I was debating if paint was the way to go but they were looking shabby enough i figured i would give it a shot. Wound up using a plastic bumper paint that has almost a light bedliner like texture to it. Interested to see how it holds up.

Finally got around to some spring cleaning and re-arrangement in the garage.
This is the first time this car has rolled in more than 10 years.
I took it off the lift and turned it around to do some work.
If the Luft event happens in November we hope to be there with this car.
It's a numbers matching '57

Barn find -

Started in on the laundry room remodel (demo work) yesterday ...

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... and we set the ridge for the new gable roof today ...

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Still building our house (hangar home). Living the "life" in a 19ft trailer while I plug along. Electrical was approved just before the Stay at Home order. Plumbing is next before I can cover up the rest of the walls.

We do find time to relax and enjoy our place. Some stuff is done and final like the Deck. Our back yard is the runway for Roche Harbor. You can see the harbor off to the right.

Million dollar views Dan!

I am jealous. When we were looking to buy a house, I wanted a hangar with a small two bedroom apartment in it. Lots of room to park cars/airplanes inside.

Betty Vetoed that one. She said it was too far out of town.


So you are a lucky guy....

Hello everyone!

Found a crazy deal on a complete ML63 AMG Leather seat seat.. going to upgrade from the MB-Tex (fake) leather in the 550...

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New wheels/tyres. 17x7 wheels shod with 225-50 R17's front & 235-45 R17s rear.
Just enough room rear for finger width clearance to trailing arm. I'm sure fronts will rub inner fender wells at full lock.
With wide body kit I had to try 1 wheel first with a 2D mock-up of tyre profile's to conclude the deal as no standard fitment guide to be had.

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Got a little more done on the laundry room yesterday. Not as much as hoped, but we had extremely warm temperatures and and hour delay due to another issue

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Hey Mark- That's going to look very nice.

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum although must have registered before. I have a new project about to get started that has some design elements of the 914, but because they are getting hard to find, will not be a 914, it will use a new(er) VW bug.

For background, my most fun 914 was a 1970 with 1.7 and duel Weber carbs. In a rust repair, I set it on fire and toasted the entire interior. 4 more were never the same. It was a great and fun car to cruise but after buying 3 speeding tickets, was time to quit. Now 30 years later, I want to use some design, like the rear swing arm and build a bug that will be like nobody else.

It's going to be a mid engine like any self respecting 914. I just scored a supercharged Pontiac Bonneville (PB) 3.8 with transmission and have to do some work to keep a running setup with the OEM Pontiac computer. The donor will give it's hubs, disk brakes, bearings, shafts and many other parts. The heavy front brakes on the donor PB will be incorporated into both the front and rear with the hubs, making it potential to have an electric front motor in the years ahead, since the PB is front drive.

I'm starting the swing arm rear and need some details. I don't have any parts or a (914) car to refer to, so may ask some redundant questions.

It looks like the front body mounts (of the 914 rear suspension) are at about a 15 degree angle to the axle, so I'm starting there to work in the bearing and brakes from the PB. Most used parts are just to get design and new components will go into the final build. Calipers and some parts from the PB will be used, reconditioned.

I'm not sure what parts of the PB steering will be used or if the design meets my "like a 914" criteria. Please make suggestions for any front suspension that you think would be a good choice.

I have a new style bug located, non runner, that is cheap enough to start cutting in half for the mid engine mount and frame build.

I hope you have some great comments and advise. I call this my "bug out" project and will be painting it flat green or camo to match my M35A3 4x4 army truck. Pictures will come later.

By the way, I had the CV19 in January (I'm convinced) and now huff Ever Clear regularly in hopes of not getting it back.

Sounds interesting. Look forward to seeing your project as you move along.

Thanks Cairo94507. I've been looking for a forum to get some feedback and would be doing this to a 914, but they have gotten harder to get and many are severely rusted. Or they bring a premium price. My budget makes me more of a "make it look nice rat rod type of build".

Please help with some of the technical issues that I will come across as I fab the suspension, brakes, cooling heating etc. Like do you recommend the same front suspension geometry? Should I keep the air conditioner compressor?

More than anything, I hope someone would keep me from making a major mistake. I've been an inventor for about 45 years, so can solve most of my problems....but not the big bucks it takes to get a ready to go 914 ride.

I'll try to post a couple pictures of my M35 4x4 build and M929A2 to get acquainted with posting pictures here. Everyone like pictures.

Thanks again, toby

Omg, no snow loads there, or a need to worry about ice build up!
My roof framing needs to be much bigger!

We live in quite a different climate.

Cool project Toby ... looking forward to watching the build process

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Yep, no heavy snow loads (or any snow for that matter) here on the west coast, but the required support/bracing will be done once the old flat roof planks and rafters are cut out and new ceiling joists are in place at 8' AFF* ... - We did the same process (8' ceilings) for our music room/den back in 2018 ... it originally had a low flat roof too, although we built up the gable roof portion about 25 years ago.

