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General Information => User's ride Wall => Topic started by: JamesT on February 25, 2013, 06:14:19 pm
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This is going to start with a story and progress to pictures when they're available.
Once upon a time, an aircooled VW owner named James wanted a rabbit pickup. James had previously owned a few type 2's, a bug, and a karmann ghia project he, to date, has not even really started.
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album42/100_0936.sized.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/1970-7-passenger/100_1004.sized.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/68-Ghia-Project/100_0297.sized.jpg)
Then one day, a friend of his had a 2-door rabbit for sale. A '78, automatic, gasoline-powered rabbit. Although it wasn't exactly what he wanted, James bought the car and fell in love.
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album90/rabbit09.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album90/rabbit30.jpg)
As soon as the honeymoon was over, James started to notice things about the Rabbit that he didn't like; the most obvious thing was the automatic transmission. After 5 months of driving this car, James bought another '78 Rabbit. This wasn't a replacement though. The second rabbit was a parts car to swap in a manual gear-box (and better seats, a new fuse box, and some rims).
*no picture of Rabbit #2 found*
James drove the rabbit everywhere. He drove it down to Oregon a few times, and countless trips up and down the island. Despite this, the rabbit was pushed aside. James's other love, who was quite a bit more vocal than the rabbit, decided that they should own a more "practical vehicle" with 4 doors and room to haul stuff. The couple eventually compromised and bought a '79 Volvo 245.
(http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm135/IrGreg/hdr1-2.jpg)
The rabbit was left out in a field to face the cold west-coast rain alone. Nearly a year passed, and James had grown tired of the Volvo. The rabbit was brought back to the road with a tune-up and some new tires. It was quickly apparent that the winter alone had not been kind to the Rabbit. Electrical problems kept popping up, and by the end of the summer, the rabbit was off the road again. James bought himself a clean 4-door '90 golf and drove that around for a while.
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album138/DSCN0706.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album138/DSCN0710.jpg)
He moved out to Montreal for a year, and the golf went with him. When he returned from Montreal, broke and hungover, James sold the reliable Golf and turned his attention for the old Rabbit. He fixed the electrical problems with a CE2 conversion and a lot of love.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GXLrcG4-8aI/T8mY5_vpD6I/AAAAAAAAAO8/Y_Sraz4LL5c/s640/DSCN2221.jpg)
The Rabbit was happy, and back on the road.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-SETjSpZ1Kn4/TrxQ5eLcdhI/AAAAAAAAALM/dzjRzE4s5iw/s640/DSCN2251.JPG)
But once again, the happiness didn't last long. James was seduced by the dark side. He bought a '93 TD golf. While this made his wife happy, James hated the car.
*Picture Not Yet Found*
The engine was fine, but the merits of the engine alone couldn't overcome James' hatred of the MK3s. Fortunately, James' wife drove the car most of the time, which may or may-not have contributed to a reverse gear failure. He tried changing the transmission, but the replacement transmission leaked like a sieve. In 50km, the clutch disc was contaminated and slipping badly. James didn't feel like removing the transmission again, so the car sat, and the Rabbit shone again.
James missed the diesel sounds and smells and fuel-economy. He bought a cheap '77 diesel that was rotten practically in half. James and a friend parted the car out in a single day and boxed it all up. The diesel engine, 4-speed transmission, seats, JOM coilovers, and other goodies found their way into James' blue '78.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1aHeqiW2aks/T8mY8yqYBYI/AAAAAAAAAPM/8zrS1U0ETzI/s640/DSCN2217.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qRQW2W3s9jM/T8mZXbBsijI/AAAAAAAAAPU/7G_l9EKrzBk/s640/DSCN2223.jpg)
The Rabbit's days were numbered. James finally found a solid Rabbit Pickup project he could afford. A bare shell of an '82 with no front end on it, but boxes of parts in the back.
(http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j249/limey420/0168a3d3.jpg)
(http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j249/limey420/2c5314e6.jpg)
Rust and brake failure had sealed the fate of the Rabbit. James took the engine and some interior parts out of the rabbit, and got the truck running and on the road. He gave the thing a quick rattle-can paint-job and hit the road.
*Caddy Pics to Come*
But after less than a week of driving that, James wanted more power. He now has an AAZ swap planned for the coming weeks. More to come.
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Tell me about the bays.
I have one too.
The lowering; tell me about it.
Oh, and nice Caddy, too. :P
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Don't you just love a fairy tale?
JamesT has a day job writing children books I think. Very nice by the way. Many cars, one love and heartbreak. But the story continues.
