Bug Update: Grounds Keeper

The time I've spent on the Bug's electrical system has taught me that having power means nothing if you aren't grounded (think Lindsay Lohan).

With this in mind, I've been wondering why the Bug turns over so slowly even though the battery is charged. I'll turn the key and hear, "ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh," before it starts. Or if the battery is low, "ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh, ruh... click, click, click."

I installed a new battery two years ago, and I remember cleaning the cables that connect to the battery. But I didn't know that I should also clean the surface the ground cable is bolted to. If the contact point for the ground is dirty, then it doesn't matter how shiny the cable is.

I removed the battery's ground cable and used a wire brush to clean that area last night. I returned the cable when I was satisfied that I could see a decent amount of bare metal.

Wow, that's a difference! I was hoping the car would turn over faster, but I didn't expect the motor to pop to life so quickly. If this keeps up, I might even dare drive the Bug on errands.

Bug Update: Buckets O' Fun

Last year I figured out that the headlights on my car didn't match. The adjusting screws on each light are different, and the parking light bulbs are in different positions. I suppose it's not that big of a deal. Both headlights work (but the parking lights never did), and it took me years to discern the difference. But once I could see it, I couldn't unsee it. And boy did it bother me.

Research says the headlamp with adjusting screws in the 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions is correct for my car, so I spent a few weeks waiting for the right unit to come up for sale on TheSamba.com. This is what I bought.

When the assembly arrived I was disappointed to see that the lens was heavily pitted and scuffed. You can't see it in the photo, and the seller failed to mention it. I had to tear the assembly down and use the lens from the headlight I was replacing (the lenses are interchangeable). I also didn't notice that the inside of the "new" bucket was painted dark gray. Mine were painted the same color as the car, but I later learned that the correct color for the lights' interior is that gray.

But the biggest surprise was how easy it is to switch out the headlights. There's just one screw at the bottom of the chrome ring, and once you remove this screw and the wires that are connected to the lights, the headlight bucket comes out in one piece.

Behold, the head of Medusa...

Time to head downstairs to my children's picnic table workstation. Safety glasses, check. Screw driver, check. New lens seal, check. The Beatles Hard Day's Night BluRay, check. Looks like we're all set to get to work.

Once I got my headlight apart, I had to decide how I was going to match the gray paint in the other headlight. I found a lot of suggestions online, but when I brought the bucket to Home Depot I decided that Rust-Oleum's "Smoke Gray" (7786) was the closest color on hand.

I was worried that the difference would be obvious, even colorblind guys like me can see gray. Luckily, I watched the art documentary Tim's Vermeer last week.

In Tim's Vermeer the filmmakers explore the idea that painter Johannes Vermeer didn't have superhuman vision. Instead, he used optics and mirrors to create photorealistic paintings. You might not think Tim's Vermeer would be much help with auto repair, but this narration caught my attention:

"The optic nerve has limited bandwidth, so the signals have to be compressed. One thing we lose in that compression is the ability to record absolute brightness the way a light meter can. When we see two values side by side, it's easy to compare them. But when we split them, that ability goes away." - Penn Jillette, Tim's Vermeer

To prove this, the film displayed two adjacent gray squares on a black screen. One square was slightly darker than the other, but when the squares were separated to opposite sides of the screen, the difference in tone wasn't noticeable.

Those two squares reminded me of my headlights. If I place my buckets next to each other, you might be able to see a difference in their paint, but if the buckets are separated by four feet - as my headlights are - you won't notice it. Man, you just never know where you're going to find help!

Looks good enough to me. Thanks, Tim Jenison!

 Say Vee-DUB-yoU out loud.

Now, about those small bulbs near the lenses.

Those are the parking lights, and as I said, they have never worked. But I don't know why. I removed the bulb's holder and attacked its rust with my "grinder's" wire brush. (To quote Rocky, the eco pup on Paw Patrol, "Don't lose it, reuse it!" Yes, I watch a lot of TV with my 4-year old...)

This isn't really an AAA Premier motor. I just like putting free stickers on stuff.

I reinstalled the bulb holder once I had cleaned as much metal as I could reach.

The screws look terrible, but they do their job. The top screw secures the positive wire, and the lower one holds the ground. Originally the holder would have ground itself on the bucket, but I used a wire spliced into the main headlight's ground (the brown wire).

Success!

They get pretty bright.

It's pretty exciting to solve problems that have plagued this car for so long.

