Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Jubilantly, we headed to the gas station with the top down, so proud of ourselves. Filled up the tank, headed home, parked it in the garage and then, the rude awakening. The gas wasn't really leaking from the passenger side, well, it was a little, but nowhere near to the amount on the driver's side! Nothing like a huge puddle of gas in your garage to stink up your entire house and cause a fire hazard!

Turns out, the tank really must be leaking/busted. Good thing I had preemptively ordered one for $169 w/ free shipping from Intenet Auto Part. Hopefully that will be a quick ship so we can get my show on the road.

I made my way over to VWvortex.com to the forums to try to get some pointers on getting that gas tank out of there, hopefully some folks there will have the clue that I don't.

In the meantime, I've created my laundry list of things I would like to do in the short term:

List of things that I want to do to ruin improve my car.

• Fix the emergency brake. - in progress
• Fix the brakes
• Replace the Fuel tank.
• New wipers, in case it rains.
• Rewire the sound
• Install a radio/speakers - sort of getting there, 3 speakers work.
• New top - Black w/ white liner.
• Buff out the paint/touch up.
• Replace the tired tan interior with all White.
• Replace the cruddy tan carpet with Black carpet.
• Paint the wheels - White. short term cheap fix to some ugly finish.
• Install Violet/Purple LEDs.

And so it begins

While I search for my old 81 Rabbit picture, I'll update you on where I am with the car.

We got it up on some ramps to search for the gas leak.

Judging from this, it appeared to be coming from a faulty fuel hose. There were nicks all over it and whenever the car was turned on, it would start to drip. Maybe this wouldn't be a bad repair after all?

We picked up some 5/16 fuel line from our local OReilly's and a few clamps and replaced it, triumphant in thinking: Wow, I just repaired my car for $2 !

Hooray!

Introduction

Hello out there in VW enthusiast land!

Here's some background about how I ended up with a 1993 VW Cabriolet that I plan on putting waaay too much money into.

I blame my 15 yr old self. My very first car was a 1981 VW Rabbit convertible. It was precious and it was a piece of crap. But that car never left my heart. I had my first speeding ticket in it, my first kiss, first fender bender, and at one point a 7ft tall man driving it. It was Cedar Green Metallic with a tan top. And in need of more love than I could give it, so it was traded away after a year. Lost, but not forgotten.

My husband shares my love of cars. And we always discussed picking one up for a summer car/project for me. I had been searching craigslist and eBay for something decent and not too pricey and I would say a majority of those were in the $1500-$2500 range. I did a google search and came across an ad on theSamba.com. 1993 Cabriolet, black, engine runs great, needs gas tank. $500.

I was totally expecting the worst bucket ever with an ad like that and no pictures. Luckily the owner did have pictures and hey, it didn't look all that bad. It was around 100 miles away from where we lived, so we took the rest of the day off, grabbed a trailer from Uhaul and hitched it up to our 09 Ford Flex.

Booty shot:

Front:


/not my plates, so don't even try ;)