Ahhhh. I follow. Definitely something worth looking into, but for the moment I think this is probably a "generation two" item to add to my list. I'm chomping at the bit to drive the car, so I may look at redoing the front suspension next winter (or if I have a failure). I've been thinking I may move over to the later two-bolt setup as well, as that would allow me to look at some of the rally Mk1 golf stuff that's available.

-Dave

Well, I've been out in the back country working on a car commercial so I haven't been able to touch the car since Monday. Got about an hour in last night, so not much to report.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6...16807150_z.jpg

Steering column is in, and I did pop the wires in properly after the photos. Went in relatively easily once I tore apart two columns to make one smooth working unit. A bit choked that the turn-signal and ignition switch unit looks so worn...but hey, gotta start saving some money somewhere!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6...2066dd6c_z.jpg

I got the top boot on and sitting properly, but can't get the bottom boot to stay "in the groove". I can manage to wrestle it up and get it to stay...but after a couple of turns of the steering wheel it pops off. Come to think of it, I've never seen a car where it isn't popped off!

Tips? Tricks? Secrets?

Next up, I was thinking, would be the headliner. Unfortunately "Ivory" actually means "brown-ish"...so I'm going to have to return this headliner and source out a white one. Will probably delay the project to after the holidays :(

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6...8d2b2262_b.jpg

-Dave

Looks good Dave, please let us know how much fun you have with the headliner. I've heard they're tough.

Will do. Everyone I've told seems to think I'm nuts, number one comment is "pay someone to install it". Can't be _that_ bad??? :P

Since I now have to wait to source a more white headliner...I entered wiring harness hell:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6...3a3ce2c2_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7001/6...1a67d3bc_z.jpg

I'm taking the best bits from two '71 harnesses and a '72 harness. Once I've got a good stock harness I'll start pulling it apart to graft in the various extra circuits that I'm going to want. I anticipate progress to be slow over the next few days...

-Dave

Dave, when you decide to move over to the two bolt set up, talk to me as I should have by then reverted back to the standard roll centre having used the 3-bolt inner pivot point to lower the roll centre to test a theory. Your 1302 will have the lower pivot so to maintain standard geometry you will need the upper inner pivot.

Clive

I went thru two headliners trying to DIY. First one ripped along a seam and the second was crooked. I had a installer friend assist with the third. One tip is to buy a couple boxes of medium binder clips (the black clips with chrome wings). Use them to stretch and hold the headliner in place until you get it positioned how you want it. They also help clamp things in place after you glue - especially around the window openings. Great if you are trying to install by yourself. Another is to make 1" relief cuts at the edge of the rod pockets to keep the seams from ripping (I learned that AFTER the 1st headliner. :mad:).

Here a pretty good article from the VW Trends archive - http://www.vwtrendsweb.com/tech/0409.../photo_01.html

Hi

Looking good. Have you thought about changing to a fuse boxes with blade fuses, those ceramic fuses in the stock fuse box can corrode and give a bad contact.

The good thing about using the 2 bolt front end is that you can have two camber adjustments, the stock one and you can also elongate one of the strut holes to use Golf/Rabbit camber adjustment on the strut body.

You can also use the two camber adjustment to slightly widen or narrow your track by setting the control arm adjustment to full negative or positive camber and using the camber adjustment on the strut to get the camber correct.

I did this on my sons 1303 to 17x7 ET55 wheels on it.

Steve

Thanks for the tips! I've read that article, but the real-world mistakes are the ones I seem to be learning the most from. Thank you for being a guinea pig :-)

If someone made a factory-fit fuse box to replace the old-style one, I'd drop in blade fuses in a second. But, since I've decided to stick to an OE-style harness (with my own additions), this saves me from having to hack-in an alternative fuse box. And, truthfully, if I was doing that...I'd put a center console panel in the car and go absolutely nuts with all the relays and fuses run out of the panel.

My '69 had issues with the fuse contacts becoming corroded. I quickly learned the trick was to leave the clear cover off the fuse box. Occasionally while bored at a light I'd give the fuses a quick rotation. Problem free for three years!

-Dave

...Speaking of wiring. The following should not be undertaken by those who can't read a wiring diagram!

First off, the harness that was in the car was badly hacked by a previous owner. Bad crimp connectors and replaced segments of wire everywhere. I knew I had better sections in other harnesses, but to be fair and honest I don't have a good complete harness. One Harness, for example, has the left-side headlight and horn wiring cut off (likely for a good reason, but I don't recall). Another harness is cut on the driver's side (again, probably for a good reason)...and then there are usual frays, splits, etc.

