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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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 Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: After 20 years ... a Thing! |
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Said goodbye to the 74 yesterday. Heading eastbound to Pensacola Florida. I can say that it is much better than when I found it. 
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obus 
Samba Member
Joined: March 08, 2001
Posts: 11610
Location: just off Garden State Parkway Exit 81
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 1:01 pm Post subject: Re: After 20 years ... a Thing! |
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I picked up the new wheels and tires. I went with a more stock look than the 7.0-15 tire I was going to go with. The car is also up for sale. My Bus project is coming up and I have to concentrate on one, so the Thing has to go. 
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2020 9:56 am Post subject: Re: After 20 years ... a Thing! |
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Time to dust off this old thread with an update.  My now senior in college is home for winter break and we pulled his yellow car out of storage. Still runs great and he enjoyed driving it on the 70+ degree days we have been enjoying.
I decided to go a different direction on the lowered car. I put the lowered beam into storage and put a Class 11 beam that I picked up with disc brakes that is slightly higher than stock. I'm going to run a set of 15" stock steel wheels with a 7.0-15 tire instead of the Speedmasters that will go on my bus. Slowly the body work continues.
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imtb
Samba Member
Joined: October 27, 2013
Posts: 366
Location: st.l
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| Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 11:11 am Post subject: |
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| Nice job. |
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 8:22 am Post subject: |
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We finished the aluminum top up on Saturday in the shop and decided to head over to the 40th Bug-In held in Fontana on Sunday. I entered for fun and ended up 1st in the Thing class! Fun weekend!
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:27 am Post subject: |
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Nice turnout last Friday. Two other Things showed up, but I forgot to take any more pictures. 
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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A few minor updates. The yellow Thing will visit this weekend its first car show here in town. To mark the occasion I picked up the former local VW dealer license plate frame.
Next up is an aluminum top for the roll cage on the yellow Thing and then back to work on the lowered car.
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:42 am Post subject: |
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| sirswank wrote: |
been a while since i checked in, but i like your style.
still nobody running 16's on a thing yet tho... |
I haven't seen 16s on a Thing yet. My guess is Method sells a majority of these wheels in 15" to Class 12 and 1600 drivers and general desert VW rigs (baja, buggies etc). I took the car to my local Mom and Pop VW shop and they had never seen the wheel along with their other customers. You too can be the first one on your block/city/county with a set.
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sirswank
Samba Member
Joined: September 15, 2008
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Shoyrtt wrote: |
I had a little time to mount the Method Wheels and Falken Tires up for the 73. The car should be back from the paint shop next week so we can start the final assembly.
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been a while since i checked in, but i like your style.
still nobody running 16's on a thing yet tho... |
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HUGO bOSS
Samba Member
Joined: April 27, 2008
Posts: 2614
Location: Madeira Island - Portugal
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GI Joe
Samba Member
Joined: April 28, 2005
Posts: 2013
Location: Athens, TN
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 10:58 am Post subject: |
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Finally got through all of my wiring issues. After dealing with the old harness, brittle and broken connectors and its numerous hacks, I picked up a new harness from Rebel Wire. Very simple install. It turns out my cracked ignition switch also fried the starter.  After that was replaced it was time for a winter drive. If you look closely, you can see the LED parking lamps are on. 
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Local shop had the switch. I installed it late last night and still no luck. I guess I will be chasing the Current Flow diagrams (from the great technical section) to see if I can find the issue. |
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:42 am Post subject: |
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So I decided to take a spin in the 73 this weekend. Turned the key and nothing. I figured the battery was dead so I pull out my trusty jumper box...still nothing. Now on to the volt meter. Battery good, ground is good. Maybe its the switch. I pulled the lead to the back of the switch and found power. Pulled the steering wheel, pulled the turn signal and the cover to the ignition (finding lots of dirt and debris) and wala:
I'm surprised it even worked. I did a few searches here on the Samba and found a thread saying the 73 switch was different than the 74 and that the aftermarket Bug switch was too short. Now that it is Sunday and my local family owned VW shop is closed, I decided to try Autozone. Even though I was warned here on the Samba that all switches are not created equal, I tried the 73 Bug switch. It looked like it was the same size, however it had one extra terminal that the Thing switch was missing. I cleaned everything up, installed the switch and ...nothing.
So today I'm off to see if my local shop has one. If not, I have another order going into TTS. |
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Ron Domeck
Samba Member
Joined: August 05, 2007
Posts: 1466
Location: louisville Ky
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| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| With the hood latch off adjust the rubber bumpers so they keep a good gap all the way around the hood. Then put the latch back on and then adjust the plunger starting with it short then lengthen until it latches. |
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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A little update on the progress (or lack thereof) on the yellow car. Still can't figure out the hood latch. I adjusted it with every plausible length on the plunger, lined it up (using Ron's flashlight method), got the little bumps from TTS and it still wont pop. I tried inserting the plunger without the hood, and it pops out great.  The only thing I can figure is maybe the lack of a hood seal somehow affects it??? Maybe a shorter plunger and increase the length of the little bumps???
Still fiddling with the brakes. After sitting 27 years they needed a lot of work. Also finding a gremlin in the starter. Again, 27 years old it was being difficult. I hit it with a dead blow hammer and it came to life, only to quit later. More new parts to buy.  |
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Ron Domeck wrote: |
| If you weld these remember the front wire harness is right there. |
Thanks for the tip.
With so many orders to TTS, do they offer frequent flyer miles or some other incentives? Once a week like clock work, I'm ordering some little part that I need. Maybe with my other car, I'll just send them 4 or 5K as a retainer to have on hand.  |
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Ron Domeck
Samba Member
Joined: August 05, 2007
Posts: 1466
Location: louisville Ky
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| Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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| If you weld these remember the front wire harness is right there. |
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Shoyrtt
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 1098
Location: Redlands, CA
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| Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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| mkparker wrote: |
We finished our first V2R, it took three tries but we did it! I think 13th unofficially out of 39 Class 10 cars. The engine developed a miss between Pit 9 and 10 while I was driving. Our guys in pit 10 didn't have much Ecotec experience so we limped it all the way to 11, replaced an injector and headed to Dayton.
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Congratulations! The silt this year was brutal. I was out of Redlich by 6:30 and don't remember seeing your car. The last car we pitted was the COPS C1 buggy. I know your pain. Those Ecotecs sometimes hate the heat & pump gas and go into limp mode at the worst times.
Looking at my hood latch issue again, I think the fix is fairly easy. The holes for the hood stops are fine. The PO cut out the raised sheet metal bumps in the nose. A little welding should do the trick. 
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