(On Sunday morning I dreamt of a small sun shining on a concave patch of gray grass, and when I awoke my first thought was, "I fixed the parking lights last night!" What a weirdo. )

Tim's Vermeer trailer link

Taking the Lo-Fi Road

It took me a few months, but I finally shot a whole roll of 35mm film with my vintage Keystone "instamatic" camera. I bought this camera because it had a battery powered flash instead of needing a (unavailable) flashcube. I was curious if the flash would let me take better indoor pictures.

I really like how the old camera exposes all of the new 35mm film. I think the sprocket holes look neat. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

After a hard day of ballet, Char's hanging out in a pillow tent with Maggie.

Remember what a big deal it was when your folks would take you to a hotel, and they had a pool there? I had to stand in the water to take this picture. I still remember how freezing that water was. Why don't little kids ever get cold in the pool?

OJ, cinnamon toast waffles, and watching Charlie and Lola on the computer is a great way to start a summer day...

... especially if it's raining outside.

When I blogged about this process before I called it lomography, but I think lo-fi photography is a better title. From the looks of the bottom left corner of each picture, my new/old camera has a light leak. I'm cool with that.

links: Lomo, Lomo 2

Beaverdale Fall Festival '14: Pics or It Didn't Happen?

We watched the parade, Char had over a pound of candy thrown at her (not all at once, though), and she also rode the rides. Sadly, I forgot the camera. I kicked myself at first, but actually it was nice not watching the world mimicked through a two-inch rectangle. I could just relax and enjoy what was happening in real time.

I've heard the saying "pics or it didn't happen", but if I spend all my time trying to record an occasion, then maybe I wasn't truly there. I'd have taken pictures of an event that I actually missed.

Hmmm. I'll have to think about that...

Anyway, here's Charlotte at the Latino Fest a couple of weeks ago. I had the camera then, and she had a blast.

We missed the Fall Fest last year, so here's a link to see a two-year-old Charlotte enjoying the parade:

link

Dang, they grow fast.

Bug Update: Cleaning Up

The turn signal seals on my front fenders had rotted away, so I bough some replacements from Wolfsburg West, an online supplier of quality VW parts.

The installation was fairly straight forward, and I got to use my new wire crimping skills.

I think little changes like this really clean up the Bug's overall appearance. No one is going think my car is a show winner, but it won't look like it's falling apart standing still, either.

 Speaking of cleaning up, I finally got all that junk off the inside of the engine lid.

When I showed Daphne my progress she said, "You like that type of job, don't you?" It's true. I do. It took me over an hour to scrub off all that grime, but it's a big improvement that was almost free.

I can't do much with that black patch above the air cleaner. It looks like the lid was repaired with a sloppy weld, and someone used spray paint to cover their tracks. I can live with it.

Time to work on the headlights...

Lost Again

Here's a small sample of my outdated knowledge:

• I know the difference between the SP, LP, and EP modes on a VCR.
• I know if you want to record on a cassette tape you should first fast forward and rewind the entire tape once to stretch it out.
• Spinning a magnet taped to the end of a paddle drill bit can remove screen problems on a tube TV/ monitor screen.
• A Sega Genesis controller fits into an Atari 2600 console, and it makes playing Joust a lot easier.

Sadly, the world has moved on, and these tips can't help anyone. But this problem of worthless knowledge isn't exclusive to technology.

The first task I have to do every morning is to get a sippy cup ready for Charlotte.

Sometimes there's a half full cup already in the refrigerator. All I have to do is top it off, and bring the cup upstairs. But every time I lay the lid on the counter it makes a small mess. It's not a big deal, but it's irritating.

Then I learned this trick. I put the opening of the sippy cup's lid inside the orange juice's upturned cap. Now I don't waste any milk or orange juice, and I don't make a mess, either.

But here's the rub. I just figured that out last week, and except for the first drink of the day in bed, Char doesn't use sippy cups anymore. Now we're fighting "big girl" glasses and twisty straws.

This combination makes much bigger messes than the spot on the counter.

Parenting at home is like technology at work. As soon as I figure out what I'm doing, I get forced into a newer and a bigger operating system, and I'm lost again.

Bug Update: Staying Grounded

My momentum for working on the Bug continues. Now that the taillights look better, I thought I'd tackle the nearby license plate light. I don't know why, but people refer to this as a "pope's nose". The rubber seal that separates the housing and the engine's lid (remember, the trunk's in the front) was dry and rotten, so I bought a new rubber seal from EBay, and the installation looked easy enough. All I needed to do was loosen three screws, pull the housing out of the engine lid, and swap the new rubber for the old.

Life's never that easy. Getting the seal around the housing was trickier than I thought. As soon as I got one side on, the other side would slide off. And then vise versa. But after ten minutes the housing was back on the car. There, a simple job done, and the car looks better than it did.

