Bugs Palace!

If this is 2005, you can have it. To say the year has been sub-par would be putting it rather lightly. Start off with work. Nothing bad. Things are actually going fairly ok. But I still feel like nothings getting accomplished. Work orders which should be done in 2-3 days are taking 5-6. Waiting on this, that or the other thing. Just feel as though time is moving fast, but work simply isn’t.

Speaking of work. I was at ALNC last night for my typical Wednesday night shift. I parked RIGHT outside the door at Mountain plaza, basically leaving only one parking space to my left. Wouldn’t you know it, some asshole who can’t drive decided to try and make his mini van fit in the parking space. Guess what. He didn’t fit. Instead he used some of the space I was using and crushed my drivers side door and part of my rear quarter panel with his fender. That’s right, I am not amused. Not only is this a major piss off since they didn’t leave their information or anything, but this is all happening to my 6 week old car. I haven’t even changed the oil yet, or given it a proper hand washing yet, and now she’s got about a 1000$ in damages. Now I have to decide if its worth going through insurance and paying the 500$ deductible, or just anty up the rest of the money and not mark up my insurance record. Needless to say, 500-1000$ is money I would much rather spend elsewhere. Pictures of my latest piss off are HERE.  

I have decided to drop my ‘mod a month’ and simply aim to have certain things done. This year is suspension (either FK or Eibach kit with a Neuspeed Rear sway), Turbo back exhaust (APR, GHL or Techtonics) , tint and possibly chip (APR).   This should leave plenty of money for beetle and the house. Have my cake and eat it too if you will.

Been busy this week. I’ve got about 12 hours invested in the car. (6 with Kevin, 6 on my own). On my own time through out the week, I started stripping the foot wells, center tunnel, and dash board. Id say I’m about 75% of the way done. Hard stuff is done. Should only take another 1-2 hours to finish up. Kevin spent most of today with me laying out the wiring. We have so far ran both headlamps, front turn signals and parking lams. We have also ran a few lines back to the battery area in the back. Finished up by covering all wires in either 1/2″ or 3/4″ plastic tubing. Once done, this will look stock. Well.. Not 1974 Stock, but 2005 :-). We are now looking into fabricating a bracket to hold the fuse panel, and relays.  Next up, is to finish the wiring up front. Need to mount the ground panel, and also fabricate and install the fuse panel holder so we can cut the existing wires to length. Then onto the tail lights, and engine wiring. Amazing how quickly some stuff comes together when you are equipped with time and tools to build what you want.  Pictures from the week are HERE.

Happy New Year! 2004 is nothing more then memories and pictures at this point. On the whole 04 was a good year. A lot of good things happened to/for me this year. Shannon and I moved into our first (and hopefully last) new house.  Even though we ‘ordered it’ back in 2003, we didn’t actually get the house till 2004. New house, new cars (Shannons 04 Jetta TDI sport, and more recently my 03 GTI). 

We have been fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time with our families and friends this year. Lots of get-togethers and parties. These are things you simply can’t do enough of. I was reunited I guess you could say, with one of my best friends, Kevin. We have since mended our fences, and have got to be very close again. I’ve missed having him around for the past 2 or so years, but now that he’s back it is like he never left. As for my other brothers, I don’t see them as often as I used to.  With Alex, Adam and my schedules, its tough. Even though I don’t see them as often as I want, its nice knowing that they are always around if and when I need them. (and me for them!)

2005 promises to be a busy year. Jim_ and Alicia are getting married!; stuff to do around the house (basement, driveway, etc), and of course ongoing car projects. 

Speaking of car projects, the beetle is slowly but surely coming along. Weather has killed productivity over the last month or so. Over the next month or so, I plan on sanding down the inside foot area in the front and painting it flat black to match the trunk up front. It will eventually be covered by carpet, so this is just to have a nice all over covering so it looks nice under the carpet. 

The GTI has a long list of plans. Suspension, performance, body parts, the usual. This will be a project not unlike my Silverado. Allot of the same targets will be made with this car (low, loud, fast, sexy). Biggest difference will be time. Silverado was basically bought in the fall, and built over a summer. This project will be much slower. Money and other needs will slow it down. Also, I want to take the time to enjoy it. Last time I spent too much time trying to get ‘everything done now’, I missed out on the enjoyment I should have gotten from each mod. Mind you I was super happy when it was all together, I just felt like I rushed my time with it. That said, I have set myself to a monthly mod pace. For example, December, I bought a hatch spoiler, and January I bought a lower rear valance. February and March will likely be suspension and exhaust. Time will tell.

Shannon agrees this schedule is a good idea. However, She and I disagree about January. When I ordered something in December, and did not receive it till January, I consider the order/purchase date the actual date. She seems to think the date of receipt the date. Her logic finds me with 2 mods in January, where I see it as 1 in December and 1 In January.

 What do you think?