Found something worse than the motor mount

[Briano1234]

A good friend of mine asked if I could do his VW vert top, "Sure.. never done one of these but it can't be that difficult.."Oh, I also ordered the door scrapers can you do them? "Sure it isn't ever that hard..." NOT.... PAIN iN THE ARSE... More difficult than a passenger side motor mount. Right up there with the frigging power steering rack...

Oh the Subject is a One owner 1978 Super Beetle Vert.

You have to take all the innards out of the door, Vent window front and rear channels window glass and regulator... all in one order, and replacing them is a Rubik's Cube affair. about 6 to 7 hours to replace the inner scraper... and I still have to glue it in as it is moving out of the track.

WHAT A PAIN.......... But at least all the parts are never-seized, cleaned and greased, and the window rolls up really nicely... One down 3 more to go.
The the Front Windshield that is "glued" in.

After that the top will be a piece of cake. I HOPE.

[CalAltaDubber]

Gee Brian, you seem to have all the fun.

[CalAltaDubber]

Not mine, but ..
Sean calls me a couple of weeks ago. Seems he burned out the fuel pump fuse. Then proceeded to destroy the fuse panel trying to get the fuse out.

Well guess what? Yes I have one.
Well he brings over the problem panel, and sure enough the place for fuse #5 is screwed with half the fuse still stuck in it.

On top of that, the fuel pump relay had been replaced with a heavy duty relay. (Not Good) that means that the relay won't shut down the fuel pumps in the event of an accident. What was worse, is that someone along the way had shorted the power in and out pins (86 and 87) with a piece of copper wire. Making the relay useless.

That was probably part of Sean's problem.

Yesterday Sean calls me wondering why there is no power to the fuel pumps. He has replaced the fuse panel and is thinking he has missed a connection.
After consulting my trusty Bently, I give him some things to check.

About a half hour later he calls me. He forgot to put a fuse in slot #5.
He has the car running.
He still has to replace the fuel pump relay with the proper one, but at least he removed the copper wire shorting the input and output pins together.

[Briano1234]

wowsers, I got the top finished... Well it has to stretch before I cut the window in....Don't look too bad... Pain, the screws are number 4.5 1/2 inch half are missing... Well they are stripped, ended up replacing ever screw with a bigger size. The rear Cable had to have bushings on to to tighten properly, only had to reposition and tighten the rear cable about 6-7 times because it wasn't seating correctly, (tension anyone?).

The seals don't have trays, they have a metal strip in the middle that you have to screw, and half those holes were missing or auger-ed out to 6 instead of 4. Then in 3 of the holes in the front they and 1/4 inch that had to be clipped a bit.....

All that is left is to tuck the headliner and the rear window.... that I will leave for tomorrow.

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

Pics of the finished product??


Sent from my iPhone using Tippytappy

[Briano1234]

Ya know I didn't take any pictures of the finished product....... I know. I bad.

[bLac K aBriOleT89]

Bad boy, bad boy.

[Briano1234]

I was so happy at getting it out of my Garage....... Then 2 days later a Cabriolet came in for all 3 layers.