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It was nice to finally have a real ceiling it that room ...

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My friends, Greg and Carl, and I took the w/e off from the construction, but my wife & I weren't sitting idle, we cleaned up the demo remnants for transport to the disposal facility

Once the roof is all done, we'll start in on the inside work, building a new raise floor* to match the height of the existing house floor. The laundry room is a slab floor, 9" below the house floor now. Then there's the window replacement, electrical rework, insulation & drywall stuff to do

Want to get this all done before the rainy season hits, so just about everything else has been pushed to the back burner, including car stuff

Finally got around to making a moving monitor and keyboard arm for my mill. For the last few years I had it on a small table, what a pain due to the crapped space on that side of the garage.

The white square tube is 2"□ x .1875 thick wall, not going to bend or flex.
I ordered some polycarbonate sheet over the weekend, onve I get tjat I will start build an enclosure for the mill.

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Changed the oil on the Bug and took a small road trip (Chuckanut). Easy to stay Socially distanced from everyone using drive-thru. Did a short flight later to check out the one or two Tulip fields (no Tulip Festival this year).

Very fun day and nice to get out of the house for a bit.

Been busy doing stuff I had no time for until lockdown,refited drivers side door panel after putting strips of sound deadening inside the door...no more tinny sound when closing door.
Been hunting in my lost treasure collection a found rebuilt set of rebuilt rear roof latches,was really surprised how worn out the old ones were,all pivot pins flogged out and lots of tension lost for that reason...I put it down to body flex on my shitty entrance rough road.
Test fitted them and a huge difference.
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Bruce Stone did a great job on these ,credit due .
Targa pad was looking worse for wear and tried to tidy up but found it was covered in leather,peeled that off and found one large crack but cleaned up it looks better than before.
Will do some basic repairs to pad and when my trimmer gets back to work I will get the right fabric to recover it.

More playing with lumber ...

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I was thinking the exact same thing!


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Omg, no snow loads there, or a need to worry about ice build up!
My roof framing needs to be much bigger!
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Nice banjo uke. Mine is a Wizard from approx 1927. Has a song written in it as well:


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Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Fuel pump on the Astro went out. Not a fun job, the tank had to be removed to get to the pump. A sigh of relief was had when the key was turned and the sweet sound of the pump priming the engine was heard. And of course the engine fired off immediately.

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For the type IV motor going into my Notchback I found this 150 amp Alternator. I need to slightly modify the mount so that the pulley lines up better with the fan pulley and I also need to modify the slide mount to compensate for the difference in distance between the mounting holes.
Single wire, internal fan.
They put the wire lug as a side mount, I guessed wrong and asked for 3 o clock when I should have asked for 9 but there is still plenty of room.
The picture was oriented correctly on my computer but rotated here for some reason.

Nice Bug. My son and I did the last drive of car season Sunday in the Bug. Pulled it in behind the 914 and put a cover on it. With luck cars and coffee can start back up soon.

Cool. Don't see these old relics too often these days. A friend made this cool little 3-string for me a couple years ago ...

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Otherwise, still working on the remodel. Roof framing almost done, should be done by tomorrow ... then demo the old flat roof & install new ceiling joists at 8'.

We built the gable with a long overhang, as we'll be adding another 2' addition at some point in the future. The existing bathroom (only a toilet & shower) is really small and my wife wants to add a sink and storage cabinets for bathroom related stuff. Some of these 100+ year old houses just weren't built with very much storage space, if at all.

Before:

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Current status:

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@djway do you have a build thread going on anywhere for that? I'm working on a conversion for my Squareback right now and would love to see how you're doing it.

Here is a thread on The Samba https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=682005
I don't have anything re the motor yet I don't think. I have two stainless fuel lines in the tunnel so far and that is about it related to motor.

Learned very fast how important it is to get the HVAC ducting up, sealed and insulated before the R49 and sheetrock go up. Working on that this week. I put some ceiling sheetrock up and it's a PITA to crawl around to install the HVAC ducting.

If you have to crawl around in your attic, the ceiling is too low. A 6 ft tall guy could stand up in my attic. The slope starts at about 4 feet off the floor, and at the peak is 20ft up.

To keep the hangar home in the residential category, we stayed a few inches under 20ft on the sides. This means there is a few feet of the ceiling that is vaulted and insulated as a hot roof. You can see in the picture with the building being 50ft wide, the attic starts I think like 10ft in on each side? Something like that. At 5'6", I can stand up only about 3-4ft off the peak before my head knocks something.

Make it easier on yourself. Cut a few sheets of plywood lengthwise and give yourself a center floor to walk (or crawl) on. Don't risk your foot sliding off and going through the ceiling. Future person getting up there will praise you for it.

We had a narrow 'catwalk' running the length of the house in our attic, but my wife started storing stuff on the (early 1900s) ceiling joists. We finally screwed plywood to a larger area across the joists to spread out the load ... and it helped with reducing earthquake shear too.

