Snow Day

Well, so much for the first day of spring. Yesterday it was 55F, and today I woke up to snow. This is an image of my poor Jetta TDI stranded out in the snow. Needless to say I do not have a heated garage and it is not a lot of fun working when your hands are freezing, plus it makes it really difficult to work. I had hoped to finish cleaning up the fuel tank today, but now I am waiting for some decent weather to roll in.

I took advantage of being trapped in the house by finishing off my initial list of parts to order. I ended up placing my initial order with John Hervey over at Delorean Auto Parts, because I used his updated tank set up in a previous car and really liked it. It is cleaner than the stock setup and it also removes the possibility of having the fuel pick-up hose collapse from heat. This isn't going to be a concours car, so reliability comes first, over original parts. I also ordered a bunch of other stuff I'll be needing including John's D110 alternator. Again, I felt this was a superior part due to the fact that is offers quite a bit more amps of power over the stock Motorola alternator that was in the car. The stock alternator in the Delorean is simply under-powered, so the D110 will work nicely.

I also ordered a water pump kit while I was at it, because the one on the car is a leaker. I also ordered a bunch of other random things I needed and that John is good at supplying at a nice discount to other vendors such as lift struts, hood edge trim, belts and hoses. I also ordered the stainless steel lined clutch slave cylinder because theoretically it should last the lifetime of the car, and is not subject to the failure issues of the stock slave cylinder. Plus, because I am going to need to pull off the intake to to replace the water pump, it is a lot easier to change the slave cylinder while the intake is off.

I'll be placing an order with Dave Swingle over at Deloream Midwest on Monday for some other parts I need including the fuel tank sending unit, the fuel pump harness which has been chopped by the previous mechanic, and new door handles because one is already broken and that means the other isn't far behind. I'll be buying a lot more from DMCMW over the next few months.

Other items on my list I didn't buy just yet (because I have a monthly budget I am near breaking) are the clutch master cylinder, any brake components, or interior parts. At this point I have enough parts on the way to keep me busy for a while; maybe a long while if the weather doesn't improve.