After almost two weeks of not doing any work on the beetle. I just had to do something this weekend.
We attended a birthday party near OTTOSDAL, good old south-african farm hospitality. a proper "SKAAP BRAAI", lamb on the spit for the english speaking amongst us. Due to all the food consumed there, I had to do something to work some of it off.
Got back with enough light left, so it started.
One thing that bothered me from day one is that air filter that looks like @#$@#. I'll refresh your memory:
So out comes the air filter, and I figured while I am at it, lets take out the voltage regulator and touch that up as well.
First clean with petrol to get rid off all grease and oil, then wipe down, light sand with fine grit sandpaper just to give the paint something to cling to, and to get rid of any surface rust.
Three coats gloss black later it looked a lot better.
These two looked pretty good (not perfect, as I am a novice), also realized that I should have sanded the whole thing down to bare metal, then primered and only then painted if I wanted that perfect finish.
Once these two items were almost done, I couldnt leave the coil looking all tatty, so out it came.
Since I was busy, I also removed the old firewall, then cleaned the engine bay.
Fitted the new firewall on the sides of the engine bay, but it got too dark to attempt to fit the main rear firewall section.
Replaced the coil, regulator cover and air filter, but when I wanted to move her to the garage to start with the firewall main section, she wouldn't start. I am hoping its just a loose cable or something.
It was a little dark, but you should be able to see the new firewall bits and spraypainted parts. The new firewall sections are a little dusty, will clean those once the whole job is done. The brownish stuff on the rear firewall is the original felt sections they used for sound deadening (I am guessing), and they are in good shape, so I figure I'll keep it there. All the original steel tabs are still intact to reattach the firewall, so before resorting to glueing it, I'll try to reuse them. Good news is that there was no rust ANYWHERE. The engine tin looks like it was installed just the other day
Also found two cotton triangles in the corners of the engine bay behind the left and right firewall sections. I supposed they were there to help suppress noise to the inside of the cabin?
Is it worth taking off the pulley to respray, or can I mask and do it in place?
Your thoughts on anything else I should consider, anything I did right/wrong?
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. I read about fitting a resistor or something to bring down the voltage on the motor side but have kinda left it there. I never use them you see.