RRRose (Ron) MK4 9181 Build Thread

[Jazzman]

"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist."

Very profound. I like it. We try never to be just laborers. Sometimes we must accept that we are craftsman. But occasionally we attain the level of artist. It is an amazing feeling. May you have it frequently!

[rrrose]

Progress update.
Finally getting some time not having to work on the honey do list. I got back in the garage for a full day. I had been able to get lots of the sub assembly work done on the rear suspension and yesterday saw it all come together.
At this point I have all the rear suspension on. Most all the front suspension, just need to get the sway bar on.
Next up will be break lines from the calipers and the parking break cable.
I pulled out all the parts from inventory to assemble the peddle box and reservoirs for brakes and clutch.

[dncharo]

Looking good Ron! Nice progress!

[Papa]

Looking good, Ron!

[Yama-Bro]

Looks awesome! Keep it up.

[rrrose]

Hi all,

Well after an extended absence time for an update.

I received an amazing email from Papa on the forum in mid Feb checking in on me. It was just the jump start I needed after getting stalled on my build. In the past 3 years there were 2 new jobs and then the realization that after 40 years in the IT business I was just burned out so I returned to work in January after taking a couple of weeks off over the holidays and turned in my notice and retired.

It wasn't like I never worked on the car but things just moved slow.

I decided that the rattle can paint on the aluminum wasn't going to hold up the way I wanted. I removed and stripped the panels that where on the car and any that I had painted and took them to get powder coated. That in itself turned into a major fiasco taking 4 months before I got my aluminum back. For anyone local to this area if you are looking to use a powder coat operation in Kiowa, chat with me about my experience first. Needless to say this was a major delay and hit on motivation on the project.
The end result though is what I wanted in look and durability.
20210326_121819.jpg

At this point it is almost a completed rolling chassis. The last item to take care of is filling and bleeding the brake lines which means I need to get the connections from the peddle box to the reservoirs. This is mostly ready to complete.

The past month has been going back over the whole build remembering where I was at, what the plans were (this was the hardest part, remembering what I was planning, getting old does have its challenges )
Completed the trunk drop and the trunk cubbie but did it a little different. Rather than the whole width of the trunk behind the seats I reshaped the aluminum and fit it to make a box that is between the roll bars. This way I still have access to the harness and rollbar bolts via the trunk vs trying to work through the access hole for the cubbie. I still have the room I wanted for things to store while rolling in the car. I will be installing some power access points in the cubbie for phones.
Here is how it looks before I rivet it all in.


20210321_143559.jpg



Where I am trying to get to is. Figuring out the remaining build steps so that I can prep and apply my lizard skin heat and sound insulation. There should be some warm enough weather coming here soon and time to commit and get some aluminum riveted in and coated.

At any rate the build is back in progress finally.

[egchewy79]

welcome back! It's great to see the support we all have for each other and how this can motivate us to keep moving forward. Hopefully retirement will given you some time to relax and get back to working on your car.

[Papa]

I got to go see Ron's build after we chatted. He has done a beautiful job on the car! I hope to get some time to go lend a hand where I can. With all our snow and some other distractions, I haven't had a chance to pony up the support I offered. Good to see you back at it, Ron.

Dave