Project fox: The progress continues

[oRANGEJULIUS]

No disrespect, and thanks for giving all of us here props

I just picked up a Westmoreland Golf, (pics soon) so expect progress to slow a little on the fox...

[75Bus88fox]

Quote, originally posted by SN2BJDM »

i roll on cut springs and usually dont bag on people who ride cuts. But dude 5 coils, damn! I suggest u just get some coilovers.

im rollin on 3 1/2 cut in the front and 4 1/2 in the rear, lemme tell ya how fast i belw out my new mk2 shocks...

cut springs are the way to go.. f you guys with your coilovers, and bilisteins, and such...

[oRANGEJULIUS]

shocks? struts? pfffff what are those for?

I could hear the gas leaving the struts as i let the car off the rack

cut springs, coils, w/e OE is not valved to work that low its a given...

[oRANGEJULIUS]

new wnow tires on the back 175/70 13 so its the same size all the way arround, no more rubbing

and some pics of the golf

ill have the clutch in this week as well as the waterpump and timing belt (and all the odds and ends assoc. with those) then on to the tune up (plugs, wires, cap, etc,,,) Then change the fluids. Final mech. inspection and replace other parts if needed. One thast all done I will start on the body. Im replacing the left back door, fender, and hood. Fixing the other minor issues, prime paint, light tan, with a flat clear coat. checkerd roof, chrome roof rack, chrome molding, shaved badges, air cooled "volkswagen" badg on the back, pulled, rolled, and lowered.

[milo1303s]

trade you my wagon for the westy 4door

[87FoxGL]

Nice golf. Also. is that your Cadillac?

[oRANGEJULIUS]

i think ill keep the golf....

Thanks, the golf is a little rough now, but im sure by summer it will be looking sweet...No the caddy is my boss' brothers, just pulled it out of a 10 year storage, has under 50k original miles, 472. its up for sale.

Seeing these threads about seats, shift boots, and door panel reupholstering got me thinking. Went out to Joann fabric spent $20 on 2.5 yards of fabric (its like a fake suede, I wanted plaid, but I didn't see anything I liked), and $6 on some spray ahedisive. Re covered all the door cards, made a shift boot, covered the astray (I don't smoke), radio surround, horn button, overhead light, and the shelf behind the back seat. its not perfect,but All in all im happy with the results.

where the new fabric meets the old carpet on the door cards, i think im going to place a black, or chrome molding there, will make it look more complete



Modified by oRANGEJULIUS at 8:41 AM 11-21-2006

[efritsch]

How did recovering the door panels go? Did you keep the fuzzy padding underneath it? You should make a write up for it as from the pics there, you did a pretty decent job.

[BLUE 88 FOX 1.8L]

I really like how you did the radio surround. What a great idea. I love how you get inspired and just go out and do stuff. It is great.

Now that shift boot. How bout some details about it. Did you sew it or glue it together. And also, how is it held in, I notice that the plastic clip is on the ouside of it. Did you glue it down?

[oRANGEJULIUS]

efritsch

This is the 5th car I have reupholstered the door cards in, so I think my opinion will be a little bias... I think its really easy, took less than 15min for each door.

What I did:

Took the door card out
Cleaned with simple green
applied 3m spray adhesive
cut a rectangle of fabric larger than that door card
starting at one end roll on the fabric, pat it down as you go
once at the end flip over to back of door card
spray the edges of the door card (back side) with adhesive
Fold excess fabric over
use a razor and cut the hole out for the door handle (or astray, vent, etc,,)
Install

I wish i took step by step pics, next time...

BLUE 88 FOX 1.8L

thanks! Once an idea pops in my head, I just have to do it or it will bug the hell out of me...that radio surround was a real PITA....

Shift boot:
remove old shift boot
remove base from old shift boot
cut out a square (material of your choice) that is about 3x the size of the shifter opening (mite want to go bigger, my shifter is only 1/2 the length of the stock shifter)
cut a hole in the middle
slip over shifter
Feed material into hole around shifter into a natural looking form
cut a 1" wide ax 3" long strip
Cover back of strip with adhesive
Tightly wrap strip around fabric right at the base of shifter
Snap shifter base on

I found this the easiest way to make a shift boot, and I think it looks great.

