Where do we go from here?

As long as I can remember, I have been a certified gearhead. When I was a baby my parents would plop me in a running car to stop me from crying and one of my first words was “wheel”.  I was obsessed with old VW’s and spent much of my time pretending to drive my Dad’s ’68 Beetle in the garage. I pestered my folks every year to take me to the Los Angeles Auto Show as many times as they could stand it when the show was in town and as soon as I got my license I was traveling to all the VW and hotrod shows SoCal had to offer. When I finally got a VW of my own, I spent every spare dime at the local VW parts place to fix up my ’71 Super Beetle to make it lower, faster, and generally cooler while poring over car magazines to moon over dream cars I thought I could afford one day if I made it big. My driver’s license was my ticket to freedom and I was the first one in line for the drive test at the DMV on the morning of my birthday behind the wheel of my Mom’s ’82 Eldorado Biarritz. The Super gave way after a few years to a beautiful gray Mustang 5.0 and my pursuit of horsepower and adventures on the road was off and running.

Over thirty years later, the automotive scene for teens has changed a great deal from when I came up in the 1980’s. My kids and their friends are not in a hurry to get their licenses and mostly are content to use their folks, Uber, or Lyft to get around. Some do want to drive, but most of them seem to want a Prius or something even more boring to easily get from Point A to Point B with no drama. They are after practical, ecologically responsible transportation rather than the big-cammed, glasspacked, and generally obnoxious rigs my buddies and I tore around in burning gas as we looked for some excitement. There are some young gearheads out there but most of them seem to be into super high tech rides instead of older vintage machines that require a bit more cash and love to keep on the road.

So how do we get the attention of the kids who really aren’t into cars while inspiring the kids who are into both vintage iron and new “green” transportation? The answer came to me when I saw some projects coming out of the EV West shop in San Diego. EV West has been modifying all sorts of classics and even more modern sportscars with electric powertrains that use a combination of parts to create vehicles that truly marry vintage iron with modern thinking. Zelectric, a company which is also based near San Diego, has taken that concept a step further by fully restoring vintage Volkswagens and then repowering them with the kits sold by EV West. The Zelectric cars have been a hit and are quite sought after. The cars are also attracting media interest as one of Zelectric’s T2 Buses was featured on the Jay Leno’s Garage TV show and their monster twin motor Baja Bug took a spin with racing driver Leh Keen at the wheel on the show “Proving Grounds”. 

With building that sort of sizzle in mind locally, I made the decision that my ’71 Beetle named Clementine could be improved with an EV West kit. She will be rechristened EClementine to fit her new greener identity and I will be documenting everything done to make her much cleaner, hopefully faster, and easy to keep on the road for many years to come. Better yet, to get some local kids involved I will be working with the Davis Senior High Auto Tech program and the kids will be doing the conversion under the watchful eye of master instructor Robert Thayer. The deposit for the EV West kit has been thrown down so check back in soon as we begin our journey by seeing just how Clementine performs with her current gasoline power and what sort of impact that old school combination has on the environment.

Meet Muddy

When you’re a kid, there are often things that get burned into your memory for good. For me, the thought that most got into my head was that someday I would own Volkswagen Beetles in every flavor I could think of. The first family car I can remember was our ’68 Beetle which we named Herbie in honor of the famous film star of the same name. I would spend hours “driving” Herbie in the garage and my Dad would take me down to the Rose Bowl parking lot on the weekend to let me steer Herbie from his lap and actually drive Herbie when I was big enough to reach the pedals and see over the hood. Sadly, when I was in sixth grade Herbie burned up after one of my Dad’s botched attempts at repair failed and set the rear seat on fire while my Mom was driving Herbie. She tried her best to pull the flaming seat out but she couldn’t get it in time despite burning her hands pretty badly. Herbie’s Viking funeral pyre exit was my first real experience with death and grief and it shook me badly.

Another Beetle that left an impression was a ’63 or so Baja Bug owned by the father of my good friend and babysitter Brad. The Baja was a kind of faded yellow and had big wide tires on the back that were worn enough to let Brad hang the tail out at will around the corner at the end of the block I grew up on. We’d skid around dozens of times and it just never got old to hear the tires scuffing along the pavement as we wagged back and forth up the hill.

