Bugs Palace!

Nothing much to talk about today. Wedding plans coming along. Invitations narrowed down to 2. Roll pan isn’t here yet, which is probably a good thing, as I won’t have the money to paint it till next week 🙁

A buddy of mine from IRC named Jim_ has gotten himself a new job in St. Catherine’s and will be moving down to that area this month. Looks like he will be staying with Shannon and I for a night while looking for a place down here. Possibly a couple more days at the end of the moth. Time will tell. Should be fun times. Congrats on the job.

Hacky finally got himself a pair of colour matched handles for his truck, so I can expect the black pair he had to show up any day now. (THANKS BRO!)  Hopefully put the handles, roll pan, shaved gate and replacement grill all on the truck at the same time. I like doing a bunch of stuff at a time. Much more full filling. Get those things done, and hopefully a couple more inches of drop and some new wheels in the next month or so, and the truck will be pretty much done for the summer. Then its on to the Beetle. Beetle is being worked on, but right now its all labour, no parts needed. Which is good. Crossing my fingers to be in primer sometime in May. May is my 3 pay month, and I plan on picking up the 3 fenders, headliner, carpet and odds/sodds with the extra pay. Nice thing about bugs, is cheap parts. Too bad i need some many of them :-

Well, 25 years ago today, a wee baby was born of parents Patti and Peter VanDalen. James Peter was his name. That be me 😉   Course, if you didn’t know that, you probably would have no interest in this little blog in my corner of cyberspace. With the exception of me being deathly ill all day, and not sleeping in the past week, it was a pretty good day. Dad and Alex dropped off a washer/dryer for Shannon and I. (its now Shannon’s Office ;-P). Then we all went to Port Dover for a foot long hot dog. For those of you who don’t know, Port Dover is a small town in Ontario with a need little place off the beach that sells hotdogs/hamburgers etc. I have grown up going there, and still enjoy it so.

Got my truck back from the body shop yesterday. The ding is no more. They did a fantastic job on the work, and will soon be shaving my tailgate, and painting a roll pan for me. (Thanks Shannon, mom and dad). While doing body work, they removed the bumper, and I told them to just leave it off seeing as the pan should be going on in a week or so. I couldn’t be bothered putting it on and off. Too much like work.

Lastly I found the magic combination of wheels size and rubber to work with a 4/6 drop which I’m hoping to do to my truck this spring/summer.  Here is one artists rendition of what it will look like. *Thanks Heli0x*. From what i’ve found, 275/45/20 GTII will work with a 20×8.5 wheel with 6″ backspacing. And I have found several wheels to choose from. Now, to count my pennies..

No new wheels for me. At least not yet. The wheels were in perfect condition, however they are not chrome as I was hoping. Have to keep saving and looking I guess. Its likely a good thing they fell through, as I’m *sigh* still trying to decide what I want to do with my suspension. The only thing I know is its not going up. I like the current 2/4 drop, but I still am not liking the small bit of wheel well I still have showing. I know to most its barely noticeable, and they its “not worth doing” but to anyone who has been in the sport of modifying, you know that ever little bit counts. The only problem I’m having currently is deciding if i should use airbags or a static drop to go the extra 2″ in front and 2″ in back. Both have pros and cons.

Airbags: Pros: Adjustable ride height. Can drive around as low as I want, but be able to have truck elevate to get over occasional obstacle. Cool factor is very high ;-). Cons: price. They aint cheap. questionable alignment. How precise are air gages? If they gages are near perfect, then this isn’t a con. However, if they are only “close”, so would be the front end alignment. Maintenance concerns. Keeping the compressor alive doesn’t happen automatically.

Static 4/6 Drop: Pros: Much cheaper. Leaves money in the bank. No maintenance worries at all. More tried tested and true. Not as complicated means easier and more dependable installation. Cons: Can’t adjust it. May have issues getting into underground parking and some driveways. Would have to re-learn how to drive and to work WITH the angles instead of just going.

Either way I think I would be happy, however, I also want 20″ wheels. And the only rubber in my budget are 275/45/20. This size is questionable whether it will or will not fit below a 4/6 or dropped truck without any rubbing. Looks like I got some more research to do. THIS GUY HERE has the exact look I’m going for, except scrape his paint scheme, and go solid black. Same height. Same wheels. Just have to find out if his rub ;.

UPDATE ON WHEELS (03/26/03) : 20×8″ will work with 275/45/20 and 4/6 drop. Looks like no more torq thrusts for me. Probably best to find something cheaper anyways 😉

Roll pan and tailgate handle flip kit are on order from Classiccustoms.com and should be here within 2 weeks. Thanks to my sweetheart for the early birthday presents 😉 Soon to be painted and installed.

Alex has the front clip put back together on the bug. Almost has the front end complete. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to spend some time on it, and maybe even finish off the front end completely. One can dream right? (see first 4 paragraphs if you need proof). Speaking of this weekend, Sunday I hit 25. You’d think one of these days I’d start growing up hunh? Pfffft..