When in doubt, cut it out!

First off is the outer protective sheath...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6...9f36cd57_z.jpg

If you're not careful to ziptie or tape the wires as you pull it apart, you'll quickly end up with a mess of wires that you can't put together and have fit the car. So it's important to tape 'em, especially any spots where wires split off from the main grouping.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7171/6...b65621f9_z.jpg

...if you're lucky, the donor harness you're planning on using doesn't look like this:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6...9c5dca25_z.jpg

...or like this. I'm beginning to think my car was in a flood at some point. HOW did the inside of the harness, halfway down the heater channel, get wet enough to both still be wet...and growing mold? Nasty, pass me another pair of gloves.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6...59530eb7_z.jpg

Despite fears of some horrible moldy death, I forged ahead. The left side headlight wires were replaced with a second set of right-side wires, as they were in the best shape. The horn wires were extended, And a couple of wires were swapped out in the main loop that goes down the A-pillar. It's amazingly slow work that required cutting apart three harness just to make one good one. At one point I was thinking about how a new harness would be so much easier...but then remembered I would be cutting all the sheathing off a brand new one, so it really doesn't matter. I was going to start on the "dash area" of the harness, but after a few minutes I realized that I would need to mount it into the car first to see where all the wires go and what I would be able to clean up. It's such a rats next as it sits, I can't see an easy way to clean it up (out of the car).

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6...2e0f53e8_z.jpg

I think the harness is now ready to be dropped into the car tomorrow. From there I'll start adding the wires and circuits I need, taping and moving wires into and out of the factory harness as I go. The headlight wires, for instance, will no longer go to the factory fuse box but will need to go a set of relays I'll be installing. Once I've got the whole harness (including my additions) taped up in the car, I'll pull the whole thing out and use expandable wire loom to cover the wires. Now I just need to find a 6-relay holder that will fit in the area I have in mind :P

http://images3.cableorganizer.com/te...-resistant.jpg

-Dave

Dave, i ended up running various new circuits to take care of the headlight relays, air horns, fuel pump etc etc. I added a ne 8 way ceramic fusebox in the front luggage area. I reckon that all the additional wiring doubled the harness thickness running from the regulator forward. I used black 16.75A 1mm^2 thinwall wiring for most things and wrapped it all up in spiral wrap ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cable-Wire...item7dbd788707 ) reasoning that it was quicker than tape and could be undone for future additions. For this feature alone it was worth it's weight in gold.

oooh...spiral wrap. <shudder> I can't stand the stuff!

The tape I'm using is all temporary while I lay the harness out. Once I'm ready to go I recover the harness with Expandable covering and heatshrink tubing. All of my harnesses are made permanent, in the sense that I can't easily add or subtract circuits down the road. But the Expandable covering is all reusable, so if you don't mind pulling a harness apart it's fairly simple. I don't have a good photo of any harnesses I've done, but the following shows the stuff in use:

http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/...l/slee-002.jpg

I'm not overly concerned about "forgetting" any circuits, I could basically open the notebook from my Audi Rally car and know exactly what I need to run. Just the location in the car is perhaps different :)

-Dave

I have a love/hate relationship with wiring. It's a daunting task that requires a lot of fore-thought and methodical work, most of which is hidden. The result is that nothing happens, everything works, and there's never any problems. So you do a lot of work with very little to show for it. I've re-wired several cars (old and new) and I think adding race gear with additional sensors makes you a glutton for punishment ;) I'd like to see the results of your new/old re-wrapped harness and the heat shrink tubing/expandable covering is a cool touch.

So if I'm honest, I wasn't really feeling into wiring tonight. The car is across town since I'm dog & house sitting...and, lets be honest, wiring isn't exactly the most exciting option out there! But, I have a rule about spending an hour a day...so over to the shop I went. Arrived before 8...and after I started, ended up wiring until midnight before I noticed the time. After some help from the motorgeek forum I found the relay mounts I'm going to use, and decided that my relays will get mounted to the front face of the fuel tank support, underneath my 'strut bar'. It's the most logical location for 2/3rd of the relays that I'll be putting into the car. These include the fuel pump, headlight and rally light relays. Since there isn't a "clean" spot to put my dash-related relays I'll drop those down there as well.