With that memory in mind, I decided I needed to build myself a Baja to relive some of those good times and also to give some local rallycross events a try. What better vehicle is there than an old Beetle to hit the trails and rip up some dirt with?

The search began and I looked at many sad Bajas that all had led pretty hard lives. Cracked fiberglass, bent up frames, and rotted floorpans were the norm for the cars I found on Craigslist. However, during one of the searches I came across a ’70 Beetle up in the Sierra foothills that had no engine but came with a transmission and didn’t have a ton of rust. It hadn’t been made into a Baja yet but it had some damage to both the front and rear aprons that made me think it wouldn’t be a crime to slice them off as is the custom when one creates a proper Baja Bug.

I struck a deal with the seller for $700 and asked him if the road he lived on could accommodate a truck and trailer as it looked a little sketchy on Google Maps. He assured me the road was in fine repair with plenty of room so my son and I hitched up the trailer and headed out into the woods on a rainy December Saturday.

Unfortunately, when we turned off the highway to get to where the Beetle was the road went from not great to really bad with plenty of slick mud and huge ruts everywhere waiting to stick us in the soup. We managed to get to the house without too much drama but the car was down a hill and there was no good way to winch it up using the trailer. Luckily the fellow who was selling the car had three burly young men in the house so after some grunting and straining the Beetle was up on the road. I knew the car was missing a steering wheel so I slapped on a spare I brought along and we gave the car one last shove to get it up on the trailer.

There was no way we could back out the way we came in so we started our trip home down another road that was even worse than the first one. With some judicious application of throttle and popping the truck into 4WD low range we managed to make it back to I-80 but the entire rig and the little Beetle were all covered in mud from the bogging we had to do on the way out. And that, sports fans, is how Muddy the Baja Bug got her name…

Monterey Car Week 2014

Every year in mid-August California’s Monterey Peninsula turns into Mecca for the gearheads of the world during the famed Monterey Car Week. The place is a gearhead paradise with nearly every sort of car you have ever dreamed of or seen on a poster running around the beautiful roads cutting across the Del Monte Range. You can sit on Lighthouse Avenue, the entrances to the Laguna Seca Raceway, or alongside Carmel Valley Road and see more fascinating cars in a week than you would in a month of touring auto museums around the world.

History

Monterey has always been home to the finest automobiles in the world. There were road races around Pebble Beach in the 1950’s with Ferraris and Porsche tearing through the Del Monte Forest and the pristine coastline has always been home to the sort that keeps an exclusive and exotic stable.

The linchpin of the week is the granddame of all Concours in the states if not the world-The Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance. The Pebble got started in 1950 as a companion event to the Pebble Beach Road Races. Over time, the racing moved out to Laguna Seca and the Concours grew in both prestige and size to its current place as one of the top automotive concours events in the world. As the Concours grew, so did the events surrounding it so that now dozens of events begin to kick off well in advance of the show all around the Monterey Peninsula.

Getting there

The key thing to enjoying the Car Week is to book your travel early as the airport in Monterey (MRY) has fairly limited capacity with service from San Francisco International (SFO), Las Vegas (LAS), Phoenix (PHX), San Diego (SAN) and Los Angeles (LAX). Rental cars also go quickly but reasonable alternatives are just flying into one of the major airports near Monterey and then driving in. San Jose (SJC) is closest but a great adventure can be had also flying into Los Angeles and then taking a few days to journey up Highway 1 hitting great spots like Morro Bay, Cambria, and Big Sur on the way up. You will probably get stuck behind a rental RV doing 20 MPH at some point but the fantastic scenery and great food stops along the way make it worth the slog.

