1969 Florida 1600 and 1972 Green 2002. A little something for everyone.

[danco_]

On 9/3/2015 at 9:26 PM, ray_ said:

I see you still have 3 toes...

 

I actually have 10... Just counted

 

On 9/4/2015 at 4:29 PM, southgabimmer said:

Great idea with the hub caps!

I think so too. The new look is so much better than the late hubcaps. Never liked those things.  They look like butt, and not the good kind. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I forgot to post these photos of the Florida 1600. Bodywork is in full swing. Aiming to paint the car at the end of this month. All bodywork is being completed using new metal and as little filler as possible. This body guy is good. 

 

See photos: 

 

Driver's side door: 

 

 

 

 

 

Passenger side quarter panel:

 

 

As she sits (this morning):

 

Edited June 1, 2017 by danco_

[danco_]

Dropped off the first set of steelies at a wheel shop today. The owner will widen the barrels to 5.5" and move the face back a bit deeper, giving me roughly 2" of lip while still maintaining a decent offset. This guy does good work and is very CHEAP.

 

He speaks broken english, so I'm just hoping he understood what I wanted. But for how little I paid, I'm sure he can redo it if it's not good. Pretty excited.

 

 

And a set of VW wheels he just did for a customer in New York:

 

 

I think I need to start looking for tires in 185 width.

 

 

I also snagged these up. These are BBS RS003 in 16x7 et25. Too big for a 2002, but just right for an e30. I will probably start looking for a nice 318iS to purchase pretty soon here. 

 

 

[oh2ryan]

I also snagged these up. These are BBS RS003 in 16x7 et25. Too big for a 2002, but just right for an e30. I will probably start looking for a nice 318iS to purchase pretty soon here. 

 

Too big, huh? Says who?

[oh2ryan]

Hopefully you can be persuaded to a 325iS... M42 powered E30s are so  .

 

I never looked back after selling each of the 3 I owned.

 

 

 

The oldies are looking good, keep it up!

[danco_]

Hopefully you can be persuaded to a 325iS... M42 powered E30s are so  .

 

I never looked back after selling each of the 3 I owned.

 

 

 

The oldies are looking good, keep it up!

 

Can't do an m20 powered car. I love the anemic m42 engines. 140hp is not enough to do anything, but it's just enough to do some things. It would be more of a cruiser anyways. Look nice, drive nice, and that's about it. I don't want another fast e30. I'd rather buy a car that was designed to be fast, rather than try to make a slow car fast. 

 

But my decisions usually last about 2 days. I will probably end up doing exactly what I said I wouldn't. It's pretty standard. 

[jgerock]

I like the widened steel wheels with those modified hub caps. Those VW wheels are pre-1966 based on the the hub cap retainer clips.

[danco_]

Widened 13" steelies are back from the wheel shop. They look so good!

 

They are just spray painted at this point. I'm probably going to have the faces powder coated a slightly darker gray color (closer to Wurth) before I mount the new tires that also just showed up. 

 

 

Some more for clearance purposes: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I quickly threw on a wheel to the front of the 2002 to see what kind of clearance (or lack of) I had with the fender lip. It's actually pretty close, and I know that as the car is lowered, natural camber will get these to clear, but i think I have a solution so I don't have to rely on camber for the front wheels. 

 

I'm going to have a second set whipped up this week but this time, I will have the wheel face pushed out toward the front lip another half inch as to increase the offset and gain greater clearance for the fender lip. This will give me two full sets of wheels in 5.5j with higher offsets in the front for clearance. I already know the rears will clear fine. 

 

Things are looking good. 

 

This all just feels so right.

[jmr_1602]

Damn, that looks good. What tires did you get? Wish I had a shop that could do this around here.

[vinntagejoe]

nt

Edited September 18, 2015 by vinntagejoe

[danco_]

Did some stuff yesterday.

 

I sort or rebuilt the center console a few weeks back but I hated it. Too many holes in the sidewall pieces, and the passenger side was damaged in two spots. I found a second center console through the FAQ and promptly bought it. All parts came today so I slapped it together. MUUUUCH BETTER.

 

 

Here is a photo of the old, assembled console. It's just wrong. The spacing of everything is wrong and I didn't even want to look at the car with that monstrosity sitting to the right of me. I lucked out and found a used but much better console. So here comes the rebuilding.

