[863] Bug Build

A few days ago, last December 9, 2020 to be precise, I accompanied my folks to some errands at the bank. It's been a little over a month or so since I last went out, when my daughter had to get anti-rabies shots because her skin had been deeply scratched by our new puppy's teeth. That's another story.

Anyway as I was waiting in the car for my folks to finish I decided to make a list of how I'd build a Beetle. It was a pretty general list, but I listed down in order of priority the stuff I would love to have done on the Beetle. Here is that list, that I've modified yet again.

Get the Beetle itself, preferably a Super Beetle. Why a Super Beetle? It handles and rides better and is supposedly more stable than standard Beetles. There's no "death wobble." While a Super Beetle may not be as collectible as standard, pre-1967 Beetles, I also can't afford those older models. I'm also guessing pretty soon these Super Beetles will also become more collectible as more of them are lost to disrepair.

Engine maintenance. Make sure the engine runs well, doesn't leak oil, is reliable, and is not a fire hazard. I'd also move the fuel filter somewhere safer, based on stuff I've been reading on VW forums.

Front disk brake upgrade. This will always be my first modification. Safety always comes first and upgrading at least the front brakes to disk brakes will improve the stopping power a lot. I'm not talking about just any front brake system either. I'll be using the recommended brake upgrade kits for Super Beetles. I'd read you could use Porsche brake systems for Beetles (here's another link about Porsche brakes on Beetles) but I'm not sure if that is needed for the kind of engine I'm planning, which will most probably be bone stock.

Upgraded wiring harness. I've written about it once, and I'll keep on writing about it. Upgrading the wiring harness to more modern equipment will make it safer and easier to maintain in the long run. Plus if that Beetle still has the original harness the wiring might be old and brittle, or if it's been modified to hell it might not be safe depending on whoever did the wiring.

Rear disk brake upgrade. This isn't as important as the front but would be a welcome upgrade as well.

Upgrade to alternator and 12v battery if needed. I'm not sure if Super Beetles still used generators and 6V batteries but modernizing it would make finding parts for repairs easier.

Body repair, repaint, improvements, and modifications. Make sure the car is rust free and has no dents and dings. Straighten any bends and make sure the chassis is fine. My peg for the colors would be the Salzburg Rally Beetle: silver body, black front and rear decklid. For modifications I would remove the outside chrome trim. Upgrade the doorknobs and the front and rear decklid handles. This is the stage where I would install pop-out windows for the rear passengers. Definitely add heat and noise insulation for the interior, as well as a custom-built rear luggage space.

Install Memminger ABS. Another modern improvement I'd want for safety purposes. I've read on forums about this ABS system being installed, I just need a good mechanic who knows his or her stuff to install this.

Engine rebuild and mods. This is different from making the engine reliable. This is where we overhaul the engine and improve some components to make the engine more reliable and hopefully more powerful. Stuff like an improved crankshaft pulley, oil cooler, and whatever else would be a practical and affordable upgrade for the engine to last longer and maybe improve fuel consumption. Maybe a carburetor or air cleaner upgrade but not dual carbs. Yet.

Customization. This is where the dream goes sort of wild. I'll be "rambling" in the following paragraphs.

New front and rear seats, definitely with headrests. It would be nice if the rear seats were 60/40 fold forward for easier access to the luggage space. Three-point seatbelts for both front seats, as well as two or three seatbelts for the rear seats. Honestly I would like it if a horizontal bar could be safely and securely placed behind the rear seats so I could have three four-point harnesses installed for the rear passengers.

For the interior I would install new dome lights with LED bulbs. If I remember right there were lights above both doors, but I'd rather have the lights moved to the center above the rear view mirror for the driver and front passenger, and maybe another light in the back for the rear passengers and to illuminate the rear luggage space. I would also want to install a racing steering wheel, if not the Momo Prototipo then the Sabelt SW-465.

Aesthetics. I'm a big fan of the stuff Vintage Speed Taiwan is selling. It's pricey but I've read great things about them. I really like any variant of their Black Mamba sport shifters, their roof racks, and their custom door pullers.

New pedals. Honestly I would prefer a racing pedal box since I'm totally daydreaming. If I can't have that then just new pedals.

As for the dashboard, I'd rather remove the padding if it was really ugly and beyond the state of repair. I would install a speedometer/tachometer combo gauge as well as a volt meter, a fuel gauge, an oil pressure gauge, and an oil temp gauge. Standard stuff I think I would need to make sure the Beetle is running well.

The sound system is something I haven't discussed yet, and I'm not really sure what I want. I was thinking of getting those Bluetooth rechargeable speakers and just having a custom made attachment on somewhere for it, but the quality and volume might not be good. So I'd like to have a decent basic sound system set up with (gasp!) a decent 1-DIN modern stereo system with Bluetooth and auxiliary USB. I may be a fan of those retro looking modern stereo systems but they're just too expensive. Maybe a smallish subwoofer to be placed in the rear luggage area as well as some decent mid-range speakers.

Exterior mods. I'm talking about rims. I still have a thing for RS Watanabe style rims, but I'm also starting to grow fond of the Fuchs Porsche rims for the Beetle. Additional front fog lamps mounted on the bumper, and a rear LED chase light bar to act as not only the third brake light, but additional turn and reverse lights. A Thule roof rack with their roof basket (I know I wrote I was a fan of the Vintage Speed Taiwan roof rack but the it's either that or Thule). Headlight eyebrows.

Yeah this blog is pretty long already. Basically made a link dump for this. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to at least achieve my dream of owning a classic Beetle. We shall see.