With that decided I was able start reworking the front half of my harness. First off, I ended up removing the stock headlight wires completely. Since everything will be relayed I only need to run two trigger wires from the fuse panel, and they can be relatively light gauge wire. After those were removed, I started adding wires in. Most of what I ran could have been done with 22ga wire, but I tend to only keep 18ga and larger around the garage. A little overkill, certainly heavier, but I'll survive.

Wiring added:
Lights
- Low beam trigger wire
- High beam trigger wire
- Rally light 1 trigger wire
- Rally light 2 trigger wire
- Rally light 3 trigger wire (future upgrade potential)

Fuel Pump
- Tach Signal wire
- Selection switch wire x2 (fuel pump selector switch pump 1 or 2)

Rally Computer
- Power feed x 2
- selection trigger wire x2 (allowing me to choose between ignition switched power source or direct battery power source)

Dash
- Oil light trigger
- Oil light power
- Gen light trigger
- Gen light power
- Turn Signal indicator trigger
- Turn signal indicator power
(The above allow me to use any gauge combination I desire, and still have working warning lights)

Other
- Spare wires for future additions x2
- 4ga power wire direct from battery
- 4ga power wire from fuse box (ignition switched)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6...32bd3789_z.jpg

So looking from the bottom up...the first two loops are the turn signals, L&R. The next loop consists of all the new wires I've added, which will end up hidden under the spare tire. The next loop after that is the "Mid harness" which goes to the Voltage Regulator. Above that are the wires that will make up my switch panel. I think I'll end up putting it where the stereo would normally go. And then there is the fusebox and the wires for factory switches.

Here is the harness being test fit into the car:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6...c7210f28_b.jpg

My relay mounts will be in on Thursday, and by then I'll have decided on the circuit breaker mounts. Definitely will need to find a "wiring cover" for the 1302 (or make one), as the behind the dash area is going to still look like a complete rats nest. Especially once I add in all my gauges!

-Dave

Hi

A standard bug has the same dash area as a 1302 so a standard bug dash cover will fit.

You might find this article that a friend of mine wrote useful.




Showing Your Colours.

There is definite common sense a certain purity in the colour used by Volkswagen and Audi for their wiring. While other manufacturers have their own codes unlike any other makers', which may differ from model to model within the same model, and even an the same car [I once came across a wire in a Japanese car which changed colour three times as it went through connectors]. VW/Audi colours have been the same for the basic functions since the 1940s, and also match those of other German manufacturers to a certain extent.

Starting at the source of power, the battery: a permanently live source, i.e. a "hot" wire, is red in colour. This is somewhat of an international, but by no means universal standard. The connection between "red" and "hot" are obvious. You must have noticed that any wire attached to the care chassis, to "earth", is brown in colour. Another natural connection earth is, after all, brown.

High-beam headlights are bright in colour; therefore, logically, the wires leading to them should be white. Low-beam is less bright, a little dimmer, yellow to be precise Parking lights are only a shade of their big brothers, hence the grey wires providing current.

There is no obvious colour for wiring associated with the ignition circuit. VW/Audi uses black, with an assortment of traces to distinguish various consumers of current. More about traces later.

Any warning light wire has blue as its basic colour. Pure blue feeds the warning light virtually every car has the charge warning light. Others are blue with various traces.

Green with its associated traces has, since the advent of water-cooled VWs, become associated with all to do with windscreen wipers.

A trace on a wire used to mean in the Beetle days that the wire had been through a switch of some kind. Therefore red/black goes to the starter solenoid. But somewhere along the line it also came to mean an unswitched supply to a particular consumer. For example, on Golfs a red wire with a grey trace, permanently live, goes to the cigarette lighter. Some designer obviously had a sense of humour here, as grey is the colour of cigarette ash!

Black/red goes to the brake lights [because of red lenses?] Black/blue is for reversing lights. Black/yellow comes from the so-called "X" contact - the one which makes the headlights go out when you start the engine. Black/white goes to the left blinkers, black/green to the right. So logically, which colours are used for the wire between the blinker relay and the blinker switch before the current is split up to either side? Black/white/!green, of course, the only wire on any VW/Audi with two differently coloured traces.

Brown with a trace means that there is a switch to earth. So the wire between the interior light and the door switch, which is earthed, is brown with a white trace [white signifying light].

How do you tell the wires leading to the right-ride high and low-beam headlights? They both have a black trace.