Then I discovered that the light wouldn't turn on anymore. Dang it! The same thing happened with the taillights. I checked the bulb, and that looked fine. When I replaced it, the bulb briefly blinked on, but I couldn't keep the light steady. I tried tightening the housing's nuts, but that didn't help either. What was going on? This light worked like a charm before I touched it. How could I have broken it?

Then I noticed that I only had one wire to disconnect when I removed the light housing. Since that red wire was probably the positive wire, the light must use the car's body as the ground. That's not unusual for this car.

Since the seal around the light was new, the only way the light could touch the body was through its nuts and bolts. I checked under the engine's deck lid and cleaned off some of the muck that was on the inside surface and added a couple of washers to help with the connection. Since I needed to remove the nuts to put on the washers, I pulled the light off again and cleaned any area where metal touched metal.

Yea!

I could have just closed the lid on this job and called it good, but then there would be this weird, clean area around the hole in the deck lid, and that just points out how filthy the rest of the lid is. I needed to clean it all.

This isn't a job that can be done with a quick wipe. There's 52 year's worth of grime on there. I'm tackling it with a spent toothbrush and my old friend, Kitchen Grease Goo Gone.

I've got about a third of the deck clean so far, and that took me about 30 minutes.

We'll see how it looks in a couple of days.

Bug Update: Lightening Up (And a Great Crimping Tip)

I haven't written about my '62 VW Beetle in almost a year because there hasn't been much to say about it. The "Bug Car", as Char calls it, hibernated during the last year's frigid winter. I was excited to wake the car from its slumber when spring finally arrived, but the Bug sounded so bad when I drove it around the neighborhood it was embarrassing. The smallest bump would make the car rattle and clang, and I could feel a heavy vibration right under my seat whenever I exceeded 20 mph. It was frustrating and perhaps dangerous. I kept the car parked while I took time to research the problem.

Another reason my progress on the Bug had stalled is that Char no longer needs a nap everyday. Two summers ago I could usually count on two naps and four hours to get my hands greasy in daylight, but that was cut down to just two hours last year, and this year Charlotte only naps when we are in the car.

But a recent success has me back in the garage working from 8 to 9:30. I had the idea to check the Bug's rear shocks, and I discovered that the left shock was just a little bit loose when I shook it. All the noise and vibration, from that end anyway, went away after I tightened that shock's bottom bolt. Seriously? That was all it was? Working on a car is much more enjoyable if you can enjoy driving it later.

When you change the oil in an air-cooled VW, you have to remove the six nuts that hold the oil sump cover (#4), the two paper gaskets (#s 1 and 3), and the oil "filter" (#2) against the bottom of the engine:

The nuts screw onto the six engine studs (they hang down from the engine in the top of the photo). Years ago my dad snapped off one of the nuts while he was tightening it. I'm sure he swore like a sailor when that happened. The car will run with only five nuts holding the sump plate on, but the broken stud will leak oil.

Char went to daycare three times this summer, and during one of those days I decided it was time to take a crack at removing what was left of that broken stud. When I took the sump cover off, I could see that there was enough of the stud for my small vice-grip wrench to clamp onto. Once the wrench was in place I whispered, "Okay Dad, you got me into this, now help me get out." And you know what? The stud just unscrewed out. I couldn't believe how easy that was. Thanks, Dad! Almost as surprising was that the local Ace Hardware store had the correct metric engine studs in stock. The new stud fit perfectly, and now the engine drips a lot less oil. I can't stop all the leaks, but one less is a win in my book.

Here's the stud Dad twisted in half.

The most recent changes in the Bug have been electrical. The most satisfying change has been the dome light. My dome light has not worked in the 24 years I have owned it. I've tried different bulbs and cleaning the contacts with no luck. Last week I did a search in the forums on thesamba.com and picked up a few tips.

I cleaned the door switches.

I also ran a wire directly from the car battery's ground to the dome switch. And for the first time in my life, the bulb in the car's roof blinked to life. I suspected the wires were fine, and it was the dome light assembly that was broken. I bought a cheap unit on Ebay to test my theory.

It worked!

You don't know how many times I have gone out to the garage just to open the Bug's door to see that light. It looks so cool!

Since that went so well, I decided to tackle my rusting taillight housings. I bought replacement units last winter from a samba seller. They're original VW parts that are painted pearl white, so I didn't have to do too much to make them fit. I did use some pearl white touchup paint to fill in their chips. The touchup paint isn't an exact match, but neither is the housings' paint to my car. But they're close, and I'm cool with that. 

Anything's better than that rust.

Other side looks okay, too.

