Busma

I had the awesomest week of my life working on getting Old Benny Blue running after he had been sitting for 3 years in my friend Joys driveway. After she had got him home he had an electrical issue and he wouldnt crank up. He was in the part of the driveway where the water would river when it rained. Before I got there Joy and Chris worked on getting the axle nuts broken loose so that we could get the tires off to work on the brakes as they were locked up. As soon as I got there we got started on getting him jacked up and taking the wheels off. From that moment on all we did was bust our asses and sleep. We redid all the brakes and replaced all the rubber lines. I figured out the electrical issue and he cranked right up after 3 years! I mean he turned over like 3 times and started. Joy missed it when she went in the house for about 5 minutes. He started just in time for the rain to start. He didnt have brakes at that time as we were waiting for some parts from the vintage VW place down the street. I had to start him up to move him and shut the engine off and let out the clutch to stop him. Chris just happened to get home at the time and watched the craziness that was me getting the bus into the garage. Me and Joy were dying laughing and the look on Chris's face when he found out there was no brakes was priceless since I was manuvering around their cars and into their garage. After we thought we were making some headway and we could still make it to TDIfest on friday we went to adjust his valves and found the intake valve on cylinder #1 stuck open. All the PB Blaster and pounding on it in the world wouldnt unstick it. We had to pull the engine out. Luckily pulling the engine in an air cooled VW is a piece of cake. We backed him into the garage and had the engine out in under an hour. We went up to Vintage and I got new dual port heads, intake, head studs and tin for the engine. This was the point where we figured we werent going to make TDIFest which was kinda sucky. It is pretty cool that he is a dual port engine now though, just a little more power which is badly needed in a 3000 pound vehicle with a 4 cylinder engine. There was also issues with the lights, the electronic ignition, one of the headlights, the steering, the carb and probably about 20 other things that I cant remember. I also had to take the shifter out to put the short throw shift kit and which worked out well since I had to smash off the JB welded shifter knob with a sledge hammer to get the kickass 8 ball knob on. It was all worth it, my idea of a fun vacation and Benny made it the 1000 miles I had to drive him home. I also got to spend some time with my friend Nick in Virginia which was awesome. Leaving his house I took RT 15 through Maryland and Pennsylvania, one of the nicest roads Ive ever driven on, I stopped in Gettysburg to fill up. Soon enough Benny will be a camper with a sink and all. I cant wait. Heres some pictures in process and when Benny was almost ready to go home.