Grey, basically for parking lights, has a variety of colourful traces. Grey/black is for the left side parkers and tail-lights; grey/red for the right side; grey/blue in generally for dash lights; grey/green for the number plate light on cars with the split parking-light system [one side parker/tail-light on with the blinker arm); grey/white for the feed to the fog lights [fog is white, you know); and grey/yellow for the rear fog lights [not as bright as front fog-lights].

Blue/green on Beetles means the oil pressure warning light. Of course early Beetles had a green warning light! Newer cars now have blue/black. Blue/white is the hi beam warning light white for the high-beam, naturally. Blue/red means the blinker warning light. Blue/brown is for the brake/handbrake warning light.

Pure green was used on early Beetles for the supply to the wipers and on later models for the self parking facility. Golfs took this steps further. Green/black and green/yellow also go to the wiper motor; green/red to the windscreen-washer pump and green/white to any rear washer pump.

With the increase in equipment added to modern cars - air conditioning, cruise control, fuel injection etc., the consistency of colours was inevitably lost in duplication and a whole lot of apparently illogical colour choices So yellow is now used for the dynamic oil pressure warnings as well as for low beam. The fuel gauge sender now has a violet/ wire. [OK, so the Beetle's brown illogical too.]

But, I ask you, what other cars such evidence of natural, human influences shining through in a feature as mundane as their wires Another reason why VWs and Audis are special, I think.

Rod Young

I seem to think the fresh-air box is thicker due to the motor, and thus standard dash covers won't fit? Will have to borrow the one out of my '69 once I'm at that stage to see.

-Dave

Alrighty...shop only got some of the bits in I needed, so didn't end up going as far as I hoped tonight.

Relay mounts are in, bolted up using three RivNuts.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6...0e5edbd0_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6...7e5b37bd_z.jpg

Then started organizing the wiring that will go into it. These wires are passing through from the back, and will be marked so that I know where to trim the length. Only three wires on this end actually need to be identified as to their purpose. The rest just go in one big bundle to the same spot so it doesn't really matter at this point. I ran wires for the factory headlights, and then realized I'm out of 12 gauge for the rally lights. Ah well, just add that to the list for tomorrow!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7145/6...f1378a20_z.jpg

With everything I could do there complete, it was time to move on. I don't want to move onto the rest of the harness until I have the front dialed, as this helps me keep the ever-changing diagram straight in my head. There is a hardcover notebook that is getting all my diagrams and thoughts, but working on harnesses for me requires a flow, and so the front needs to be finished first.

For the moment I've moved onto figuring out what I'm going to do with the dashboard. My original plan was a Carbon Joe dash, and while I had one ordered I haven't heard back regarding it. So I'm working on the back-up plan. My Stewart-Warner gauges seem to be perpetually "coming soon", so I'm really at a loss for what to do. The factory Salzburg cars were just a stock dash with a tach bolted to the top and some TAG-Heuer rally clocks on the glove box door. Audi factory rally cars from the early 80's seem to have a dash made up of whatever was lying around the workshop. Mostly VDO gauges, but not always, and most certainly not all matching each other. I checked the gauges I have...and mismatched pretty much sums it up...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7172/6...f330ee86_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6...99929748_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6...b01feff1_z.jpg

I trimmed the factory speedo hole to fit the Porsche Tach, and if I'm going to run a stock dash pad that's definitely my first choice. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to pair it with the Stewart Warner, go with a VDO set or Autometer Sport-Comp...then, of course, I need to figure out where to put them! At the very least I'll be running a Rally Computer, Tach, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp, and Fuel level. I may add a speedometer, volt meter, and air/fuel gauge. Just gotta figure out what fits, and is readable while I'm driving.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7004/6...228d7427_z.jpg

-Dave

Hi

Sorry about the misinformation, our 1302s never had fresh air fans, we didn't get the fresh air fans fitted until much later in standard bugs.

I used to run 63 Beetle rally car, when I started doing shift work I sold it along with many VW factory rally car parts. I even the left the Halda twin master in it.

Steve

Ahhh, that explains it. I was considering ditching the fresh air fan since that little square in the dash would make a great oil-light spot...but then I found a box/fan that still works.

Bet you're kicking yourself over the halda now eh?! I know I would be!