 

 

 

 

 

And after putting the newer console together and getting it installed in the car, here is what I'm left with:

 

 

 

Much better. This car should be on the road this week or so. The new interior is nearly finished. And so are the wheels. Just need to lower it and go through all systems. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm headed to see progress on the Florida car. It will be going into paint in the next week or two. I'm hoping to drive the florida car to SoCal Vintage. That would be really nice. I love that car.

 

 

 

But what I really need is a turbo car. And to correct the SF green car's color back to Agave Green.

 

 

 

So many wants, so many needs.

[danco_]

I visited the Florida car yesterday. It's coming along nicely. Should be ready for paint in a week or so. My body guy chose to fabricate a few panels himself instead of using what I cut out from the blue 1600. I didn't object.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

outside his shop:

 

You can see some pretty neat cars trickled through out those photos. He's a muscle car guy so I trust him to do the bodywork on the little Florida 02. Upon inspection, he is doing a good job. He has fabricated a few panels for me already and they came out great. 

 

This car has thrown me down the rabbit hole. It's probably going to get everything new. I'm about ready to drop some coin on a new Ground Control Kit, but I'm fairly certain I can save the GC kit for Polaris car, or whichever car gets turbo'd. 

 

But I'm going to make a suspension decision soon. I want this car to make it to SoCal Vintage. 

I'm avoiding Bilstein Sports at all costs. I was thinking about Bilstein HD for the Mk1 rabbit as inserts, and then perhaps mr2 rear shocks (slightly shorter body with plenty of travel for a lowered 02). This will allow me to get rid of fender gap while keeping moderate spring rates, nothing stiff, since this car will not be a racecar or canyon carver. I'm going after front and rear camber/caster adjustability though. 

 

So many decisions.

[readfrost]

Both cars are looking really good, I'm excited to see what those wide steelies look like with the car on the ground. Also excited for whichever car starts to make turbo sounds, everyone loves turbo sounds.

[vinntagejoe]

 

I visited the Florida car yesterday. It's coming along nicely. Should be ready for paint in a week or so. My body guy chose to fabricate a few panels himself instead of using what I cut out from the blue 1600. I didn't object.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

outside his shop:

 

You can see some pretty neat cars trickled through out those photos. He's a muscle car guy so I trust him to do the bodywork on the little Florida 02. Upon inspection, he is doing a good job. He has fabricated a few panels for me already and they came out great. 

 

This car has thrown me down the rabbit hole. It's probably going to get everything new. I'm about ready to drop some coin on a new Ground Control Kit, but I'm fairly certain I can save the GC kit for Polaris car, or whichever car gets turbo'd. 

 

But I'm going to make a suspension decision soon. I want this car to make it to SoCal Vintage. 

I'm avoiding Bilstein Sports at all costs. I was thinking about Bilstein HD for the Mk1 rabbit as inserts, and then perhaps mr2 rear shocks (slightly shorter body with plenty of travel for a lowered 02). This will allow me to get rid of fender gap while keeping moderate spring rates, nothing stiff, since this car will not be a racecar or canyon carver. I'm going after front and rear camber/caster adjustability though. 

 

So many decisions.

 

 

Damn, that looks like my 51 Chevy Deluxe Powerglide sedan I sold back in 2010 (power steering, power glide auto transmission - slip and slide in my power glide) ; I miss that ranfla...............

[danco_]

I think they are ready.

 

Now to figure out suspension. I want to go as low as the blue car, perhaps lower once I get the rear camber/castor plate. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[danco_]

I disassembled the blue car's front suspension this morning. Everything went smooth.

 

You can see driver's side bent tube in this photo. Thanks to RJ for welding in extra gusseting between the knuckle and the tube , because the lowest two inches of the tube remains straight. The bend actually starts where the gusseting stops. I'm sending these out to GC for one of their kits. 2002 strut inserts aren't getting easier to find and I don't want to throw a set away on account of a bend. 

 

GC is throwing on new 50mm tubes aways, so ultimately, this set can be saved. 

 

 

yay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the VW Rabbit Bilstein Sports also survived without a single scratch. They are perfectly straight. When I removed the inserts, the 2-3" aluminum spacers came out as well. So theoretically, the insert from the bent housing never took damage. It narrowly missed it! 

 

now to decide what to do with them..