Staying there

Car Week is definitely prime time on the Peninsula. Hotel rooms often book a year in advance and the prices get jacked up into the stratosphere. My recommendation is to look on VRBO or Airbnb to find a rental house that meets your needs. For this year’s event, I found a nice house that fit my family comfortably for about half of what we would have paid at a hotel. As to what city to choose to stay in, this is a matter of personal preference but the location we had in Pacific Grove was pretty ideal in terms of access to Highway 1 and also an easy stroll to reasonable dining options downtown. A bonus of staying in PG is that Asilomar Beach is a very short drive or walk from most of PG and there are beautiful views and tide pools to explore all along the Sunset/Ocean View Boulevard route that follows the shoreline. PG is also very close to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and downtown Monterey.

The Shows, Auctions, and Rallies

As noted, the big event of the week is the Concours d’ Elegance but there are many more events to enjoy all week long. It is fairly impossible to hit all of them and not get worn out so here are some of the standouts in chronological order to go after without wearing out your wallet or your Nikes. You can also find multiple driving tours put on by car clubs, enthusiast group, and “lifestyle tours” all week long.

 Tuesday

Concours on the Avenue. This show takes place on Tuesday in downtown Carmel along Ocean Avenue from Junipero Street on down towards the beach. The pro tip here is come early as the parking can be really tough if you are there much after 9:00. We got there about 9:00 and ended up finding a spot six blocks away but by the time we left a few hours later folks were parked much further out. This show had an amazing variety of cars with everything from gullwing SL’s to a really cherry “Boat tail” Buick Riviera. A highlight of the show is the roll in of racecars coming from Laguna Seca which happens just a shade after 9:00. Hearing them roar in was awesome despite the eye-watering fumes. The event finishes up at 5 p.m. so you can always arrive a little later in the afternoon and then enjoy dinner in one of the many restaurants in Carmel.

 

Wednesday

Carmel Mission Concours. This is another fun event held at the old Carmel Mission. Great variety of cars and also a shot at getting your own classic blessed by the in-house Padre if you get there early enough. The show runs from 10:00 to 4:00 so hit this one early if you can.

The Little Car Show. This show is limited to cars under 2 liters of displacement and takes place in downtown Pacific Grove along Lighthouse Avenue. The show runs from noon to 5:00 and there are a bunch of restaurants in the show area so you could combine this one with a lunch or dinner stop.

Thursday

Auction tours. Wednesday and Thursday are the days when most of the big auction houses will let you come in and take a look at what they have on offer for the weekend. RM, Russo and Steele, and Rick Cole are all in downtown Monterey with Bonhams out at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, Gooding at Pebble Beach, and Mecum at the Hyatt just across Highway 1 from downtown.  Nearly all of these houses offer “preview” passes where you can come in and gawk at your leisure. Each has their own unique flavor and perhaps the best way to see these is to join one of the tours sponsored by magazines such as Vintage Motorsports or Classic Motorsports where you can tag along with an expert guide to learn a bit about the cars you see. One caveat is that if you do decide to register as a bidder to try and bag something that strikes your fancy is to not get carried away with the excitement of bidding and don’t bid on any car that you don’t understand. You need to be keenly aware of the market and the flaws of any potential purchase because for the most part you can’t drive the cars prior to purchase unless you can work something out with the seller. Since my particular knowledge is best in the aircooled world, I focused on the VW’s and Porsche’s that were on the block. While there were some pretty fair deals made on really nice cars, I also show some not great cars like patched together Beetles and mid-year 911’s go for silly money. Buyer beware.

 

 

 

Pebble Beach Tour d’ Elegance. Although participating in this event is open only to entrants in Sunday’s Concours, this is still something neat to see. You can stake out a place along the 17-Mile Drive in the morning to watch them drive by or check out the cars when they park for lunch in Carmel along Ocean Avenue.

Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Another big event for the weekend is the Historic Races out at Laguna Seca. This weekend brings some of the best vintage racers out from all over the world to the beautiful Laguna course where you can see them driven in anger and also get up close to them in the paddock. These run through Sunday so you can visit nearly any day and see plenty of action. Every year has a featured marque which draws out the finest from the particular stable which can be really neat if they have your brand of choice on offer.