Out.

[862] Goodbye Flickr

I deleted my flickr account a few days ago. I joined that site around 2005 or 2006, but have been relatively inactive since maybe 2008.

I've dumped photos there to use for this blog, and was very happy when they gave everyone 1 terabyte of space. Business is business though and they changed formats and switched to 1000 free photos.

Makes me sound like a cheapskate but with all the stuff I'm paying for it just wouldn't be worth it to pay for a photo/video dumping site. Honestly it makes more sense for me to spend for cloud storage in google because I can also back-up documents instead of just photos and videos.

Most of the photos I had on my account were backed up already anyway.

Will I miss flickr? Not really. I'll miss the people I used to interact with there regularly. The good folks who fanned the flames of photography. Unfortunately I've stopped shooting, my trusty Canon G16 still works but is starting to show its age. And mobile phone cameras are taking really good photos now.

So farewell and thank you, flickr. I won't be missing you that much,

Out.

[861] Super Beetle Musings and Links

 I've been reading a lot about classic Volkswagen Beetles. They're still at the top of my list of dream cars I would love to own. And as always, my taste changes depending on what I've read and what I've learned.

I've been a big fan of the Salzburg Rally Beetle, which is basically a Super Beetle with a couple of mods. I've blogged about it before (pretty sure I have, I'm just too lazy to find my post about it). And while I'd love something like that, my current dream retromod build is a wee bit more different.

Right now my dream Beetle is the more modern, and not as valued, Super Beetle. Why? Because I'm realizing that thanks to that car's MacPherson front suspension makes it a bit safer to drive, as well as giving it a better turning radius and less bumpier on uneven surfaces.

Let's start with the must-haves. I definitely would install a new, modern wiring harness. This would make it sort of easier to maintain the car's electricals and modernize it a bit. Along with that wiring harness would most definitely be an upgrade to an alternator instead of a generator.

A good sound system is also a must have. While I am a fan of the Retrosound modern radios with classic looks, those things are also expensive as heck. So I'll take a standard 1-DIN radio with bluetooth and auxilliary cables. Maybe add decent speakers for the front and rear without sacrificing the luggage compartment behind the rear seats. So no subwoofers. Or maybe those small ones that don't eat too much space. I don't really know, I haven't done research on in car entertainment.

Disk brakes are also a must. Bare minimum is front disk brakes, ideally all-wheel disk brakes. This improves braking for a really old car. I also wouldn't mind installing an ABS system if there is someone competent who can install it.

For the interior I would love to have a Black Mamba custom shifter from Vintage Speed. Maybe replace the pedals with newer racing pedals just so they get a bit more modern. Seats I would love to keep stock or upgrade to ones that have better side support and neck support. Also get new seat belts for the front seats and install good seat belts for the rear as well.

For the exterior The Vintage Speed custom roof rack also looks amazing. Aside from this I also would love to have pop out side windows for the rear passengers of the Beetle. Also classic eyelids for the headlights. Some classic JDM bullet side mirrors would be a personal touch I want to install. It may look weird for some but I want to see what it looks like on a Super Beetle. I'd also love to have a Sabelt steering wheel installed instead of the classic looking steering wheel. I did say I want a retromod Super Beetle.

Aside from these I'd want a Kamei front splitter because from what I've read this helps keep the car stable in relatively higher, highway speeds. I'd also love to install a real LED chase light bar to act as third brake lights and also additional turn signals and reverse lights. I'd mount the chase light bar right behind the roof rack so higher vehicles will still see the lights when I brake.

And that's it. Those are the things I'd like to do if I had the money to buy and fix up a Super Beetle. Now time to go get me some lottery tickets.

Out.

[860] Pets

We now officially have five pets in the house. That's a new record, if I remember things right.

We originally had two cats, Chula and Chuling. A Persian and a Siamese. Then our yellow Labrador Clancy came after a few months that we didn't have a dog. Early this year a stray kitten found our way to the house, whom my daughter named Cranberi.

Now we have a mixed breed puppy, Cola. She's the daughter of Clancy to a half-Labrador half-beagle dog who lives in the village. She's also a chocolate brown color, our first ever Lab with that color.

It's been relatively chaotic dealing with Cola. She's hyper, she's nibbling everything. Cranberi has surprisingly been very behaved. Except when she's in heat. She's been a lot more decent that what I was expecting. It could possibly be because she rarely enters the house. When she does, like the past few nights, she sleeps in what should have been Cola's cage.

The set up of the house is still a bit confusing right now. Hopefully as these new pets grow up they learn to become behaved and house-trained. We shall see.

Out.

[859] October Updates

 Covid-19 is still around. I still dislike going out of the house.

We're still surviving, and still going on with life.

I've been fine tuning my Monday to Fridays exercises, and because of this I haven't been completing them. Two weeks ago I got a migraine and a weeks before that I was mentally down so I stopped exercising. Last week I decided not to exercise daily because I've been feeling really fatigued.

During this workout down time I've been watching some youtube videos and looking for exercise alternatives that will help improve my overall strength, specifically my upper body strength. I've starting incorporating some beginner calisthenics workouts to my Tabata sequence. Basically using some of those workouts in the "cardio cycle" of my workout.

I've also been looking at newer kettlebell strength training exercises for my back/shoulder and leg/arm days.

I've decided not to push myself too much anymore because aside from starting to lose interest, the weather also is getting colder and making it harder for me to get up early. My target now is to be able to work out at least three times a week. If I can build momentum then I'll try to add more workout days.

It's all back to impulsive stuff again.

Out.