i'm in
 

and looking forward to scanning past posts. drop by anytime you feel like taking my boxster for a spin! peace.

i just noticed that you tried kumho. i did too and i like them! price is right.

I just added a new car to our fleet! It is a 2010 Jetta TDI Sportwagen in a 6spd (33k miles). I immediately got a trailer hitch installed (for our hitchtray) and got my roof rack off of our Subaru set up for a rocket box. It was actually really sad to trade in my wife's Subaru as it has been a tremendous car and I had just cracked 200K on its last road trip. For those of you that have read the blog and know me you must think that this comes as a complete surprise since I try to keep my cars forever. I was extremely proud of the fact that combined the Subaru and the Black Kaniget had close to half a million miles ( actual mileage was 470,000). Behind what seems like a rash decision there is always a good reason right? There is indeed a good reason behind this decision as my wife and I are expecting twins in October :D:D:D We are extremely excited but realized immediately that we needed a larger vehicle. If anybody reading this has advice on raising twins feel free to comment or shoot me a PM!

Instead of getting an automatic minivan that drives like a furniture truck and gets 20 mpg at best or an automatic gas swigging SUV for $35k that has no off road capability we decided to go with a 55mpg fun to drive with plenty of room TDI;). I actually got 55.7 mpg driving 125 miles the other day on the highway!

Here are a few goodbye pictures of the Subaru and intro pics to the Jetta which my wife has dubbed the "Egg Butt"

The Subaru gets a shot of Hungarian Palinka for hitting 200,000!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369490104.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369490149.jpg


Subaru waving goodbye:(:(
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369490191.jpg

The "Egg Butt"

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369490462.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369490490.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1369490545.jpg

I can see why Anna chose that name. That is not the most visually styling ever to come out of Germany. Interesting how it is the same car as Cha's A3 I can see the same panels, but just subtle changes in the front and rear treatments give it a much different look. But the practicality is undeniable. Sure is nice to get 50+ mpg. And you always have the Rat to stimulate the senses!
DG

Hi Kristoph,

Congrats on the twins! Must be really exciting... My brother has 5 and a half year old fraternal twin boys. They are great fun to be around! We got to spend some time with them at the beach over the weekend. Since I have no kids, I have no parenting advice but when you make it by our "Gorilla Garage" for a beer, I'm sure he would be glad to give you his $0.02.

BTW, my project is still going but has hit a bump in the road in that I need to have it put on a bench to pull the nose out (some measurements revealed the driver side suspension mount was tapped a little bit) and I'm having trouble finding a front clip for reasonable... so nothing noteworthy to post of late.

How is the Rat?

Cheers!
Jeremy

Hi Jeremy!

My wife and I are also having fraternal twin boys! We will be back in Florida in about two weeks and I plan to come up and visit the Gorilla Garage before the semester starts. Chatting with your brother sounds like a great idea as I will need as much advice as I can get. Looking forward to your next updates. The Rat still needs a clutch and I plan on doing it when I get back.

Just thought I would post a quick update! I spent the last two weeks in Albuquerque and got to play out at Obi Wan's Porsche Paradise. We were able to build two engines. One is the following engine which is going to be mated to its original car in the near future.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/750369-911t-00026-a.html

The other engine is a 68L for Obi Wan's Targa. I had a great time building the engines and learned a ton. Thanks Obi!SmileWavy Here are several pictures of the fun time learning how to build engines with Obi Wan

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267385.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267423.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267454.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267679.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267744.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267772.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267798.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372267827.jpg

Looks like fun...congrats on the twins

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372268007.jpg

This is as far as I got on the 69T before we left Albuquerque.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372268029.jpg

Congrats on the twins!! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/beerchug.gif

i too put a 13 on all my cars i think our "rats" really were twins separated at birth

regards from mexico

Thanks! It was indeed a great time :)

Here are a few pictures of the 68L. This engine is going to be magnificent. I have some pictures of building the crank for this engine during Christmas Break 2012 earlier in the the thread.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372268238.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1372268276.jpg

Thanks! I would love to see some pictures of the Twin Rat in Mexico. Please post when you get a chance.

is the red an assembly lube? if so, which one?

BTW - you cannot call it a rat any longer...

Hi Randy,

The red stuff is indeed an assembly lube. I can't recall the name but I am sure Obi Wan can! We used Loctite 574 for the case.

Redline assembly lube. Certainly my favorite, you can see the tub of it in this shot.

Thanks LJ851! I remember that it was Red "something" and I knew it was in the pic but could not remember the rest.

Just finished reading the entire thread, took better part of a week of my 'forum' time. Great story, congrats on completing the car, and on the future kids. Great to see someone taking on a tough project and pushing through it. My wife is a professor, she teaches and researches using geographic information systems and does some pretty great water quality stuff as well. I am an architect, been looking for the right car for a little while to buy. This thread has been encouraging as sometimes fate just steps on and the right car appears in a dusty farmer's field no less.
One question, did the appraisal go well, my fear would be the dollar value no being too high to use it as a daily driver. Part of what makes owning an older car at least somewhat affordable is the cheap historic insurance that you can get for cars that aren't driven so much. I fully agree with the attitude you have though to just drive and enjoy the car. Did you ever install the corbeau seat?