Friday

Werks Reunion. This is the mother of all Porsche shows outside of the every now-and-then Rennsport Reunion. This show used to be part of the Legends of the Autobahn show but this year the Porsche Club of America organized their own show at Rancho Cañada Golf Course just off Highway 1 on Carmel Valley Road. The show was mind blowing for any Porsche freak as over 500 cars showed up for the day. I can’t think of a Porsche model that was not represented and there were some truly remarkable cars there including a new 918, the very first 911 produced, bent window 356’s, and a slew of real Carrera RS’s and RSR’s. Best of all admission was free aside from the $10 I paid to park in the church lot next door which I could have dodged if I wanted to walk a little further. Great show and great job by PCA putting this one together.

 

 

Legends of the Autobahn. The Legends show is supposed to be just German cars but I did see a few Czech Tatra’s slipped in for variety. This show has free admission but they do hit you up at the Nicklaus Club entrance for $20 in parking which seemed pretty sneaky to me. The parking was also awful with access over rutted dirt roads and cart paths so don’t take anything with low ground clearance or a long wheelbase to this one. With that said, there was a nice variety of BMW’s, Benzes, and Audis on the show field which made for interesting viewing despite the somewhat small turnout.

 

The Quail. One of the tougher tickets to get for the week is one for this no expense spared show at the pristine Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley. The show features an interesting variety of top-notch cars but another big draw is the food and drink that comes along with the $400 admission ticket. Oysters on the half shell, Beluga caviar, and top shelf champagne are all yours as your stroll among the highly polished fenders. There are also special interviews during the show with famous racing drivers and other car personalities that are worth a listen.

Pacific Grove Rally. The PG Rally is a great cruise type event that starts with a gathering and car show on Lighthouse Avenue and then heads out around the Peninsula in formation. The rally ends with a BBQ downtown and all sorts of cars are welcome with a focus on pre-’75 models. They were at capacity this year with what looked to be about 300 cars so enter early if you want to come along, Even if you don’t go on the drive it’s fun to check out the cars as they assemble from about 1:00 until their 4:30 departure time in downtown PG.

 

Saturday

Concorso Italiano. The serious show on Saturday is the Concorso which is held on the Blackhorse Golf Course in Seaside. If you like Italian gear, this is the place to be. Spendy tickets but you get to see nearly everything from the Prancing Horse, the Raging Bull, and the Etceterini in one place.

Concours d’ Lemons.  In counterpoint to all the other shows during the week, at the Concours d’ Lemons, crap is king. The companion fender fondling event to the wonderfully contrarian 24 Hours of Lemons racing series is great fun and takes place in Laguna Grande Park in Seaside. You are guaranteed to see some sublimely awful cars like AMC Gremlins and strange kit car variants all laden with heavy patina.

Sunday

Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance. This is the weekend’s main event and some of the world’s most beautiful and meticulously restored cars can be found on the greens and fairways of the legendary golf course. The dress code is fancier than most of the other events for the weekend so dress to impress and plan to arrive early to avoid long waits in parking and for the shuttle. If you want to see the cars drive in, you can join the 5:00 a.m. Dawn Patrol to watch the cars motor into the show grounds from the Polo Fields. There are usually coffee and donuts provided by sponsors and this gives you a look at the cars in action although it is usually a little damp and cold. Tickets are a little spendy at $150 but not as pricey as the Quail.

Non-car Fun

I know this is a little blasphemous, but there are many things to do around Monterey during the week that don’t involve cars.

Monterey Aquarium. This is one of the best aquariums in the world with many programs for little ones and fascinating exhibits. The food in the café and restaurant are both really good so perhaps use this for an afternoon stop or amusement for small folks in your party.

Kayaking/Ocean tours. There are many options for you to get out into the spectacular ocean waters around the Peninsula be it in a kayak or in a boat for a guided tour. Many operators provide this in the Bay itself or up in Moss Beach which is the home of the Elkhorn Slough which is chock full of interesting marine life. August is the time of year when migrating Grey Whales pass by the coast on their way to Baja California so this is a great time to book a tour.