-Dave

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7166/6...dc661e83_z.jpg

More progress...but not as much as I hoped (wiring always seem to be that way). The harness is complete to the regulator & battery, 3/4 complete to the engine bay and just needs to be covered in Techflex. So far I've added 540ft of wire and more circuits then I care to think about at the moment. Should have the correct size Techflex tomorrow, and could hopefully finish this up before Christmas morning. Mind you...each time I think I'm getting close I think of a few more things I need to do :P

Here are some detail shots of how the Techflex looks when I'm done with it:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6...1e7cdf44_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7142/6...6102c3a2_z.jpg

-Dave

Dave,

I like your approach on the wiring..

Taking some notes..

Keep up the good work.. Keeps me movitated even if for now I can only drive a desk...

Alex

Thanks! Finally getting near the end of the front half of the harness....

Had to do an emergency run to the city for more Techflex, made it 10min before a supplier closed for the holidays. Eeek, almost got stopped for a week! In case anyone needed further proof that I'm insane...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6...f5b88c4d_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7149/6...3b0cfd60_b.jpg

I also couldn't get heat shrink into a couple of spots. So I'll be using Silicone Fusion tape tomorrow. The harness is ready to go into the car, the last bits to be TechFlexed are the headlight wires, but I'll need to pop the fenders on in order to figure out the length. So with that I moved on to other items. Heat reflective fiberglass tape on the fender (under the gas heater)...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6...2d21d22d_b.jpg

And then this new plate.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6...c6437d20_z.jpg

A few rubber mounts...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6...01dcb92a_z.jpg

...and we've got a new mount for my fuel pumps and the secondary fuse box.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6...6d9b40c5_z.jpg

That's basically as far as I got. The fuse box I ordered in was basically crap, and I refuse to use it. I did a quick trip around the automotive suppliers in town, as well as a stereo shop, and didn't find anything that I thought would be useable. The Audi's have a fuse strip that separates out of the standard fusebox, which I thought might be useable...but then I started looking at the factory VW fusebox again. Hmmmm...flip that sucker upside down, and it could be perfect. The factory cover should pop on.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6...ceaf84b9_z.jpg

I need to sleep on it. There are lots of reasons the ceramic-style fuses suck, but I tend to keep the terminals clean so it shouldn't matter. Anytime I've run into a "should I / or shouldn't I" problem, I try to look at it like the factory engineers would have. This is a fairly elegant solution using what is available on hand...exactly as the factory would have (for proof: see transmission mounts).

Still need to take a good nights sleep I'll know whether I like it or not. And I suppose in the long run it's fully upgradeable to an ATO-style box down the road.

-Dave

Nice job on the wiring, small tip in case you haven't come across it: you can get heatshrink with hotmelt glue inside which is great for protecting joints outside of the cabin to stop corrosion. I've used it extensively on my car, nothing worse than intermittent connectivity due to corrosion in the future!

Yup. Some of the connections photographed actually use that stuff, some don't. Depends on the size I had on hand. Most of my smaller stuff is with the glue.

-Dave

Hi

Are you going to mount the fuel pump in that location? The facet pumps need to be mounted at a certain angle.

Steve

Oh? Please tell.

Nothing in the documentation I got with the pump, nor on Facet's website?

FWIW, I'll be using AN fittings so as to reduce the chances of fluid leakds combined with fuse box :P

-Dave

Hi

It was long time ago that I mounted the Facet pump in my old bug.

It should be mounted at 45 degree angle with the outlet higher than the inlet and close to the fuel tank, which you have done.

I found these instruction online that confirm it http://www.aca-auto.com.au/pdfs/Facet-cat.pdf

Steve

Thanks for the instructions. Based on the information within it sounds like the only reason to mount the outlet higher then the inlet is to ensure there is no possibility of vapour lock inside the pump...but they also say the pump can be mounted in any orientation. Might try them flat (since the fuel lines will work out so well with them flat)...and modify as required. On the plus side, if one pump heats up and vapour-locks, I just have to flip a switch to change to the other pump!

Haven't done much work on the car in the last couple of days. Something about a big holiday and family dinners and such ;) I did get the front half of the wiring harness back in, and insulated against heat near the gas heater. Kinda like the look of it installed, but this part of the project is taking waaaaaaay too long. I will need to mount a fender to do some measuring before I can finish up the techflex on the front.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7031/6...bcdf25de_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6...47dfb987_z.jpg

...relay and fuse panel are in. I still need to figure out how I'm going to label the fuses so I remember what controls each circuit...and not really sure what I was doing when I put the labels up. Somehow I missed the first and last relay labels! Will have to cut another couple off the vinyl machine tomorrow.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6...5a513c60_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6...8b757d80_z.jpg

The fuel pump wires will need to be completed after I get a couple of the Rabbit fuel pump relays, and a second pump. For now I'll move onto the dash portion of the harness and slowly work my way back. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

-Dave

May I suggest 2 more of those rubber mounts to mount the fuel pump too? You'll hardly hear it in that case, unless u want to hear it to know its on!