I will get some close up shots soon. I finished the interior up tonight. I covered the center console, and placed a red strip separating the fabric and the carpet on the door cards. I also wrapped the e brake handle, door handles, and oh $hit! handle in hemp . Now im looking for some nice quality 2 tone beaded seat covers .

[oRANGEJULIUS]

finished <had to use it......

[efritsch]

Quote, originally posted by oRANGEJULIUS »

What I did: Took the door card out Cleaned with simple green applied 3m spray adhesive cut a rectangle of fabric larger than that door card .....

I see. You you didn't even remove the old fabric? That's not a bad idea if your fabric is in okay condition.

[blkparati]

That looks pretty nice.

[BLUE 88 FOX 1.8L]

That is cool. I like the way you made the strip below the shifter. Is that red tsuff just some adhesive tape? Like side trim tape for a car? It adds a nice touch. Superb work as always, OJ. (not to be associated with ms. simpson)

[wilsfox]

[oRANGEJULIUS]

Thanks everyone

efritsch

Nope just covered right over the old stuff.....

BLUE 88 FOX 1.8L

yep, that's all it is. Looks ok in the picture, but in person I think the stripe looked kind of 1/2 a$$ being the door cards are fabric and just this vinyl sticker on it. It was bugging me so I ripped it off... and replaced it with this...

[BLUE 88 FOX 1.8L]

Sweet. Some Rabbit Flare to match your A1 Side Markers in back!

[oRANGEJULIUS]

Thanks!

Had a little spare time , so i had a chance to start on my quad round light setup... Picked up a couple $3, 2.75" tractor lights, hit them with transparent yellow paint, made some brackets and popped them in the grill. So now I have to think about the headlights.. 4 lights,, heck why not 6 ? so here is my idea for the rest of the setup, 4 5" try-bar black dots. ill use another grill and piece it together on the ends....

how it looks now:

How it will look when I get motivated:

[efritsch]

Doesn't look half bad actually.

[wilsfox]

i like this setup the best.

Quote, originally posted by oRANGEJULIUS »

[oRANGEJULIUS]

thanks,, its odd you think 6 lights and it sounds like it would look really bad.... but it doesn't. has an old school feel to it... I have also been kicking around the idea of just using e36bmw lights, the housing is roughly the same size as the fox, and it has 2 round lights in it. Did a little driving tonight, and the new lights make a big difference.


Modified by oRANGEJULIUS at 9:19 PM 11-28-2006

[WyMCoupe]

I have some used working e30 BMW headlights if you want them OJ. 4 round ones as seen in this pic...

they are about 5 1/2 inches in diameter.

The only problem is they are sealed beam so I don't know if you want to stay away from that or not because that's exacly why I'm getting rid of them. And I'm not looking to make any money off of them either because I was just going to throw them out.


Modified by sausagemit at 12:40 AM 11-29-2006

[oRANGEJULIUS]

Thanks allot for the offer , I appreciate it... I kind of have the same feeling as you do about the sealed beam. I have also been thinking a litte more about it, and I feel the e36 housings are the route I want to take. Its going to require far less fabrication, and I think they look better as well. Know of a set for sale?

[oldjeffey]

omg that looks uber cool. if you get that to work im so stealing it for my next fox.

[WyMCoupe]

The e36 housings would look tons better but you would probabbly have to do just as much fab work as the inside light is about an inch further foward. You would probabbly have to rebuild almost the entire housing to get it to fit, but you don't have to make it look as nice as it will be inside rather than outside.

Look at the inside light in this pic...

[oRANGEJULIUS]

some people may want to stop here and protect themselves....

oh no look out here is some rice content!!!!!!,, don't have a heart attack... (zzzzip... puts on flame suit)

I put a set of e36 lights in my last car, a little time in the machine shop and I had a nice set of brackets, very little modification to the actual car was needed. I'm going to take the same approach with the fox (keeping the lens on the lights), when looking at it, I think at most all ill have to do is cut away some of the rad support to clear the bulb tray and pigtails...

some people crack me up


Modified by oRANGEJULIUS at 3:53 PM 11-29-2006

[snowfox]

OJ- I think it'll look sick if you can pull it off. I'm not familiar with the e36 lights personally, but what I'm seeing in the pix here really only raises one concern. Both the ***** and the Bimmer have a lot more rake, stock, on the light lenses. The Fox is nearly vertical. Maybe I'm not quite understanding what you're going to do with the mods, but it looks to me like the BMW lights will be pointing down pretty severely when you get the lenses vertical. I don't know that the lightw will have enough enough adjustment in them to get them aimed back in the right place if you put them in that way. Are you planning to modify the light housings to reduce the rake of the lenses so that it won't be an issue and they'll line up more like the stock Fox gear? Inquiring minds want to know.

