What have you done to your rig today?

New tires to replace the BFG racing slicks and some fresh marketplace wheels

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I'll paint them blue and mount them high and tight like I am 16 again.


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Ohm checked the sending unit and then put the gas tank back in the ‘79 super. Have a new “better quality” (see also regulated to 3-4psi for the EMPI HPMX 44 carbs) electric fuel pump on the way. Strut tower brace back in. Waiting on my parts to rebuild the fresh air blower. It occupys the small area next to the windshield wiper assembly to feed outside air into the car. Need to get more under coating. The orange part you see is also an air inlet. I’ve been seeing videos where people mount one of the small diesel heaters in the trunk area and run it in that hole. They make em blue tooth now so you could literally warm up the car without even starting the engine. Not like this VW ever had factory “heat” to begin with lol
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Wife was home from work today, sick so I've been taking care of her. Managed to run a couple errands and get some stuff knocked out on the red truck!
Wire wheeled, scraped, wiped down, and sprayed rust converter on the front half of the frame under the core support, bumper brackets, and lower control arms and then hit it with two coats of POR15 Top-Coat;
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Not bad for a quick job, now that we're finally out of winter (I HOPE) I think I'll be able to get the entirety of the frame painted and the front end rebuilt in the next month or two!

I need to get my ass out to Whispering Pines to snatch up a balljoint press I've procured so I won't struggle with pressing the new bushings in, I'm excited to have the proper tools to do this work, it's just trying to find the time to go get them that's killing me.
 
WE have more or less decided that the Samurai will stay with WE until I die.
WE don't need to sell it so I can get a truck.
So about a month ago, as soon as I was back on my feet after the knee replacement, I started working on all those little things that happen that you fix when you get a chance.
So I'm more or less worrying it back into shape. I pick something small and take my time.
I've fixed the hard top back glass, got rid of a death wobble ( new damper ), diagnosed a squeal (bad a/c clutch pully - need parts).
I'm slow, I can't breath so I get tired quickly and have to work , break, work, break, and the brain don't work right so I have to think, cogitate, and youtube a lot.
 
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Finished up my floor, hopefully i can drive with the windows down and not have hot air being sucked up from around the shifters anymore. Went from this hackery:
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To this
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I also confirmed my rear driveshaft is bent, so I'll need to get a new one built, also popped the rear hubs off to service the wheel bearings and drained and refilled the cases.
 
Started tearing it apart to replace all the AC components. AC hasn’t ever worked the 20 years I’ve had it but I’m getting soft in my old age.
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Rear wheel bearings are serviced and ready to go, a new parking brake shoe was also installed. Ordered up my windshield, should be here next week sometime.

This probably would still hold right?
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Painted the interior pieces I had to replace, the gauge pod has always been off color ever since I installed it in the truck; and since I moved it lower on the a-pillar I figured now was a good a time as any to correct it. Dash bezel and kick panel were junkyard digs to replace the busted ones, so they were faded and nasty looking. Only downside is now the rest of the dash looks questionable from certain angles.
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Also went ahead and tackled a little additional wiring repairs I hadn't done when I was replacing the multifunction switch and ignition.
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Scored a wideband for the red truck Friday; I'll need a different harness before I can install everything but I'm happy to finally have one.
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Also, made it down to snatch up the balljoint press. $75 bucks, and I'm stoked to have it, need to order the necessary cups, even buying everything I need from Snap-On I'll be miles ahead with it.
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Took a break from the wiring on the red truck to work on the wiring on my crew cab. Needed to fix the horns; all the time I've owned it they haven't worked. Nabbed a couple from the junkyard and a little solder and heat shrink later I have one chime working. Better than nothing. I managed to break the bolt off the mount so I had to zip-tie it to the core support, not pretty but it'll do for now.
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Also stripped down and redid the funky harness I got for my AirDog that's going on the truck; I got the pump from a buddy and he threw the harness in for free and I can see why. It was a mess, there wasn't a single wire that did have multiple butt connectors, so I stripped it down to the relay, fuse, and maybe 6 inches of wire of the original harness.
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I soldered, coated with a little dielectric grease, and covered the splices with double walled heat shrink. Checked everything with my multimeter and test light and it works fine. First time I've ever done anything like this, still need more loom, a pigtail for the power side, and wire ends but it came out pretty good for a junky harness.
 
I got the AC components replaced pulled a vacuum then charged it, it seems to be working.
 

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Buttoned up some wiring and got the dash panel back in the ‘79 super. Set the Speedo in place and all connections are set. Gotta get the glove box back in but that’s easy. Need to find a single DIN Bluetooth/am/fm radio to fill the hole in the dashboard as the old one was shite.
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Also did an oil change and gave her a wix on the remote filter. Crazy that these motors came from the factory with nothing more than a wire mesh filter in the oil sump and ran for so many miles/ hours.
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Got some DEI heat sleeve on the way to cover the oil lines from the engine up to the remote filter given it’s in such close proximity to the headers. We shall see how it goes. Also have the wires ran for a set of VDO oil pressure/ oil temp gauges that I need to make a bracket for inside the car so I can keep tabs on the vitals.
 
skyhighZJ said:
Crazy that these motors came from the factory with nothing more than a wire mesh filter in the oil sump and ran for so many miles/ hours.
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I grew up with Beetles - Dad's 6th and 7th, I believe, and he had them pretty figured out by that point. We never had engine issues, but he changed the oil every 2,000 miles.

7th, a '74 Super, had around 235k on the original motor.
 
Got the Barnes skid plate installed on the XJ. I hate nutserts. But the worst part was when I drilled one of the holes through the frame with my 1/2” unibit, it broke through as expected, and then I pulled the drill back and heard the unibit hit the bottom of the framerail. :rolleyes: :shaking: :laughing:

Spent the next 45 minutes fishing it around before I finally got it out. Skid looks good though.
 
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