Jason

gonna start off without a second set, only because I'm trying to keep the pump as low as possible. Thanks for the suggestion though. Without any sound insulation, I suspect this car is going to be plenty loud enough to mask any fuel pump noise!

Well, it's been a long week of work...but none of it on the Beetle. At work we have a Hagglunds BV-206 (google it) which has been taking up a lot of my time. Ford engine, Mercedes transmission, BMW distributor, Audi plug wires....it's a virtual United Nations of construction. Anyways...I'm off topic, and finally got back to the Bug today.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6...9010d402_z.jpg

...I managed to snake the wiring harness through the factory holes in the heater channels. It wasn't easy, but I got it through. My seat rail is jammed up against the heater channel, which means running even a factory harness down beside it would be almost impossible. I might cut the seat rail, lay the wires and re weld it back in...or I might route the wires under the seat and simply cut some access for it. Haven't decided yet.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7009/6...c484f84d_z.jpg

From there I moved onto the fuel tank. In order to make sure all the dash and trunk bits are going to fit, I need to get the fuel tank into the car...which means refinishing it. In order to refinish it, the first step was to sort out the fuel sender. The aftermarket senders are a wee bit different then the Super Beetle versions:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6...89a91480_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6...7e9f9545_z.jpg

So I started slowly stripping down the VW unit, as I compared it to the Stewart Warner unit I'm going to be using....

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6...3ca8c9b0_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7162/6...8593c540_z.jpg

...and, after a little while, I had this:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6...11b91946_z.jpg

The factory Super Beetle gauge has two floats, which after playing around I figured our are required to get a proper reading at both full and empty. Trying to sort out a way to make it all work with the aftermarket gauge was going to be relatively futile. Or at least, far more engineering then a fuel gauge should require! With my short float I should show "empty" well before the tank is actually dry....so it's somewhat reflective of a reserve left, but it does have a very accurate "full" reading. That may come across as backwards...but really I could run without a gauge at all, simply knowing how many miles between full and empty. This adds a bit of security :P

With that finished, I prepped the top half of the tank, and took care of the finish. Tomorrow I'll paint the bottom half.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7010/6...a7c9c1d1_z.jpg

I've also moved onto the dash. With Carbon Joe AWOL, I've had to go onto plan B. I'll be using a factory looking dash, and giving it the "Audi Factory Team" look. Cut some panels for around the speedo hole, and a lexan panel which fits into the radio trim. Ideally I'd like to fit the Rally computer on the far side of the glove box, but I'm going to have to wait until install the dash to check clearances.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6...a3defd97_z.jpg

Until tomorrow...

-Dave

I love the work on the wiring harness, the techflex looks great. For the fuel level sender, why not use a stock super sender and use a gauge that reads the vdo style full-empty?

Thanks for the props. Regarding the fuel sender, I may be counting my eggs before they hatch...but it would seem Stewart Warner Performance is going to take care of providing all the gauges for the project. Thus, I won't be putting any VDO gauges in! :-)

-Dave

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6...47271e7f_z.jpg

Well, the bottom of the tank is coated...so in a day or two I'll be able to install that and move some bigger things forward. But for now, it feels like slow detail work. I am getting things done, but not the massive steps forward I was enjoying before! :P

First up is the new "radio panel". It will house various switches and the oil temperature gauge. (Fuel gauge installed just for sizing). The switches across the top will select stock high beams, rally light 1 and/or rally light two when you hit the factory high beam switch. I can run any combination of auxillary lighting, but they're all ultimately dipped just like your factory high-low system. The bottom three toggles are for fuel pump 1/2, Air/Fuel Ratio left back or right (sensor selector for the gauge) and rally computer power source. The long switch next to the gauge is a rotary switch, I just haven't trimmed down the post or installed the knob. This will serve to control which sensor is displaying on the oil temperature gauge. I plan on having multiple sensors so I can see oil temp just as it leaves the engine, as it goes into the engine and also in oil tank. The rotary knob allows me to have up to four different sensor locations, but only one gauge.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6...673cf029_z.jpg

