Weekend stuff, thanks, etc, long

[losinit at usa.net (Cathy Boyko)]

Well, those who had the unfortunate luck of spending the weekend with me will
no doubt delete this right off. I was once again in Cincy, the pick up Klaus,
my green 79. He's gorgeous (yes Drew, HE)

First, before I ramble, I'd really like to thank a few people. First is Daun
for helping me locate my gorgeous new baby, and for storing him since the
Cincy gathering, for his endless hospitality, and on and on...and to his mom
for getting me US cereal. And for being the SPCA for Sciroccos, any part we
needed, he had in stock. And for carefully supervising while we all got
dirty.

Next is the Behrle for selling me that fantastic car, and keeping him in great
health all these years. I hope Godzilla is as easy to get along with.

And MAYBE to Drew for driving down and back with me, it's a heck of a long way
and it sure didn't seem like it. And for the wrench turning, and instruction
on the clutch job. And for letting my family take Carrots to the track while
you left HER here. And the rude remarks, and the laughter.

Well, we headed out from the great White north for Cincy again (WOOHOO) on
Friday, and all went well with the trip, except for somebody sulking when his
bananas got confiscated. What is it, like 500 miles from my place, and another
few million from yours? The poor beetle was loaded with tools (and apparently
not quite enough CDN beer) and responding very poorly to any encouragement in
the forwards direction, but we had a great ride regardless. So after finding
out that DOT4 is  rare commodity in Wilmington, and losing Drew several times
in the toy department on his first trip to Walmart, we headed back to rip into
the job at hand, replacing a rear main seal (which had a rather concrete like
texture), upgrading the clutch, and getting some brake action happening. By
the end of the evening, the transaxle was happily on the floor, and we were
well lubricated in every sense of the word. I've never had so much fun
wrenching on a car, we were laughing so hard. The brake cleaner may have had
some impact...


Saturday was an equally wretched experience, Daun forced us to go out to eat
breakfast with him, it was horrible, but we tolerated it, just to be polite.
His 172 is as gorgeous as his cars BTW. Nice clear sky, great friends, no
crash landings, what more could you want?

Then back to the garage, and back on with the new version of what we took off.
(installation is reverse of removal) And none of this bleeding the brakes in
the normal fashion, the pressure bleeder rocks! Clear fluid is much prettier
than the previous Cola cloured stuff, and with the new MC, it stops on a dime.
Poyfect. The only real problem was the convulsions, when you're used to
looking at Northern cars, one with an exhaust manifold nut that backed out on
its own!!!! is a bit of a strain on the system. This car is in amazing shape
underneath, unlike my poor 80. Wipe the grease off, and it shines. It's gonna
get spoiled.

Anson of course dropped in, he helped Meredith with a "tech procedure" on her
gorgeous GLI, and Rob Lahey dropped by for a while too, it was nice to meet
you Rob, his MkII got a new hood.

The trip home was great, Klaus sings along at 70, and is just as steady as a
rock till the big trucks whoosh by. The only (small) snag was US Customs. I'll
post separately on the importation procedures. But we're all back home, and it
was a total blast. 


TTYL, Cathy, finally posting on topic, no longer a "clutch virgin"