Big Sur. Just south of Carmel lies the Big Sur region which extends down the coast towards Cambria. Amazing scenery, excellent restaurants, and beautiful camping and resort options make this one of the greatest driving tours around. For a real thrill, you can try the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road up over the mountains where you can make your way back to Monterey through the Fort Hunter-Liggett Army Base and the Salinas Valley. There also a bunch of other great roads all over the Peninsula so get out and explore a bit if you can.

 

However you choose to experience the Monterey Car Week, you certainly will come away a far more experienced and educated gearhead. So get on the road and enjoy before Car Week 2015 passes you by!

Links and References

VRBO www.vrbo.com

Airbnb www.airbnb.com

Concours on the Avenue www.carmelconcours.com

Carmel Mission Concours  www.carmelmission.org

The Little Car Show www.marinamotorsports.org/events

Pebble Beach Tour/Concours d’ Elegance www.pebblebeachconcours.net

Mecum Auctions www.mecum.com

Bonhams Auctions www.bonhams.com

Rick Cole Auctions www.rickcole.com

Russo and Steele Auctions www.russoandsteele.com

RM Auctions www.rmauctions.com

Gooding Auctions www.goodingco.com

Monterey Motorsports Reunion www.mazdaraceway.com

Werks Reunion www.werksreunion.com

Legends of the Autobahn www.legendsoftheautobahn.org

The Quail signatureevents.peninsula.com

Pacific Grove Rally www.pgrotary.org

Concorso Italiano www.concorso.com

Concours d’ Lemons www.concoursdlemons.com

Monterey Aquarium www.montereybayaquarium.org

Elkhorn Slough Tour www.whispercharters.com

Clementine: The Little Things

Since getting Clementine back with her much improved Kaddie Shack motor, the balance of the work now has been sorting out a few things just to make her a pleasant driver.

VW’s come stock with steering wheels that are huge to overcome the “Armstrong” steering with no power assist. This is great for a stock granny mobile but a thin rimmed whopper did not work for what I had in mind and it also pinched my legs a bit.

So, with a quick click at Summit Racing, I sourced a new Grant GT wheel along with a shift light to remind me when I needed to bang the next gear. Both were easy to install and made a big difference in the cabin comfort level.

 

The next step was to add some new Wolfsburg West repop floor mats to replace the ripped originals along with some cleaning and greasing of the seat rails.

One trait old VW’s are known for is their propensity to catch on fire so I decided to add in a nice 2.5 pound fire extinguisher with a trick aluminum bracket that my neighbor fabbed up for me (Thanks Mike!).

 

With that done, the next big project was to add some pop-out rear windows to improve ventilation a bit since the car has “2-50” air conditioning (2 windows down at 50 mph). I had found some glass on craigslist but it was missing a bunch of hardware and no one seemed to sell the parts that I needed independent of a full $400 kit.

Thankfully, I managed to score two decent sets at the Bugorama show swap meet for just $80. This was an even more smoking deal than I initially thought as the sets included not only the latches which can fetch $50 a pair on their own but also the pinch welting which sells for around $15 a pair for new pieces.

I took the best components from both sets, replaced the window seals, and then got the rest of the hardware needed to install the windows. It was a great deal of work to carefully polish the chrome bits and then work the seals into place but for around $150, I had one really nice set of windows with all the goods to build another set that would be just fine for daily driver duty.

 With all of this done, the car is ready to enjoy for the Summer with just a few little projects left until the big repaint which most likely won’t happen for a couple of years. Guess it’s time to start looking for that Baja Bug project...

Dirty 930: Safety First

 

One thing that is often neglected in older cars is the seat belt assembly. Over time, the belts can become crusty and as they age they lose a significant amount of their strength and can snap in a big wreck. The retractor mechanisms also can wear out which could also be a disaster if the belt failed to tension as designed in a big impact.

When I first got my Targa (“Sally”) I notice the belts in the car were very faded and sun damaged. This made sense as the car spent its entire life in the desert between Scottsdale and Palm Springs. I found that the best supplier for new belts was Professionally Engineered Products which is also known as Go Westy since their main business is offering parts for older VW Westfalia camper vans.