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The bays are both 1970. The double cab used to be my Dad's. He lifted it and put a 2.0L in it. A bit of a cam, headers, and dual IDFs and it screamed. The Kombi I bought without an engine, and for a while just threw whatever junkyard motor I could find in it. I built a 4 inch beam for it because I messed up the cut when I was trying to make a 2 inch beam. The rear is down 3 outer splines on heavily notched spring plates. The ride wasn't too bad considering I wasn't running dropped spindles, front shocks, and the ball-joints were an inch from binding when it sat level. I built a 1776 single port motor which got amazing fuel economy, but I received a repair notice on the van before too long. I still have it, but it needs to pass an inspection it wouldn't. A few weeks before I bought the caddy project, I bought a 1970 7-passenger van. It was to be my winter project, but it will have to wait until spring. I'm planning on running a 1.6TD in it if I ever figure out all the logistics.
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album147/P1010736.jpeg)(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/album147/P1010735.jpeg)
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Love 'em!
Here's a link of one guy putting his 1.6 in a '73: http://motorheads.net/vw/turbobus/index.html (http://motorheads.net/vw/turbobus/index.html) It's een around the net a couple times, but there's good info there.
Good luck getting the Caddy up to speed. Too bad the Rabbit met Canada's #1 cause of car's death. :(
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A buddy and I built a stack for it this evening. Mostly it's just preparing for the AAZ swap.
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00002.sized.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00005.sized.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00006.sized.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00004.sized.jpg)
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00003.sized.jpg)
These are the first real pictures I could get, because for the first time on this build, I wasn't doing the majority of the work.
No muffler on an N/A is really loud. Add a hard-mounted stack to the mix and no headliner and it gets painful.
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If it were me I would be cutting a sliver out of that stack about 4 inches down and bending the outlet backwards. 15 degrees or so. Then Weld it up. Why have that kind of drone in your ear? Let it blow back a bit.
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If it were me I would be cutting a sliver out of that stack about 4 inches down and bending the outlet backwards. 15 degrees or so. Then Weld it up. Why have that kind of drone in your ear? Let it blow back a bit.
Yeah like that'd help.. ;) Plus it won't look half as cool! I think you notice the drone because the exhaust note flows in to the bubble of air in the box (like on all pickups) and circles around and around. That and well.. 23.5:1 is a loud BOOM. lol
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8 V I know you want to put a flapper on it. Then turn down the idle enough to make it jump and click.
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8 V I know you want to put a flapper on it. Then turn down the idle enough to make it jump and click.
Something like this (http://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10152617701910158)?
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JamesT privacy link troubles on that one. Public view OK?
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How about this?
(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00010_1.sized.jpg)(http://www.vvwc.ca/albums/Caddy/CAM00009_1.sized.jpg)
Video of a cold start today. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yVfwF-VFRw&feature=youtu.be)
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Yeeeessssssssssssss. That is exactly what I had in mind. Now solve the bad injector/smoke problem.
Here in the PNW we would have about 60 inches of water down that pipe. If it sat for very long there may be an issue starting it. one would need a drain on the first lowest part of the system.
Nicely done I might add.
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Nice fab job & welding!
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Caddy's looking good, James. BTW, what ever became of the Boris golf anyway?
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Now solve the bad injector/smoke problem.
Timing issue. ;D
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Let's see a redo of the vid then. I can just see it now, Black smoke belching out the top with turbo whine for effect.
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Smoke problem is fixed. With some awesome help, I swapped in an AAZ on Saturday. Quite a big difference in power between the 1.5n/a and the 1.9TD.
Oh yeah, that's what happened to Boris's old golf.
Here in the PNW we would have about 60 inches of water down that pipe.
Get a map. I am in the PNW, or as we call it, the Southern West Coast.
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Victoria is pretty damn wet lol
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Sorry, I am pretty good with maps and geography. Just really bad at scrolling down to see others locations or looking left to the bar before I hit reply.
Yeah, BC B purtty wet too.
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I've now dropped it a bit. It's looking good in the sunshine.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xrZZHLQLvj8/UV0Qsk1HHWI/AAAAAAAAAS8/1Op6ienwjxU/s800/CAM00067.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vXEuvcGC3rY/UV0QtlK0TfI/AAAAAAAAATE/xjR7qnkqbN4/s800/CAM00069.jpg)
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Looking good. Coming out to the cruise next week?
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Looks good not dropped too much. Which method did you use to drop the back? Did you go 2" or 3" ? Coilovers for the front?
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Yeah, I'll be at the cruise.
I dropped the back with drop plates. Because I can't measure, my 2.5" plates drop it 3.5". The front is on 60mm springs and stock struts.
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nice 50s chevy truck in top pics , and your vdubs are sweet to