myself because I didn't like the color of the included pieces.  He doesn't work right though.  The was it is supposed to work is that he walks until he senses an object, then turns.  The sensor is optical, and doesn't seem to have enough range/sensitivity, so he doesn't turn far enough and ends up angling into the wall and getting stuck.  He was still fun to build though.

Maintainance

The Viper's idle quality had been becoming increasingly erratic over the past few months.  The problem is that the IAC gets carboned up and sticky.  It wasn't enough to really trouble me, so I let it slide for awhile.  Lately though, it'd gotten bad enough that it would sometimes stall when coming up to a stop sign.  It's reasonably common on higher mileage cars, and at 46K miles, mine was due for a cleaning and I decided I should probably just fix it.  The IAC is on the passenger's side of the intake, and is held on with just two bolts, with a big hose running to the air box. Since Acetone is the primary ingredient in many carb and throttle body cleaners, that's what I used, along with a tooth brush and some q-tips to clean all the way around the valve.  Then I sprayed the whole thing off with TB cleaner.

While I was at it, I decided to clean the throttle bodies too for good measure.  They get a ring of gunk around where the throttle blades seal, and can sometimes cause some issues.  Same thing here, Acetone and a tooth brush, followed by TB cleaner.

I noticed an immediate difference in the way the car runs after cleaning.  It starts quicker, and the idle is much more consistent.  If I'd known it would make so much difference, I'd have done it much sooner.

Exhausted

I finally got my axle back exhaust done.  I'm used to welding aluminum, and I'm a bit out of practice on Stainless.  These are some of the sloppiest tig welds I've done in a long time.  Honestly, I'm not real happy with how it turned out.  It will work, but I know I could have done better.  I used Scotch-Brite to give the pipes a nice finish.  All told, I've only got around $150 in it. 

It sounds pretty good.  It's loud without being obnoxious, and it's got much more bass rumble than the Corsas I've heard.  It's got a lot of drone at certain RPMs, but it doesn't really bother me, it's a sports car after all.  It's not the thump of a V8, nor the whine of a V12, but it's own unique sound.  For what it cost, I'm very happy with the sound.  Here it is, no cats, no rear muffler, just the stock side sill resonators.

Tiresome...er...more exhausting

Time for more work on the Viper's exhaust.  The first order of business after removing the stock muffler was to locate the tips exactly where I wanted them.  Using plywood shims and duct tape, I hung the tips in the bumper cut out at the right angle and with the stick out I wanted.

Then, I stared making the pipes, tediously cutting and fitting a bend at a time, working my way forward toward the stock pipes.  I forgot to take pics along the way, but there's not much to it.  Since I'm using 304 stainless tubing, the plan was to tig weld the whole thing together.  I don't have a tig welder at home, so I bought a small spool of stainless wire for my mig to tack everything together.  When I finish weld it, the stainless tacks will melt in with the rest of the filler.

Since the stock exhaust is 2 1/4", and I'm using 2 1/2" tubing, I needed some adapters.  Stainless adapters are really expensive, so I made my own by flaring a bell shape on the end of some 2 1/4" pipe.  I'm using band clamps at the joint between stock pipe and the new stuff.  As it turns out, a 180° and a 45° provide the exact right amount of bend that you need to get from here to there.  Here it is all tacked together.  The hangers still need trimming, but it's pretty much ready to weld.