Are you in one of those air park, or fly park communities? We looked at some 'aeronautical' home properties up in the Seattle area back in the mid 90s ... decided there were just too many rainy days that we didn't care to deal with

The Attic above the living space won't need to be accessed unless there is a repair or similar. There will be storage above the section over the Airplane. Pic attached shows the walkway (not done) that's roughly mid way up the 9ft wall. Kinda hard to explain, but the living space (1,000sqft) is only over part of the garage/hangar below which is closer to 2,000sqft.

WFH has provided additional time to work on the living space = yay!

Not an airpark, but our back yard is the runway. Google "FAA WA09".

Shot from the North side facing South.

Building a Ducati “tribute” 916 race bike:

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Eventually it will look like this:

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Any other Ducati riders around here?

OK ... about 60 miles N/W of where we were looking (Frontier Airpark Airport-WN53)

Where are the windows for the living quarters? ... gonna add any dormers?

Got any pictures of the airplane?

I always wanted to get a Globe Swift and put a Mooney/Porsche engine in it. Then I could have a flying 914-6.

reduc...??

Here's a pic from July of 2019. It's a 1948 Luscombe I learned to fly in. About a year after passing the check-ride, I bought it off my buddy who got me into flying. He sadly passed away last year, but got to see the results of him poking me to learn and take on the airplane as my own.

Michelle and I are fun day flyer's, after 8 years of flying and 7 years of airplane ownership, only have about 500 hours.

this could also go under the category of “why didn’t you work on your 914 today”
but for the past week i have been working on new flooring in our upstairs for the girl’s (2 of 3) rooms. of course this means ripping out carpet that was in when we moved in 9 months ago. which leads to well have to pair first , walls trim etc. then hallway and steps and hall is connected to entry foyer, steps etc so..... the slippery slope!! all painting other than some trim is done and the quarter round has to go in next and i will be done. then i go back to 914 stuff!

the beige paint was old and dingy, new is a off-white or cream that almost looks white unless you look at the ceiling then you can see it’s not. so much brighter now, wide is happy so we’re good!

Looks gr8, Doc. ... although I may need to scheduled an appointment with you after spending time looking at the last two pix you posted -

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We're at a stopping point for the week ... my muscles are sore and my arms are sunburned. You can see one of the places the old roof was leaking into an interior wall (which will also be addressed). We were originally just going to rip off the old shingles and the old planks, re roof it flat with plywood and roll roofing ... but decided WTH - the upgrade will increase the home's valuation, more than double the cost of the remodel.

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We're going to start demolishing the inside drywall and old, low-hanging rafters on Monday ... then we'll hang new ceiling joists (at 8' AFF) early next week.

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Thankfully, this is the last room to remodel ... will be glad when it's all finally done


Think I'm gonna shake it up and maybe do something else this weekend ... maybe work on a car or two

this is awesome also a hobby kind of haven't started a table yet. no basements in the Lowcountry of SC

right, i am in the low country too just down the road from you, but i could share a few pictures of our walk in attic space on second floor that looks like my wife is eyeing to finish off for a bonus room/library/study. there is a potential to add about 800sqrft of heated/cooled space... i just want to finish this floor and the steps and like Euro911 i want to get back to car projects! - hey Mark, i know what you mean, i need to take a break my wrists arm and hands are more sore from this than from seeing 50 patients in the office!

Yeah, but I got a crick in my neck from viewing your pix




I had to start wearing long sleeve shirts - I developed blisters (2nd. degree burns) on my forearms ... the sun was brutal last week.

Moved a few vehicles around - positioned the Ghia far back into the driveway with room behind it so I can drop the motor and trans when I get a chance. Have a freshly rebuilt trans, new mounts, and a new clutch & T/O bearing ready to go in. Might install new rear shocks and recondition the CV joints (& install some new boots) while I'm in there

The Speedster was actually in my garage for fifteen years
No sooner was it out and made to run and drive.... then this happened......

Have to fix a noisy mainshaft bearing.

MarkS....now your construction makes sense and is well supported. Good work.

I recently put oak hardwood in my dad's house getting it ready to sell. I used screws and had to pre-drill, so probably did it the hardest way possible.

I worked on a Vari-Easy and a few other home-builts, but my dream was Jim Stewart's 70% P-51.

On my Bug project I made the deal for a non running bug and a (supposed to be) running 98 Pontiac Bonneville 3800 series II supercharged that had a tree attack the rear (putting a V to the back window) and only has 70K miles. I get the car to take all parts from and will return it to the salvage man. I'll keep seats, gauge cluster, computer in addition to the engine, tranny, and radiator.

Yes, I had one fail right after filling up. Made me think about cutting access in the floor, and bolting a new cover down, that way it would never have to do it again. This was after doing the job twice. We loved our Astros, always wanted to build an AWD model with a Cyclone. or Typhoon engine.

No chance of that now, Wife's daily is an X5M AWD and 550 HP, thing is a rocket. Need a bit more it is just a tune away.