But when I tested them, I couldn't get the brake lights to come on. I checked the housings' connections and they seemed okay, as did the bulbs. So I checked the terminals on the master cylinder. I replaced one terminal last year, but it turns out I did it wrong - like a lot of people do. 

There's a reason this wire isn't securely connected to its terminal.

I read a lot of different car magazines. In the most recent issue of Rod & Kulture, Kevin Tully wrote a tech article about basic automotive wiring. To quote Mr. Tully, "If you have to use a crimp terminal for a repair, be sure you only strip enough wire to slip through the crimp portion of the terminal, with a small amount left sticking out the terminal end... the tang [of the crimping pliers] should be on the opposite side of the split of the barrel of the terminal. Most folks don't realize that, and end up just spreading the split open and not getting a good, solid crimp. One of these terminals properly crimped should be almost impossible to pull off, even with a vice."

Those few sentences were a revelation. No wonder my terminal connections always sucked. I was squeezing the wrong side! Time for a do over.

After that, the brake lights worked.

Thanks Mr. Tully.

Downtown Farmers' Market: The Cost of Inflation

On Saturday the gals and I visited the Downtown Farmers' Market. The weather was cool enough for Maggie to come along, too.

Things started off great. Char had a cookie.

 And we got to try a new stand that was selling awesome grilled cheese sandwiches. That was a cool surprise.

Daphne bought us a "Classic with Bacon" to share. So simple, but so good.

After wolfing down my half of the sandwich, I had a kabob chaser.

As I said, I was having a great day eating my way through the market, but then it happened. Char spotted the balloon animal guy.

Dang it!

Usually we distract Char, and take the sidewalk on opposite side of the street, hiding behind the tents and stands over there, "I don't see where the balloon guy is, honey. Let's see if we can find him down this way." But the balloon stand was now in Char's full view. How did I let that happen?

I've got nothing against the balloon guy, personally. But as a parent, I hate his balloon animals. What you're buying your kid is certain disappointment and abrupt pain. To make a weather comparison, these balloons are dark, ominous, thunderclouds. It's going to be noisy, and you're going to get wet.

Char won't listen when I explain that balloon animals aren't fun for anyone. You can't really play with a balloon animal. Swing the "sword" around a room for five seconds, and it's a goner. Even the balloon artist knows how ridiculously fragile they are. When he finishes his creation, he hands it to you with a warning, "Don't put it on the ground! It will pop!" So if you can't play with it, and you can't put it down, then what are supposed to do with it? Here's your balloon animal, Charlotte. Now gently stand still for two days. That's not gonna happen. When Char was younger she'd squeeze these balloons like Lennie in Of Mice and Men, and they always popped right in front of her face. That's scary; and it hurts, too. Not only is her balloon gone, it screamed in her ear when it died. The aftermath is terrible.

I think the balloon animal's only purpose is to parade it in front of other kids without balloon animals. These things create elitists.

Another thing I hate about balloon animals is the line you have to stand in. It's like shopping at Hobby Lobby. You stand there watching the clerk busily doing something, but the line never seems to move. Luckily, a cover band was playing the patio behind us. Here's "La Grange" by ZZ Top. I liked his shout out to the farmers' market.

 

We got to listen to that band for 39 minutes. That's how long it took to get to the front of the line. I have never waited that long for anything at any market.  I don't think Eddie Money's lyrics could have been more fitting (you can hear them in the background).

Earlier we stepped out of line so Char could pick what balloon creation she wanted. I was hoping she'd choose that blank spot beneath Flower, and we could just go home, but she finally made her decision.

What do you think she picked?

She picked the Fairy. He's a picture I took of it while Char took mom to the bathroom.

Looking at it, I started thinking, "You know, I have to admit, it is pretty intricate. As far as these balloons go, this design is..." and then the damn thing blew out of the stroller and down the sidewalk.

I jumped up, but I couldn't run after it. I had Maggie with me and letting go of her leash near a busy street wasn't an option. Thankfully, a knowing mom caught the fairy before it was run over. I was so relieved when she brought it to me.

"Thank you so much! If this thing would have popped I would have been in so much trouble."

"Oh, I understand. Aren't these things are the worst?"

"Yes. Yes they are." It's nice to know I'm not the only balloon scrooge out there.

Before we left the market we rewarded Maggie with a few of our poffertjes from Breakfast Delights. The family that runs the Breakfast Delights food stand is so nice.

Maggie can't talk, but you can tell she like the poffertjes.

On the way back to the car Char destroyed one of the fairy's wings, and part of its dress popped, but Char seemed braced for this. She got a bit upset, but she didn't cry.  I'd call that progress.