Down On The Street

Yawn, another weekend ride, another semi-interesting air-cooled VW spotted on the streets of North County.

I'm really trying to filter my "car-dar" a bit and tune out the myriad of Beetles and Busses (especially the bay window variants), but there seem to be plenty of somewhat unique ones still on out and on the prowl. Like this straight single cab splitty:
Someone get a VW badge on that nose, STAT.
And not chrome, it should be painted the same primer red as the lower half of the body. This was spotted at Fletcher Cove Beach park. I'm sure the owner was lugging a longboard in the bed.
Nice pipe bumper too.
If it was mine, I'd have a mildly-built 1776 dual port/dual carb engine in back and some safari windows along with the aforementioned VW badge up front. But it's still cool as-is. Just keep changing the oil and adjusting the valves and it should be good-to-go for another 45+ years on the road.

New York City

I spent a few days in New York City for work a few weeks ago. Some random pix...

View from the 12th floor TriBeCa apartment I stayed in on the Hudson (aka "The Big Skanky"):
concrete jungle:
back of Woolworth building:
Zuccotti Park/Occupy Wall Street:

OWS communal kitchen area:
Freedom Tower rises:
Water taxis, thru binoculars:
Empire State Building:
Donkey Party:
Old water towers:
The employees never came to wash my hands:
Van-tag-stic:

Miata Mods - Headlamps

US Department of Transportation-spec lighting leaves a lot to be desired. The beam pattern that the DOT dictates gives a blobby, non-uniform light pattern. The Euros, in typical fashion, do it right. Euro lighting has nice, crisp cutoffs with their beam patterns. Since the "NA" series Miata uses common 7" round bulbs, it was an easy and surprisingly affordable upgrade to European "H4" headlamps.

Updating the lights has been on my to-do list, but a bit down. Suspension work is definitely needed next. However, over on the VW Vortex Vans and Transporters Parts classifieds page was an ad for a set of new-old-stock Bosch H4 E-code (European spec) at a price that I couldn't pass up. Funds were sent to Quebec via PayPal and I received these Swedish-made Bosch lamps in about a week.
Also included was a set of new bulbs, but with an 80W low and 100W high elements, I was afraid of damaging the car's stock wiring harness. Maybe someday I'll get around to wiring the lights directly to the trunk-mounted batter and using a relay. Not yet. For now I'll be using a pair of Hella H4 Xenon Premium +50% bulbs that I picked up from Susquehanna MotorSports.
Anyway, the H4s definitely have a different appearance, with a much flatter lens:

H4 on left, DOT-spec on right

The pattern molded into the lens is also different:
Install was super-easy, requiring only a Phillips screwdriver and about fifteen minutes of time.
Remove the plastic shroud, then loosen the three screws on the retaining ring and twist a few degrees counter-clockwise to remove:
Pull out the old lamp and disconnect the three-wire connector:
Then, in typical Haynes Manual fashion, installation is opposite of removal. Looks good so far:
The next step will be aiming them within factory spec. I didn't notice the old lights being poorly aimed, but have a feeling that the E-code lamps will be a bit less-tolerant of being aimed out-of-spec.
I just need to find a good wall.

Enderman Invades

As spotted on our lawn, carrying a block of earth. For more information on these dangerous creatures, click here. UPDATE - her pic is now up on Endgadget, an image in the gallery, part of their Geekeist Halloween Costumes post.

Down On The Street

Running over to one of Celeste's friend's houses the other day, I noticed this scarlet vintage Beetle street parked a couple of houses down.

Looking very similar to the red '64 I had back in Boulder over a decade ago...

painted in a shameful '94 Mustang orangish-red, with a big scoop of orange peel texture

...was this '65.
Lightly altered through the years with fresh paint, white fender piping, add-on whitewall trim (partially obscuring a massive sidewall blister on the front tire at about 3 o'clock), solid black window trim and a mild drop...
...along with some tacky Pep Boys-grade decklid badges spelling out "VW 65" and a set of mos-aligned mufflers. I imagine the car has a powerplant larger than the original 1200cc unit pushing it along with nap-inducing runs to 60MPH.
The repro black door panels and seat covers provide some contrast to the bordello-red dash, but are a bit too funerary for my tastes. My '64 had two-tone light grey and cream white vinyl. But hey, if that's what the owner prefers, more power to him/her. My Beetle saw the 1980s aftermarket tape deck get chucked into the dumpster to make room for an original 6v Becker (I think) AM radio. Hmm, going backwards to a stock head unit in a cheap red toy car, I'm sensing a pattern here. Living in Boulder the best radio station was on AM anyway - CU's Radio 1190.

Still nice to see yet another air-cooled VW plying the streets.

Miata Mods - Top Zipper Stops

One of the weaker aspects of my Miata is the top, which I believe to be original. It's weathered twenty years of SoCal sun (when not placed in its proper, stowed position for motoring the mostly-sunny streets of North County).

The rear plastic window has been replaced at least once, and unfortunately, with a zipper that isn't all that great. An eight inch section at the top on the driver's side won't engage all the way - not a *huge deal* as there is a top flap that still offers weather protection - and I generally have the top down anyway.

But the biggest issue is, or, rather, was, that there wasn't a stop at the end of the of the zipper's run. So the first time I went to zip up the window (after frustratingly fumbling through the section that didn't fully engage), the zipper pull went off the track and ended up in my hands.

So, grabbing a needle and an antique roll of Coats & Clark's Extra Strong Button & Carpet thread from the sewing kit...

note the price - only 15¢

...and used my rudimentary sewing skills to add a stop.
Yeah, far too much text for something so stupidly simple.

Down On The Street

A couple of interesting air-cooled vintage VWs, spotted during today's North County ride. First up, this Splitty that was visiting the same repair shop that the Renault R8S (posted below - or here) was visiting last week.
From the looks of it, this Bus panel van may have just awakened from a long, ocean-side slumber.
That's not rust, it's patina. Right?
No, it's rust. And rotten rubber gaskets and delaminating windshields.
But just look at that face.
And what ratty interior isn't improved by at least 65% with the addition of old pocket t-shirts and zarapes covering peeling German vinyl?
Detail on the non-stock engine compartment cover. Too bad it's not sporting a nice set of vintage California black plates. I wish I was smart enough to be able to make out the original selling dealership's location.
This clean baja Bug/dune buggy was parked about fifteen miles north of the Bus.
No surface rust to be found here. Then again, it has a fiberglass body.
Nice, non-obnoxious powerplant.
The steering wheel's too modern for my tastes, but I like the Beetle speedo.

And here's a tip for budding car photographers/cyclists. This is the kind of poor composition that results after spending about 75 miles in the saddle. And when you're too lazy to unplug the headphones from the iPhone and get your ass off the bike to properly compose a shot.
Blech, I suck. But at least the car has a proper set of black plates.