I've cut a spot for the speedometer, and four more smaller gauges (two beside the tach and two in the glove box door). Some paint finishes up the panels. The car will end up with a Speedo, Tach, Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, Air/Fuel Ratio, voltmeter and a Fuel Gauge. Where I'll mount each gauge specifically...hasn't yet been determined. Well, except for the oil pressure gauge. That will go where both co-driver and driver can see it.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6...152ef18b_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6...05933a36_z.jpg

The new gauges will all be the current Stewart Warner Performance style, which you can see new in the boxes on the left-side. Due to the factory dash setup, I've chosen to keep the Porsche Tach...but that black rim just wouldn't do, would it? Enter new silver bezel. When I first painted it, I instantly hated it. Almost taped it up to paint it black right away. Once I had it installed on the dash though, it was an instant success. Oh yeah, I got the dashboard mounted as well. Should be installed for the final time.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7172/6...f330ee86_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6...72da9d49_z.jpg

Doesn't seem like much accomplished, considering the time it took!

-Dave

You are rollin' along with this build man! :cool: ...wish I had that kind of time to work on mine...would of been done five years ago :lmao:

Build is going super slow the last three weeks...but house sitting, dog sitting, Christmas and having to drive over to the shop will do that! I should be back to my usual program, and low sleep hours, come friday. Tonight I could only get an hour in on the car. In that time I managed to install the switch and gauge panels, including putting the random gauges I have into various spots to check the fit. Had to make a couple of more adjustments to the metal dash, but otherwise everything is a good fit. Should have all my new-style Stewart Warner gauges by the end of the month...but visually, it's not looking too bad now. At the very least I can sort out the wiring for each of the panels and then swap out the gauges later.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6...56283f41_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7006/6...9dbb8403_b.jpg

-Dave

I'd like to start this post with a huge thank you to Chris, "chug_A_bug", as he's quite guy.

A few posts back, when I first bolted up the steering column, I mentioned how it was the first "used" looking piece I was using on the car...but budgets have to be adhered to (at least, once you've spent 4x as much as you planned!). Chris sent me a PM, and shortly after a package for the project:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7007/6...893e4b3f_z.jpg

Guess I won't be using a used ugly turn signal lever after all!

Thanks Chris.

------------------

Started on wiring up the dash today...it's incredible how long it takes to do it correctly. Managed to wire up the fuel gauge, air-fuel gauge, rally computer, speedometer and the radio panel of switches. Yes, that was almost a full-day's work.

Glove Box started:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7147/6...f279d7ff_z.jpg

Detail of the Anderson Power-Pole connectors I prefer for inside use. They can be assembled like Lego, and labelled with a micro-sharpie. I only need to label them for while I assembling each half (usually on different days). Once I key the connectors so they can't be assembled incorrectly, panels can be installed and removed without ever messing up the wiring.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7166/6...d1e589f9_z.jpg

Glove box gauge details:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7014/6...2267caa5_z.jpg

From the normal view, all of the wires are tucked away neatly and hidden. Hard to see in the second photo, but the stock glovebox fits perfectly. I've lost a bit of interior space, of course, but can at least use it for holding the insurance papers and other vitals.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7166/6...2dac0f22_z.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6...28af25f0_z.jpg

The underside looks odd in the photo, but actually looks clean and neat in person. The connectors under the dash are for the rally computer. It needs to be removable for use in other vehicles and/or if I park it somewhere that it could be an issue.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7001/6...9a24beb9_z.jpg

Under the hood remains clean as well. The black wiring harness is for the rally computer, the connectors peeking out are for the gauges. Again, everything is modular and removable should repairs or future modifications require it.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6...49e9bab9_z.jpg

And here is the panel that sits in the radio slot. As you can see making it removable requires a bit of time ;-)
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6...d71e857e_b.jpg

-Dave

Glad to Help... :cheers:
CIP1.ca sent me 2 when I order 1 and i Still never ended up using it, just happy to See if go to a worthy causes... :)

Chris.

