Feeler Gauge

The cardinal rule of air-cooled VW ownership is that you adjust your own valves and to do that you need a feeler gauge. To adjust valves you probably only really need the 0.005", 0.006", and 0.007" blades (too see if you got 'em too tight, too loose, or just right; at least that's how I do it) but a few of the others come in handy too, like the 0.026" or 0.027" feelers to gap your spark plugs. 

The set above is a Craftsman, which I got in 1997. It's a funny story, and by "funny", I mean "indicative of my occasional carelessness". After adjusting Freida's valves curbside at 1202 F Street in Lincoln I congratulated myself on a job well done (no skinned knuckles) and went upstairs for a beer or a nap or to get ready for work or whatever. Months later when adjustment time came around again I crawled underneath to pop off the valve cover and what do you think was sitting there on the heat exchanger, firmly wedged between it and the head? Right. I'm no metallurgist, but I suspect that repeatedly being heated might've destroyed the accuracy of the blades. Maybe not. It was all discolored and warped so it went in the trash anyway.
As a replacement I got a new set with the angled blades, for some reason thinking the offsetedness would make them better but I was wrong. After a few needlessly contorted valve adjustments I bent them all straight, like the old set.

Birthday Present

For reasons not entirely clear, Esmé has it in her head that Ludwig and Gertie are a couple of my primary interests. So she (with help from Melissa) made this appliqué artwork as a birthday present. 

That's us (l to r: E, Melissa, me) at lower right. We're all camping, hence the greenery and partly cloudy skies.

A: Gertie's steering wheel
B: a fictional divider between Gertie's front and back seats
C: Esmé's carseat
D: Esmé's carseat
E: Ludwig's cabinetry
F: a bird on top of Ludwig
G: Ludwig's steering wheel
H: Ludwig's "tire nose"


One of the initial sketches she made to lay out the composition had Gertie talking to another car at the campsite, telling it to get some gas.


Thanks ladies!

Why Are They Called "Trouble Lights"?

Maybe the florescent ones technically aren't trouble lights. Anyway, I don't remember exactly where or when I got this Bayco worklight, but since it's yellow I think it must've been 1996. "Huhn?" you say. Because in 1996 Melcher and I were painting Frieda yellow, and everything I bought around that time was yellow. That's the best I can explain it.


It's taken a surprising amount of abuse without complaint, having been dropped from a decent height dozens of times and used as a light-duty hammer. I'm happy to report that I've never had to change the bulb. I don't think it illuminates an area as well as an incandescent trouble light would, but it doesn't get very hot which is handy when it falls on your face, or when you douse it with gasoline. And did I mention I've never changed the bulb?

Let It Snow

I was trying to capture how the snow was peeling away from the corner in a sheet.

Tools of the Trade

It probably goes without saying, but I tend to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. Maybe "anthropomorphize" is too strong a word (except when it comes to vehicles in which case it is exactly the right word); I definitely get attached to certain familiar things and have since very early childhood, let's put it that way. The tools I use to work (and "work") on our VWs are no different. For lack of anything else to blog about, this is the first of a series focusing on some of my favorites.

My 3/8" drive socket set is Craftsman, but the matching ratchet broke some time back. Fortunately I filched this old Thorsen (an old, good one, made back when they were about on par with Mac and Snap-On, not a modern p.o.s. Chinese one) from my parents' junk drawer. That long S-K extension is another spoil from the same raid. How did my parents come to have a few miscellaneous, highish quality hand tools? Who knows. [edit: Apparently my Mom knows; see the comments.]
I like the ratchet more than the Craftsman it replaced because it has a round handle whereas the Craftsman's was kind of a rounded off rectangle. That might seem like nitpicking but after you've had the damn thing in your hand for the better part of two days, believe me: it makes a difference. It also gives a more satisfying click.
The two sockets are the most absolutely essential for any air-cooled VW work: a 10mm and a 13mm (though 7mm and 17mm get quite a bit of use too). Sometimes I wonder how many times those guys have spun around.