Here she is, sitting in the field
where I found her. A bit of rust, and just a small hint of the amount of grass
and mud I had to pull and blow out of the front end assembly and the space between
the pan and trunk floor. This also provides a pretty good look at the heavy
welding that was done to give her the unique tube bumper and winch.
And the starboard front suspension,
as she was in the field. I'm a bit concerned at the amount of downward bend
in the antisway bar.
And her port side suspension. Those
bushings just don't look happy at that much angle.
A better look at the fancy weldin'
work for that big ol' winchified bumper. Two welds to the center of the front
end, and triangulated trusses out to the ends.
Now here's a shot you don't see very
often. This is the back of the beam over on the right side of the picture. Down
left is a little something I spent some time trying to find....
And
here we have the port side suspension as it currently sits in my garage. Those
bushings just are NOT happy.
The
starboard suspension, including the trick Gas-A-Just shocks. At least they're
not MacPhersons...blechh... But see all the gunge on upper arm? Anybody have
any tricks for removing that gunk without harming the rubber and grease that
should remain?
Here's a close look at that bottom
bushing. Notice the tear over on the left side, and the anti-sway bar poking
it on the right turn. Let this serve as a lesson to those looking at raising
their Things way up.
Here we have the over-stressed tie-rods.
I do find it odd that they don't seem to be the same. That is, the port side
has a grease fitting, the starboard one doesn't appear to. Any comments?
And here's something I found my Thing
has in common with some other Things. The bottom-most portion of the trunk apparently
rotted out, and the PO (Previous Owner) used self-tapping sheetmetal screws
and some sheetmetal to patch the entire bottom. Stuff is labeled to help orient
you. The wasp nest didn't cost me anything extra, but I'll let it go cheap if
anyone needs one.
POs sometimes do scary things. I'm
pretty certain that Volkswagen didn't attach the brakefluid resevoir lines with
zip-ties. If you have a Thing, please see how yours are attached. I'm curious
now....
And here is the object of one of my
early searches. The source of the odd ticking whenever the power was on. The
reason that the fuel pump on the engine is connected to itself. I finally found
it screwed down to the very front of the pan on the starboard side.
Along with it, I found (still) a bunch
of grass and dirt. It's my guess that the PO did quite a bit of off-roading,
possibly to a deer-lease. Lots of off-road detrius in all the nooks and crannies
of the undercarriage.
For the curious, it's a Facet brand
Electric Fuel Pump. The sticks are extra.