Keep up the good work- I'm sure you'll get it sorted out...

<<Going to grab popcorn to munch while I'm watching the OJ show>>

[oRANGEJULIUS]

the angle on the lens is not to extreme, but I have thought about that issue.... If i cant make it work as is ( im about 99% sure your right, there is not enough adj, to make it work with out mods...)I was thinking about heating up the housing and separating the plastic lens from the housing, then taking the lens on the large belt sander with a jig, and sand (mounting side of course) the angle I want then re installing with epoxy sealer.

[snowfox]

Quote, originally posted by oRANGEJULIUS »

...thinking about heating up the housing and separating the plastic lens from the housing...

Hmmm....

I would be a little worried about that one. I don't trust a lot of heat with plastic lenses. If you did it very localized though, you might be OK. I'm thinking like the "hot knife through butter" type of thing with a soldering iron or something similar. It would be messy as hades though. If you're planning on doing a lot of tweaking of the mating surfaces and then bonding them up with epoxy afterwards anyway though, it might not be that big of a deal.

My personal preference would be using a dremel with a cut off-wheel or something similar if it were mine to decide. (As if I could really decide without ever having seen the details of the housings in question. ) Oh well, just something to ponder.

I have plastic lenses on our 99 B5 that are all oxidized and crazed up like - looks like refried dog doo. Why do they use those stupid plastic lenses anyway?!?!?

[oRANGEJULIUS]

I separated my last set of e36 lights... I used an industrial heat gun wit a precision cone tip, with an assortment of flat screwdrivers and putty knives, it worked well. ( I had the intentions of installing angle eyes). I think some of the e36's used a glass lens,,, maybe its just the European versions ( they get all the good stuff, and we get the shaft every time... )

If you got time, take your lights out, wet sand with 600grit and work your way to about 1000, then get a nice med. polishing compound (the powder bricks work well) on a cutting wheel and work at it a while, work up to a fine compound, then polish, top off with wax, looks better than new. Takes allot of work and time though (but youll feel the pride every time you see them ), did a set for a guy once...

[snowfox]

Cool. Sounds like you have the e36 situation pretty well handled, then. Guess I'm just a worry wart...

[oRANGEJULIUS]

i just have to find the time to do them....

[oRANGEJULIUS]

no progress on the lights, having a hard time finding a set reasonable. I know my last set, I only spent $55 and that was shipped. Still looking,,, I ended up pulling the front fenders out about 1" total (took care of my rubbing issue for good) and removed the inner fenders. Painted the body,and the back of the fender with rust stop primer and undercoated them. I'm sick of the DTM tips, so im thinking about what I want to do next. so far the only good idea that came to me was doing a single 2.5" slant cut with a slight upsweep, and off to the left. The golf should be in tip top mechanical shape by the end of the week, got my coil overs in for that as well. Also jumping into the forced induction arena ... more details about that later

[ryubiggie]

i did some work with e36's on my friends maxima. i 'm not sure they are the right size. plus the lights are set to angle in with the lens is flat. give it a shot. i'd love to see them but man is it WAY ezer to buy these.

good luck can't wait to see what you come up with.

[oRANGEJULIUS]

Thanks, Read back a little, I think I have the angle issue worked out for the most part... As for the lights you have, I don't like them at all. Personal taste, there is just something about them.. (props to you for you rockin them, i know alot of people dig them, and its not common in the states). I'm not worried about how hard or easy its going to be, I like a challenge. I would rather work a little harder and come up with a new and unique modification, rather than just buy something and bolt it on. I hope you don't take offence to those comments, that's the best way I could explain my mind set.