Sorry I've Been Away for so Long, but I Haven't Abandoned Lily

It's been a hectic couple of weeks and I haven't taken as much time to work on my Beetle as I probably should have. There are several reason for this. In early July, I was back home in America and unfortunately Lily is too heavy to take as checked luggage. When we got back, Jon only had two weeks to go until he left and there were other things that we wanted to do. We did take Lily on a nice drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauer on Jon's last day here. It was a lovely day and Lily did fine. The shaking that she seemed to be suffering from was less noticeable than it had been. We're attributing this to the fresh gas we put in the car finally making its way through the system, the new spark plugs, and the oil change. Once we were back I did have the presence of mind to order replacement parts that I knew I would need when I got back to work. I ordered a new muffler and tailpipes (can't have one without the other!), front tie rod ends, and something else which I have forgotten about. This will be a delightful surprise when it gets in, whatever it was.

I have spent a bit of time working on the windshield wiper motor problem, but haven't really gotten anywhere. I still think that the rust that had accumulated in the bottom of the motor may have caused a short. I scrubbed it out with a wire brush but haven't gotten around to reassembling it. I put the fresh air box back together, but it can't be reinstalled until the windshield wiper problem has been fixed. I'm looking forward to driving with a ventilation system again, but without 40 year old flecks of pollen being blown in my face.

The big project this week has been installing the new muffler and tailpipes. The old one was extremely rusty and noisy. The new muffler arrived early last week and last weekend I decided to get back to work!

Made in Germany, shipped to America, and sold back to Germany. Ah, the APO system!

I was working on the Beetle alone, but my screwdriver was insufficient so I asked my downstairs neighbor, Horst, if I could borrow some tools. He came out and asked what I was trying to do and promptly sat down to help! Now, that's what I call a great neighbor! I've read in VW forums about people having problems with neighbors who complain about noisy VWs, but never one who insists on doing so much of the work! I tried to help as much as I could, but Horst is clearly the more skilled mechanic (this was his profession before he retired) so I also took the opportunity to watch and learn. We had the muffler off in an hour, but I'd forgotten to order gaskets so I had to wait until this week to order them. Since I live in Bavaria and this was Saturday night, I couldn't do anything until Monday. The gaskets were ordered on Monday and arrived on Wednesday, but I didn't collect them until today.

Once I got the gaskets, and after a lovely conversation on the phone with Jon, I went downstairs to start working. I wasn't at the Beetle for more than ten minutes (usefully spent preparing everything for re-installation), when Horst came out and asked if I wanted help. Who am I to say no? We worked together to attach the new muffler and he really helped me out with the seals for the tail pipes and some annoying clamps that I was having trouble with.

Horst and the mystery piece...we just put it back where it came from, whatever it does


We got the new muffler attached, but one of the old screws on the clamps had broken so we didn't quite finish. We still have to reassemble all of the tin that surrounds the engine and attach that last clamp.

Another nice thing that Horst did was to attack the dent in the front fender for me with a hammer. I was thinking that I might just end up replacing the part, but within a few minutes, the old part looked much better and with a bit of Bondo, some sanding, and a fresh coat of primer, it'll be ready to paint!