Since then, the belts Go Westy offers have changed a bit and no longer can be used with the factory belt latches so to refit Dirty properly I was going to have to remove and replace the belt latches along with the belts and retractor assembly.

The retractor lives just under the trim panel for the rear quarter panels and is held in place with one 17mm bolt. I found both sides to be monstrously overtorqued and I needed a breaker bar to get them loose. They let loose with a mighty squeal so the torque value was way up there. Since these were the original factory belts I can only assume the factory set them that way but with old cars you just never know who has been in there. Since every bolt on this car has been seriously over tightened, I can only assume that Herr Overtorker may have monkeyed with the seat belts too.

 

Once the bolts are all removed, the assembly comes out fairly easily once the belt is threaded through the quarter panel trim. As they say in the book, installation is the reverse of removal  but a pro tip is to make sure you don’t have the belt twisted the wrong way before you snug everything down. I had to flip the mounting on the floor as I did initially install it in the wrong orientation.

 

Now that the retractors and belts were done it was time to tackle the latches. This should have been easy with just a single bolt holding the latch to the seat frame but as sometimes can happen , the driver’s side was a bear to get done because the wiring harness for the belt alert light was zip tied to the seat coils with the world’s tiniest and least accessible ties. I ended up having to completely remove the seat to get this done which ended up being a good thing as I was able to fix some wiring under there and also lube up the seat tracks.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the new receivers lack the proper wiring to have the warning light work but thankfully with the wiring unplugged the light stays off because of the design of the latch assembly that turns off the light by breaking the circuit when the belt is latched.

 

 

 

With the driver’s side done, I moved on to the passenger side which luckily lacked the wiring for the warning light so I was done in a quarter of the time that it took me to do the driver’s side because I did not have to remove the seat or fumble around with the wiring.

Dirty is now ready for the summer driving season and we can wheel confidently knowing that our safety belts are now in good order.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Clementine: Faster, faster

There is a quote attributed to the great Dr. Hunter S. Thompson where he laid out the fundamental basis that underlies nearly every hotrodder’s ultimate quest: “Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death”.

For some, this has no meaning as speed simply scares the pants off them and is something to be avoided and even looked down upon from the slow lane in a sensible beige-shaded sedan.

For me and my velocity queered crowd, this bit of wisdom has become a credo.

With the good doctor’s words resonating in my temples, I loaded Clementine up behind the Big Bad Dodge and pointed us south towards Pasadena, CA and the Kaddie Shack.

The plan had been to sort the chassis and then add some power, but such plans are often abandoned when opportunity and impatience crowd into the picture. The Kaddie Shack’s sensei Jeff Lain made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so Clementine was in the shop ready for a horsepower injection before I had much of a chance to sort out some funky handling issues and add a few more shiny bits to her. However, I knew she would be in good hands and after a few months of careful fettling she was ready to come back home with a new 1968cc bullet and a built race transmission in place of the old beat units she arrived with.

Jeff and I drove Clementine around the streets I used to call home before putting her back on the trailer and to call the transformation of the anything but epic would be a sin. Where before there was a joyful little chirping of 45 or so horsepower, there were now 125 very angry and offended units of power looking for some pavement to hurt. Jeff and his crew also added gauges, a zoomy shifter, and a few other goodies to make Clementine into a well-tuned rocket. The lopey idle and the whine of the straight cut cam gears made sounds that scared small children and let the world know that Clementine was one hard pipe-fitting Beetle not to be trifled with.

With Clementine back home, the getting acquainted phase began yet again. Other than a small tweak to the idle speed, adding air filters to deal with the Yolo County dust, and some subtle adjustments to the steering, she was ready to go do battle. I did add a snarky new steering wheel to replace the bus sized original tiller and grafted in a shift light because the engine revved so quickly that it was hard to use the tachometer to time shifts correctly. A bit of time enjoying some empty farm roads confirmed some good launch strategies, so the stage is set for the first outing to the drag strip now after I make sure I can still wedge myself into my fire suit.

