2018, Week 4

I've decided to do weekly posts to consolidate several posts into one.  Perhaps, it'll make it easier or faster to read.
Jan. 22:

The wayward left side vent window frame has finally arrived.  It was scheduled to be delivered on Saturday - I stayed home all day on one of the warmest days in recent memory and the letter carrier claimed that he didn't have the box in his truck.  I think he was full of shit and chose to not deliver it because it's all the power he's got in his job - piss off the occasional customer.

I called the carrier annex this morning and spoke to a supervisor - asked him why the box wasn't delivered on Saturday.  He had no idea.  I then asked him to confirm that the box was on the truck for delivery today.  After a total of 20 minutes on hold and then waiting another 30 minutes for a return call, I received confirmation...so, again, I waited at home all day.  The mail showed up at about 5pm, it was raining, and the letter carrier (same dude as Saturday) was filling out a slip to leave in the mailbox - probably because he didn't want to get out of his truck and get wet to deliver the box to the front door as he should have...I walked out to his truck and he noticed me just as he was about to toss the notification in the mailbox and speed off to the next house.  Thanks for doing the bare minimum, fuckstick.

This frame is in very nice condition and the seals are pliable and soft - just as they were when they were brand new.  The aluminum bits are lightly scratched but overall nice.

Just like the other vent window frame - the inner small vent felt is about an inch shorter than the end of the channel.  I find this to be a bit strange.

The Wolfsburg West felt channels are still not in stock.  I'm not likely to do anything with this until it either warms up or the aftermarket parts are available...or both.

Jan. 23: Tried to start the car - battery was totally dead and would not charge.  Took it to AutoZone and they were able to charge it back to 100% capacity.  May try to install battery, start car and do some work on it.  I'd like to drive the car a bit and tweak/fine tune it a little so it's more reliable and fun to drive.

Called WW - dude said that he doesn't expect the window felts until the Summer of 2018 because the German supplier was going to make the parts 'when they got around to it'...this might change when I choose to tackle the current window situation.  Another option would be to simply 'close' the windows and leave them alone until I have the motivation to do it properly.

Jan. 24:  Installed the fresh battery, started the car and went for a 10 mile drive.  The steering is way too loose - to the point of the car wandering in the lane.  I'm going to have to pull the front end apart to see if I can figure out how to tighten it up a bit.  May swap steering boxes to see if that helps.  After sitting for 15 minutes, the car did not want to start again (heat soak?) but it finally did start.  Not quite happy with the way it runs still...hoping to get it in with Steve at ProFlow sometime in the near future so he can dial it in a bit more.  Runs way rich too.

Jan. 25:  Sold off some miscellaneous engine and transmission parts that I know I'll never use.  Once I've got a slightly better handle on the scale of how far I plan to downsize, I'll be selling off a bunch of other stuff too.

Jan. 27:  Pulled almost everything out of the storage closet in the garage.  Found a few Type 3 parts that I can live without and plan to post up for sale.  It's probably high time that I narrow down to what I need and get rid of all of the other stuff because it's just taking up space.  I'll be going through a lot of parts in preparation for the move and expect that I'll sell a chunk of my parts before the move.

Jan. 28:  Sold the Blaupunkt Essen radio that came with Icarus.  I could have asked $150 for it but I wanted to sell it fast so I listed it for $100 and it was gone within 20 minutes.  Had a chat with a guy in NZ who used the same engine builder - his motor blew with less than 1000 miles on it.  Makes me a bit concerned about the quality of the engine I bought but I also realize that failure can be very random when it comes to engine builds.  For my sake, I hope to avoid a similar fate.

After a little more than a year in Atlanta it looks like we're moving back to Chicago since the job scene here doesn't cater to our career choices.  None of the other out of state job prospects have turned into job offers.  The lease is up on the house in May and the plan is to have a solid plan to move by March, be significantly packed by the end of April and out by mid May.  This also means that whatever the status is of Nigel at the end of March will be static for probably six months.  And, unless something I desperately need pops up for sale, I'm done buying parts for a while.  Highly likely that we'll move back to a short term apartment before buying a house so Nigel and the non-essential stuff will go into storage.

