Welcome to the Wandering Mechanic. Who is the Wandering Mechanic you ask? Well I am just a guy who has worked on all kinds if cars over the years, wandering from make to make finding all the good things about each car. But, then with the good must come the bad so the bad things about each car have come out also. It all started with my first car, a ’76 VW Rabbit. That car got me through college and beyond. Then I moved to the “wonderful world of the British car” that group could fill a whole decade worth of columns. In 1988 I moved back into the VW fold when the blessing of a new addition to my family arrived and the need for a 4-door car came to light. That car turned out to be a shinny Marine Blue Fox that I have owned since and it is presently the project at hand. The Fox is receiving a 2-liter conversion and that will be the topic of the next few columns. We will wonder thought the whole process from the original decision to make the conversion to the final stage when we will be able to start it and drive it to its first car event.

So, with that I will begin the story:

It all started when the Fox decided that it no longer needed the exhaust gasket on the #4 cylinder. I brought it to the shop and began the job of trying to get the manifold off the car. I don’t know if any of you have tried to do this, but this was a car with 157,000 miles on it and the bolts were not going to give up too easy. I soaked then in days of penetrating fluid and when the planets had arrived at the proper alignment I tried to remove then from the resting place that they so loved. Well what do you think happened? Some came out just fine, some came out with a little persuading, and some would just not give up at all. I did finally get all the nuts off but in the process I broke off three studs. These three studs are the fuel that began this whole sorted journey. To say that I had a hard time getting them out is an understatement. Well I can’t get to one of them because it is on the top and the intake is in the way, so off it comes. Thankfully it came off with no trouble. I was beginning to think I was home free. WRONG! This was where things took a real bad turn. I was trying to get the stubborn stud out with a pair of locking pliers and completely rounded the stud off and to make matters worse it broke off to an even shorter length and I could no longer get pliers locked on it. What to do now? I take a few days off from the project and sit down with a couple of beers to ponder my fate. My friends say “ just get rid of the car “ but I can’t do that Speedy (my son’s name for the car) she has taken me all over this country, she has spent many sunny days at the race track, she has been on the race track, we have been through so much together. So I quickly remove that idea from my mind and give my machinist friend a call. Paul says to just take the head off and bring it over to the shop and he will get the stubborn stud out for me. So, I take the head off and get ready to take it to Paul and this is where the story takes its big turn. But, that is for the next installment of the Wandering Mechanic.

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

Installment 1

Installment 2

Installment 3

Installment 4