OK, so now I’ve got a Google Wave account; only I don’t know anyone else who does – so I’ve got no-one to ‘wave’ at.
Anyone want an invite ?
Categories: Uncategorized
Pretty darned spooky for those ‘in the know’…
Wednesday, Oct 7th, 2009 – You are willing to accept the limitations placed on you by someone else today. You don’t feel a need to fight back or negotiate additional freedom. In fact, you might actually be relieved that your movement is being so carefully monitored. But don’t expect this peaceful, easy feeling to last. By evening, you could already be anticipating tomorrow’s action and are anxiously awaiting your moment to break free.
Categories: Uncategorized
A whole bunch of parts arrived from CIP1 yesterday and were sitting at work for me when I got in this morning. I have
- rear gravel guards
- spare fuses
- a new horn ring
- a hubcap puller
- a pair of new sunvisors (with mirror)
- two new outside door scrapers with molding,
- and a new outside mirror mount to replace the one with the stripped thread on my car.
The good news: the delivery time from CIP1 was outstanding. I placed the order last week, received an email letting me know the order has shipped on Friday and the stuff arrived on Monday. All in, five days from ordering to delivery in Australia (from the US).
The bad news: the two outside door scrapers (or more specifically, the moldings) are made of thin metal and have been bent and pinched – I’m assuming in transport. As these are the largest item, return isn’t an option – so I guess I’m gonna have to live with them. They also look like a complete bastard to fit. Also, the “sunvisors with mirror, sold as pair” are just that: “mirror” singular. There’s no mirror on the driver side. In retrospect, this is probably a good thing: just not what I expected. [edit: there's no mirror on the passenger side - these are made for a left-hand drive car!]
Anyway, I expect I’ll have most of this stuff fitted in the twenty minutes I get for lunch (except the new scrapers!) – so she’ll be looking damn fine real soon.
Next stop: new rear seatbelts from Wolfsburg West and new door cards from BusnBug. 
[update 30/09/2009: After showing CIP1 the photo of the damaged mouldings they gave me a credit note for the full cost of the damaged parts plus a percentage of the shipping cost. They dealt with the issue very promptly and courteously. I'll be using them again - after all, I have $80 in my account with them!]
Categories: Cars
Tagged: beetle, bug, volkswagen, vw
September 28, 2009 · 2 Comments
Been having lots of ‘wtf is this thing?’ type fun with my Beetle lately.
I’m quite keen to rewire the horn button to the steering wheel – like a proper car – and have been investigating what the current wiring does and where it goes. The horn is currently operated by a button on the dash, not ideal in an emergency…
Anyway, although I can see the wires from the button disappearing somewhere into the body of the car, and I can see the wires from the horn disappearing up into the body – I can’t be sure where they meet, or how. So I’m poking around under the car when I spot an orange device with tubes coming out of it. “Hello – that looks interesting”, I think; and then – beside it – I spot a cable that looks like it has been deliberately cut through.
Several hours and much trawling through VW forums later – I discover that this is the mysterious ‘Master Cylinder’ – attached directly to the brake pedal – that pushes brake fluid out to each wheel. Only every diagram I can find of the damn things shows them with two brake light switches; mine clearly only has one, and with the second one cut through! So I’m still not satisfied – why does my Dual Circuit Master Cylinder have only one brake light switch when it looks like the car originally had two ?? Do you know ?
Do you care ?
More pictures of the internal workings of my car here:
Categories: Cars · Days In
Tagged: beetle, mastercylinder, volkswagen, vw