2018, Week 3

The NOS vent window frame from France arrived early this week - after it made two trips to the US.  The part from Germany was 'Out For Delivery' today so I stayed home all day only to discover that the box wasn't in the letter carrier's truck.  I absolutely fucking loathe the people who handle the mail here.

 These little beauties showed up yesterday via DHL from Germany (fuck you USPS!).  They're E code H4 3 bolt housings.  I'm hoping that the H4 lenses will improve light disbursement for the LED headlamps.  Someday when I feel like working on the car again I'll swap them out and see how they look.

I now have four NOS SWF reflectors - a year ago I didn't know these existed and now I've got four.

I still have a used one and a NOS Hella reflector - at some point, I'm going to have to sell a few to get back to a respectable number.

 Headlight 'caps' for the older 3 bolt headlight housings - I broke one quite a while back and, for reasons I cannot explain, I bought two to replace it.  I'll probably never use them - especially if I swap to the E code H4 housings because they use different caps.

Just for shits and grins, I also bought 4 of the grommets for the rear brake line where it exits the pan.

The one on the left is the NOS part - the one on the right is the repop part.

In this instance, the repop part is exactly the same as the original part - this is quite rare in my experience.

I attempted to charge the battery today and it failed - I think this battery is done.  It's about two years old but it's toast.  Now I have yet another reason to ignore this car.

Three or four years ago - this car popped up for sale.  It's a 1965 Variant S with 22,000km - complete with gas powered heater.  It's completely original and everyone who have seen it in person are absolutely blown away by how clean and original the car displays.  It's for sale for 27,000€.  About the only thing I don't like about it is that it's white.

I have tons of photos of the car when it went up for sale a few years ago.

I never thought I'd see this car for sale again.  This is a perfect example of why I should have held fast, saved my money and waited for the game to come to me.

Instead - my impatience bought me a project with an unknown future.

2018

After a lengthy battery charging session, I started the car, drove it to the street - turned around and came back to park the car in the other garage.  Runs rich as hell but I have no interest in working on it right now.  At least now it's not in the way in the garage.

The window frame from Germany is due on Friday - the window frame from France was returned to the sender in France after the USPS claims to have attempted delivery three times.  One of those days I was home all day, the other two the mail was on a vacation hold.  No notes to indicate that they 'attempted' delivery and none of the tracking worked on the USPS website.  I found out after tracking it on the French postal site.  I'd bet good money that a band of 9 year old kids could accidentally do a better job of delivering packages in this area...no one here gives a shit.  I'll wind up paying 60€ to have it shipped again via FedEx.  I bet the one from France shows up before the one from Germany - simply because the one from Germany is being delivered by the same group of idiots who sent the French package back.

A little digging/reading solved the 'when' question about the change to the doors.  I thought they'd ended with the 1964 model year but it appears that they changed about 4 months into the 1965 model year - and then, a month later, the clips were added to the door seals.  A car built in November of 1964 would have one month only doors.

The small felt pieces from Wolfsburg West are not yet available - in spite of being told twice that the 'in stock' date would be before the end of 2017.  The parts are coming from a German supplier which means they'll be 2-3 weeks later than communicated and the customer will be wrong for asking why the parts are late.  At this point, I'm more curious about part quality than convinced that these parts will work and are holding up my door build.  Honestly, I wish I'd just left the damn doors alone!

I sold an early set of heat exchangers so I'm now down to three NOS pieces.  I'm on the fence about selling off the rest of them since there's a VERY slim chance that I'll ever use them.  I've actually pondered throwing in the towel and getting out of the hobby entirely.  The only thing keeping me from doing that, honestly, is that I don't want to have to pack and ship all of this shit once it's sold.

The official job hunt is on so the car's just going to sit for a while anyway...maybe I'll come to my senses and 'do the right thing'.  Whatever that is...