The past few weeks have been a busy time for the Ghia, the engine and box have been taken out so that I can finish the rear suspension and also rebuild the gearbox as first and second sychro's need replacing. I've also finally got the wheels polished which look great.
I rebushed the door hinges and refitted the drivers door. I also fitted the lock and handle to the drivers door and set the door shut. All I need to do now is fit the glass so it matches the passenger door.
I had some fuel rails made up for the injectors by a local company called Debiasi Motorsport. There was some interesting VW's there when I went to visit, including the Turbo bug that he is building. You can see one of the fuel rails in the picture to the right.This weekend I have been concentrating on getting the electrics sorted out. We cleaned up the wiring a couple of weeks back, removing all of the overspray and underseal, having previously tested the wiring to make sure it was ok. The front lights and rear right side tail lights are fitted (I need to leave the left side out to route the extra wires for the fuel injection system) and the fuse box is connected with the exception of the relays. I also spent the time to convert the warning lamps to LED's. This is a pretty easy job to do and doesn't take too long, if I get some spare time I will post a tech article on how to do this.
Headlining and Trim
Next week I should hopefully be getting a delivery of some rubber trim which should allow me to finally fit the headliner. I need to make the sliding sunroof panel that sits under the main panel first, I might try to do this at some point during the week. I also need to mount the electric motor and wire it up. I tested the motor and mechanism when I fitted the roof, everything is working, I am just missing the switch to operate it.
I've also arranged to take my interior to a local trimmers on monday for a quote and have some more items to pick up from the chromers (and some stuff to drop off too).
Registration
I also need to phone the local vehicle registration centre (Regency) to arrange an engineer to help me get the car passed. I spoke with Turbo54 from AussiVeeDubbers who very helpfully gave me a few tips and the name of the guy to see there. He also explained what limitations there are to consider. There aren't too many rules when it comes to older cars, and the focus is more towards safety. Turbo54 is in the process of very similar mods to a 54 Bug - Tubocharged with narrowed suspension. The engineers report for this require that handling tests are carried out, this is basically a day at the track where they thrash the stuffing out of the car to make sure it can handle and stop by doing tests such as swerve tests and lane change manouvers. I may need to rethink some of my plans for the suspension regarding making up new vertical links for the front, new parts require strength testing which basically involves destructive fatigue testing. I will know more about what I need to do to make it compliant after this. Fingers crossed I dont have to change too much.
As usual there are some pics of the latest progress in the Media Library, you can view them Here