Dave keep up the good work enjoying ur wiring work, very neat , functional and modular.
Alex

Thanks! Occasionally I just want to "get it done"...but I know taking my time will make it so much easier to diagnose down the road. Considering the fact that I'm doing all the wiring without the battery or any testing, I'm either really really good...or insane :P

No photos tonight, as it's just more wires and connections. I've got the switch panel in the radio slot wired up to the relays in the trunk, speedo and tach 100% wired in at the dash (just the speed sensor to mount) and most of the modular panels powered and grounded. After that I started going through and labeling wires to make tomorrow night faster. With the techflex having to go over each wire, it wasn't realistic to label them as I built the harness. What I did do, though, was to bundle the wires by end location. Now when I'm trying to figure out "where does that wire go", as soon as I find that one wire in a cluster goes to the regulator (for instance) all five in that cluster go to the regulator. This cuts down the hunt-and-find factor, but considering there were 15 wires going to the relay panel...it doesn't necessarily make it quick!

I hope to get the rest of "my" wiring finished tomorrow, so that I can start installing the factory switches and their associated wires. There is going to be a LOT to stuff in behind there, and I'm not 100% sure it will all easily fit.

-Dave

Holy crap I'm reaching the end!!

All of my switches and gauges are wired and hooked up. Started installing the factory equipment tonight, which is a nice milestone to reach. A little confused by some of it, as the wiring connections I have in the car don't match the '71 wiring diagram...will be a bit of a puzzle I think! Warwick was in the garage working on the Mini tonight...apparently I talk to myself with a running monologue of wiring diagrams and connections as I work. Never noticed it before, but definitely do it when I'm wiring. Odd.

Photos tomorrow, added my LED Gen and Oil lights, but screwed up the location. You RHD guys would be fine with them where they are, but for us LHD folks a switch blocks the warning lights. Hmmm...might have to install a couple more just to be safe.

-Dave

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6...3e2d9bd6_z.jpg

Now, keeping in mind that this is still a work in progress, I have wires not yet trimmed or hooked up in this photo...but still I think if you've owned enough beetles, you just accept that there is no way the behind-the-dash wiring won't look like a rats nest :P Add a bazillion other wires and I think I'm going to have a very hard time making this look "neat". Even with zipties and/or wiring loom, I will definitely need to work out a wiring cover of some sort.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6...9e51d07c_b.jpg
Got the headlight switch, emergency flasher switch and gas heater switch all in. Gas heater will need a few more connections, in the '69 I just ran my own wiring...for this car I'm going to want to figure out how the factory did it. I must have spent 45min going through boxes and baggies searching for the "good" dash switches with their perfect labels and diagrams. 45min, that was, until I remembered that those pieces are still installed on the '69, and it was sold!

I have discovered a few issues with the factory wiring. Each of the cars I've torn apart to build this one were all '71's. At some point in the last five years I must have dismantled a '72. Bits from that car must have been in my wiring box, because they've found their way into this car. The fuse box, for instance, is a '72. Took me forever to realize this, and thus instantly solve why one circuit had no "feed" power. A '71 box bridges the first three terminals, in '72 they bridge just the first two. Doh. Wiring, it would seem, is also a mix of '71 and '72...which is bound to create a headache down the road. Especially since I've hooked up everything as though it were '71, until I discovered a few things were '72 and "wouldn't work". They are small changes, like wires that join together at the fuse box instead of a junction in the harness...but just different enough to drive me bat-****-crazy when I have an issue down the road!

Does anyone know what the Brown/Blue wire coming out of the steering column is for? It's on neither the '71 or '72 wiring diagram, and I can't for the life of me figure out what it might be for.

The last issue is one I mentioned the other night. With the 914 Tach and an aftermarket speedo, I've lost my factory warning lights. I wanted them somewhere visible, preferably not behind the steering wheel. I got the bright idea to get bright LED's and tuck them in with the brake-light warning switch. If done right it would be kind of factory-esque, with all the warning lights in the same spot. Initially I was going to remove the brake-light warning lamp all together (pretty sure I can tell when I have lost half my brakes!!) but didn't end up removing it for some reason. I drilled out the car and popped two high-intensity LED's into the panel. Tough to take a photo of them and show the intensity, but here is the location:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6...3121048e_z.jpg

Now, I did this entire install from the passenger side of the car. Silly me, I never thought to check if they'd be visible from the Driver's seat. :P I will have to wait until I have a seat in the car again, maybe I get lucky, but I somehow doubt it. Pretty sure the lower LED is blocked by the fan switch!

To finish the dash wiring I need my wiper install kit (grommets, etc) and a windshield squirter. I'm off coaching for the weekend, so likely won't update the thread until Monday night.

-Dave