Hey Bill,

I tried to get to your flickr page but —

The link did not work —

Sorry to hear that the weather was as bad up there as it was here in North Carolina……

There is always next year — I may have my car done by then.  I don’t even have a name for the Ford TDr yet, let alone have the body back together.  Bummer!! But I guess t…[Read more]

Fiberglass work SUCKS!!

Well, I recently learned where my talents DO NOT lie — I HATE FIBERGLASS WORK!!!!!

…But it was finally time to get the firewall sealed up so that I could get on with putting the rest of the car together and also get the wiring finished and the dash installed.  But what a royal pain in the butt…..

And even…[Read more]

We thought about using a piece of steel plate I had in the scrap pile, but that seemed like overkill for what was needed….so out came the leftover deck board and the wood saw instead of the steel plate and the  cutting wheel.

And as Ed and Roy pointed out, my Ford-based TDr (still un-named “tribute car”) now has some wood in its DNA — just…[Read more]

Hey Bill,

The problem is that the flange on the hat is only around 3/8″ wide and the mating flange on the rear is about the same, making it impossible to install per the assembly manual (installed from the inside using 6 ea. 5/16″ bolts and nuts) — only room for #8 self-tapping screws, and barely at that.  So Roy came over and helped engineer a…[Read more]

Hey Bill,

AWESOME!!!!!

I’m envious that you are about on the road — I’m still trying to understand why one of the previous owners mis-cut the spare tire holder fiberglass “hat” and what I can do about it……

Happy Motoring — Go forth and DRIVE — post a video of your first run around the block……

What fun, this!!

Ford-Powered…[Read more]

…By the way, the flat windshield regular VW Beetle wiper rig is 15 3/4″ between centers on the mounting pivots….

Ed, by the way, I did find a new rig available from CIP1 in California — for around $150 complete with motor…

Of course, I found that one right after I finished referbing the junkyard one that I paid $100 for……. 🙂

Yea, I also found out about “curved windshield, 20″ between center-of-pivot” Super Beetle wiper rigs — I purchased  a very nice, extra clean rig, got it home and found out that it would not fit (too wide).  Luckily my local VW junkyard took it back and let me wander the yard to find a “flat windshield” Beetle rig that they let me pull out of a l…[Read more]

More (slow) progress on my Ford TDr —

Front Fiberglass all fitted and then removed so I can install the heater, wire up the engine compartment, and install the throttle linkage and pedal.

Now I am working on getting the back end fiberglass fenders and panels installed, as well as creating and installing a wire harness …  hard work,…[Read more]

Hey Bill,

Glad to hear that I am not the only one in the whole universe to put plug wires on plugs 180 degrees out — but I only had 4 plug wires to play with — and the 2.3L motor sure ran better when the right wire was on the correct plug!!

By the way, my hat is WAY OFF to those of you who have built your cars from scratch (Bill, Paul,…[Read more]