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Owning and maintaining a vintage car is definintely an experience that makes you find out what you'll laugh at and what you won't. The beetle project is going pretty well. It's driving on the road (and stopping!) but I'm nailing down some nits, and I'll be posting more photos now that I have a computing rig again. One of the nits is that the washer system doesn't work. I am in the process of fixing it AGAIN.
Last week, I was driving around town, testing the brakes, and feeling pretty good about whole thing. My first stop that time out was to to go a gas station and air up the tires, including the spare. The air in the spare tire provides the pressure to run the washer (the thing that squirts on the windshield). I filled it up to 40psi, which is close to the tire's maximum rated pressure. I then continued my test drive.
About 3/4 of the way around town, I hear a hiss and the hose that comes from the washer reservoir to the valve in the steering column pops off, and starts spewing washer fluid all over the car, but mostly on my feet. I pulled over the to side of the road and dealt with the immediate problem by letting the rest of the pressure out of the washer reservoir. I cleaned the car up, put the hose back on the valve fitting, and cable tied it tightly on to make sure it wouldn't come off again. I mentally checked it off as a crisis averted.
I came out a day later to find this:
The remaining washer fluid has now leaked out of the car somewhere and run out the bottom drain hole. As it turns out, the hose from the reservoir to the steering column valve couldn't stand up to 40 psi, and it burst. So now I have tubing that I'm going to try to replace it again. This something that you must consider before buying a vintage car: if finding things that are broken and fixing them, and then fixing them again because you fixed the wrong thing doesn't sound like fun, then buy a modern car and be a much happier person. (I should also point out that the DEALER MANUAL for the car says that you should pressurize the tire to that pressure, so it's not like I'm exceeding the specifications and that's what's wrong. The system is SUPPOSED to have that much pressure in it.)
Since I'm still holding out on buying a new laptop, since there are so many sub-notebooks rumored to be coming out this month, I've set up an emergency reserve computing station in the living room:
So I should be able to blog and keep up with things better.
Also in the living room, I've been working on one of my first major additions to the beetle:
This will be something that I'll be talking a lot about. Note the beige panel to the right of the photo with the two digital meters embedded in it. (Note: LED instruments are not stock with 1972 Volkwagens). This is going to be some fun stuff.