So, will my reaction times be better than they were nearly 25 years ago or will my 60 foot times be measured in minutes instead of seconds? Will the once former reliable workhorse blossom in her new role as finely honed instrument of speed or will she turn back into a grocery getter? Stay tuned and watch this space…

Clementine: Theory vs. Reality

I really thought that I had everything planned out just right to get Clementine sitting low and mean on some pretty snazzy looking rims. I read some threads on discussion forums that said what I had planned would not work but I figured I was smart enough to MacGyver my way around them. Boy was I wrong.

My original inspiration for the final appearance of the old girl came from seeing some really snazzy looking late model Beetles riding low on Porsche 914 “2 liter” Fuchs rims. Some of the cars had replica rims instead of the real deal Fuchs but being a Porsche dork I really wanted to go with the original forged goodness that the Fuchs forge had produced as OEM quality goods nearly 40 years ago. I did pick up some static on the forums that suggested the offsets might not work well with the drop spindles I had on the car which lower the spindle and ball joints in relation to the rim in order to drop the car down but most folks said they were able to easily clearance everything or had no problems at all.

With that in mind, I hit Craigslist to search out some rims and I finally found a set that belonged to a guy named Yogi who lived up in the Sierra foothills. After getting hilariously lost after not being able to understand that Yogi told me to look for Pammy Way instead of Tammy Way, I finally got to his place. Yogi explained that the two sets of rims he had were from an old project 914 that he sold a while back and that the rims had been under his house for 25 years. They looked pretty scruffy but they were very straight and I picked out the best four to throw in the back of the family Porsche once we cleared out the black widows from the rims. I figured they would polish up quickly and look very slick. First mistake-never believe it is easy to make old grungy stuff look pretty.

I got the rims home and set about to stripping off the old anodizing with oven cleaner and then going after the rims with varying grades of sandpaper and polishing compound. After six hours of finger straining work, I had one quarter of one rim polished. I gave up and took the rims to a rim repair joint where the guy quoted me something like $1200 to polish them. This seemed silly so I took the rims to a blasting house where for $100 they proceeded to completely destroy the finish on the rims to where they looked rough and awful.

At this point, a sane person would have given up and just spent the money on the repop set, but dammit I don’t like to lose so I took the rims over to my go-to paint and body guys at Anderson Brothers in West Sacramento. They usually don’t do any work like this but the owner Troy Anderson is a hot rod guy and set one of his guys to work on making the rims pretty. After a few short days, they were ready and simply gorgeous in a Porsche silver that positively gleamed.

Now, if I was smart I would have waited to get the rims painted until I had mounted some tires and made sure they fit right. Unfortunately, like a kid with a new Christmas toy I got them all pretty, slapped some new tires on them in the appropriate sizes and then bolted them up to the car with great glee. The euphoria lasted all of about thirty seconds which was when I noticed the ball joints where damn near flush with the rims and even with the car up in the air on the jack stands were scuffing the beautiful paint off the inside of the rims. No matter, I thought, it will all be perfecto when I drop the car down and the ball joints rotate away from the rims.

BZZZAT. Wrong answer. A quick spin around the neighborhood resulted in horrible grinding sounds and generally awfully noises coming from the front end. Indeed the ball joints were smacking the beejezus out of the rims and needed some help. More research suggested 3/8 inch spacers might solve the problem and it looked like I had more than enough thread to work with on the lug bolts to make it happen. I bolted on the spacers and the scraping pretty much went away with only a light self clearancing happening on huge bumps and sharp turns. Feeling pretty smug, I installed a snarky new set of billet center caps on the rims in the front and moved back to the rear wheels to do the same…which is when I found out the center caps did not fit on the rear wheels as they were too shallow for the axle nuts. Another trip to the parts store and another set of wheel spacers for the rear got everything back in business.

So, Clementine is back on her feet and ready for some more tweaks to get her little 1600cc dual port motor back in shape and cure a few other little problems so we can get started on some chassis shakedown miles until I am ready to throw down for the big thumper motor. Time to sharpen up my valve adjustment skills, stock up on Band Aids, and take another read of the “Complete Idiot” VW manuals…