Well this year it was a bit smaller due to the rains keeping the trailer queens away. However there was a nice turnout with a volksrod turning heads, along with a few amazing cars. Anyway here is what your all waiting for… PHOTOS!!!

Sorry again for the wait, but its worth it.

Thanks again to the following people for the pictures; Mark Paine, Bruce Walker, Jordan Muller, Andrew Snell, Glenn Kirkham, Kris Farrant, Allen Appleby and anyone else who sent out pictures, also thanks to the sites where some of these have been collected from.

Thanks to a friend (Hi Ross) who runs the http://www.bellett.net/forums/ let me know about a rat shoot for retro cars, unfortunatly i couldnt get there (slept in) however here are a few shoots from the meet. Read the full story with pics at http://www.bellett.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=563 few VW’s there

Here is another 90 odd pictures i have found on my travels of the web Enjoy.

Further to the Previous post, i thought i would document the steps i installed the bonnet hinges on with. (please excuse the car as its in the middle of being done up).

The above pic is just showing what and where the securing bolt and sir clip are. (I have removed the bonnet first to make life easy.).

The above pic is a closeup of the 13mm bolt that needs removal.

This is a closeup of the Sir Clip on the bottom of the original hinge.

Above is a pic of the Cir clip off and the bonnet hinge bottom bit removed.

Both stock hinges are now removed.

New shiny shiny hinges attached to the bonnet. You can see the three adjustment holes for the bonnet to open different amounts (i ended up using the smallest one as it would just clear and i didn’t want to stuff around re adjusting).

This is a closeup of one of the hinges with the new 13mm bolt (unsure if this is the correct side for that black spacer but it worked in the end :P)

You need someone to help you hold the bonnet whilst you do up the nuts (otherwise you can expect to loose some fingers), Hi Joanne (My other half)

Gas strut installed on the Left. It just pops into the hinge and pops onto the original hinge mount on the bottom (the one with the sir clip)

Closeup of the RHS, again looking good (unlike the rest of the inside of the bonnet.)

Here is a quick shot of how hot it looks opening and closing.

Now again i will apologize for the state of the car as I’m working on it as i get money and time, the car detracts from the awesome hinges. Again i cant say enough about them ;).

I was gettign worried, these items were sent over 2 weeks ago and i hadnt heard hide nor hair of them. Untill Thursday (6/8/09) when i called the post office (all my packages get left there regardless whether I’m home or not), Luckily their was a package sitting there since the 24th, i just had apparently not gotten a little slip telling me to pick it up (not sure why they didn’t give it to me as i have picked up about 6 other packages in that time).

Anyway to the good bits.

These are the hinges made by AVD member RBS79, from the first time i saw them i knew i wanted some. $150 is a bargain for hand crafted gold like these (he has a few for sale check http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=78027). I haven’t got round to putting them onto the car (but i may tomorrow if i get a free minute) but here are a few pics of the un-boxing to tie you over.

Beautifully packaged, and presented, RBS79 took the time to bag all the nuts needed and wire tie it all together.

Here is the hinge (strut?) straight out of the packaging. i cant get over the work that really has gone into this. All i can say is Shiney Shiney, and not a sharp barb in site. I cant say enough about the quality of these items. When i get round to putting these on (hopefully tomorrow) i will do a step by step pic tutorial, to show you how easy (or not) it is.

Ha I couldn’t help but grab this, I have no real use for it but I don’t mind storing it just in case (and for $50 how could you go wrong {Thx AVD})..But

So i went and grabbed it from Andrew just up the road, helped me load it into the back of the celica… forgot how heavy they are…

Get it home and then realise there is no way in hell I’m going to get that out of the car myself, and after calling a few friends ad everyone being conveniently busy i decided to tear her down in the back of the car i know crazy right).

So this is after about 2 hours i got to this stage (i can see you going 2 hrs you wimp, but i had to grind my socket so i could get to the head stud nuts.)

Finally got the strength to pick the motor in pieces out of the car… it now looks like this…

So lesson learnt think about how to get it out of the car before putting it in…

-M

A brilliant piece of info for today (late as it is) thanks to Phil74Camper on the AVD website.

Today is 40 years since Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. Is this the greatest accomplishment in human history? As for VW comparisons:

* The Saturn V moon rocket is still the most powerful machine, of any kind, ever built by humans. It is the tallest, heaviest and fastest flying machine ever made. At liftoff its five F1 engines were producing 120 million kW, or 160 million horsepower, consuming propellant at 18,000 litres (14.4 tonnes) per second. Each F1 fuel pump produced 55,000 hp. Each F1 engine was as powerful as 40 B747 engines, and more powerful than the Shuttle’s 3 main engines put together. The first stage had five of them.

* The first stage contained 1.9 million litres of propellant (RP1 jet fuel and liquid oxygen), about an olympic 50m swimming pool full. That’s enough fuel to fill 49,000 Volkswagens. The Saturn burned all of it in 150 seconds.

* At takeoff the Saturn V weighed 3,040 tonnes, as much as 3,475 Volkswagens (or 9 Boeing 747s). It was as long as 27 Volkswagens parked nose to tail, or 73 stacked on on tyop of another.

* The Saturn could lift 140 tonnes to orbit (160 Volkswagens), more than any other rocket before or since, and 4 times as much as the Shuttle can. It could lift 47 tonnes (53 Volkswagens) all the way to the moon.

* The ship’s highest ever speed, 39,897 km/h (Apollo 10), is 312 times faster than the top speed of a VW.

Howdy All this is just a few shots of the fiberglass front ends available, hopefully able to get some built in Aus without it becoming prohibitively expensive.

-M

Here we go another truckload of beetle pics and a few other interesting ones in there. Knock yourselves out

Again these pics are not mine just pics i have picked up in my travels.