WReXless now chirpy cheap Jeep, Nein11 & Ghia

[Broccoli]

The Jeep is excellent thank you.

It’s not an easy drive, more like a truck, but that suits me, as driving gets a bit boring otherwise. Hasn’t broken down again (for a while anyway!).

Finished cutting in for the basement painting and have been thinking of the parts, while mindlessly painting and listening to Radio 2…

Made one change, so that the ‘ears’ have a bit more give and hopefully won’t snap. Will try a first print tomorrow.

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While I was in the basement painting, the dogs went crazy, running around and barking. Thought it was because of something on the radio and ignored it. Turns out is was my new whitewall tires arriving. $155 each with a $50 coupon off 4 and free shipping!

They are a bit more ‘bling’ than what I was expecting.

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[Broccoli]

Printed the parts up today. Will need some more tweaks in CAD before being application ready!

Low res printer:

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Parts with support material on them:

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Cleaned up parts:

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Quick fit test on spare bracket:

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The biggest problem is the direction of the printing grain and therefore the weakest plain. The clip and the area I want to be resilient are on different plains, so it may come down to a metal spring clip, in place of the printed one.

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I do like the idea of having a completely printed solution though, as it’s far easier to share with others that way.
One more try tomorrow…

[Broccoli]

Been busy on the Ghia front.
Finally have a solution or 2 that should work on the shift rod bushing.
The original idea:

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And then the ‘just in case the other idea doesn’t work’ / plan B concept:

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Also managed to get the tyres to meet the wheels…

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I’m quite excited now to get them on the car, get the beauty rings on and hubcaps. Not sure if I can reuse the old bolts though, so it may take longer than I hoped.

[Broccoli]

Birthday yesterday and had parts for the car.

New original shifter (I will probably put the T shifter back on at some point if LynehamHercs comments are anything to go by) but this looks the part and should be ok for this summer. And a squirrel in underpants air freshener. Who could say no! (Rhetorical question… I just hope it doesn’t smell of the squirrel’s nuts).



Hosted picture because everyone wanted to see the squirrels nuts!

[Broccoli]

I needed some new wheel bolts as the bolts on the car are flat faced for the Empis.

Amazingly people want as much as $4.50 PER BOLT!!! I put a request up on my local VW forum and next day I was the ‘proud?’ Owner of 20 lightly used (and lightly rusty) wheel bolts.

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A couple of hours in the rust bath and they came out nice and clean, with just the accumulated mayo to clean off.

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Now I just need to have an evening free from work, to get those new solid steel wheels on. Quite exciting!

[Broccoli]

Managed to get one side of the car done.
Wife’s Aldi was in the way, so ended up putting the front wheel on at a weird angle (turning the spider at a weird angle, not putting the wheel on at an angle…) and heard this strange tearing noise. A little like rope tearing. Realised it wasn’t coming from the car but my elbow!

Damn old age!

Anyway, this is what one side looks like…

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And if the front end was any higher, I would need oxygen to drive the damn thing. So a set of dropped spindles have been ordered, so I can swear and rant at the Link pins, their bushings and the king pins too, as I try to get the front at least at the same height as the back!

[Broccoli]

Finally got around to spinning the car around and fitting the other sides wheels. A bit more traumatic than it sounds, as it means getting the car out of the garage, through the snow / ice on the driveway and then back in, while trying to keep the car ticking over.

Still, got the old wheels and bolts off and the new ones on.
Had a reluctant Sunday morning helper too.

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I’m supposed to be messing around with the front suspension, so didn’t want to fit all the bling to the wheels there, but put the stuff on the rear. Looks ok.

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Then with added beauty ring…

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The drop spindles have arrived for lowering the front end a little, but looking at them and knowing there is going to be a fight ahead to fit them (link pins and king pins), for some reason, I just couldn’t bring myself to start the job.

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Think I’m getting old / having an existential crisis.

[LynehamHerc]

There's no rush is there, after all you've got another few months of snow where you live before you can take it out.

[Broccoli]

You're not wrong. Another 3” expected tonight.

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[JimH]

Think I’m getting old / having an existential crisis.

It's caused by taking the five-spokes off. Put them back on before it's too late.