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  • Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!

2002 VW Golf refurb

combustable herbage said:
Here is one of the two my cat caught last fall she always brings me mice but the mighty hunter was very proud of this catch.
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I've seen cats take rabbits. Even a hare sometimes. But never a rat. That's a first for me. I always thought you needed a, terrier for that. Now that's a sight to see! Terriers are rat killing nuclear bombs!
 
slow-poke said:
I'm going to bite on the rat theme... true story. My dad, brother and myself were doing a long canoe trip down the Mississippi. We would often camp in parks. We were in New Orleans and picked a spot in Audubon park. My brother and I decided to go see Bourbon St. leaving my dad to watch the canoe and our belongings. About an hour before sunset the cops show up and tell my dad no camping in the park. My dad explains we will be gone first thing in the morning but can't leave now because my sons are doing the tourist thing. No exceptions you have to depart right now. So my dad said okay, but you need to help me get the 21" canoe in the water. There was about 50' of tall grass between the manicured park and the river, and that patch of tall grass was just filled with rats, huge rats the ground was just teaming with them scurrying everywhere so many you couldn't begin to count them. My dad pointed them out and told the cops you need to be careful they are aggressive. One cop to the other No way I'm going in there. Okay first thing in the morning!
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That makes my skin crawl.... I genuinely hate rats.
 
Sure am glad that I bought the full suspension rebuild kit from Park Auto because about 1/3 of the necessary parts are missing from the struts that I'm pulling out. No upper strut bearings, no bushing on one strut. Nice to just reach into a box and pull out the missing items.
 
Driver's side strut replaced.
PXL_20250723_014632291.jpg
 
Passenger side strut in. This was more difficult because the axle hits the subframe and prevents the spindle from dropping low enough to easily drop the strut into the spindle.
Used spring compressors to compress the spring enough to get it into the spindle.
Removing the compressors was tricky because the heads were up inside the strut tower so not a lot of room to swing a wrench.
NOS GTI struts and springs, new bump stops, new covers, new axial bearings, new rubber bushings.
PXL_20250723_165544888.MP.jpgPXL_20250723_165900005.jpg
 
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Thought I'd go out and change the control arms after dinner.
Cracked the front bolt loose on the passenger side. Then it just spun. WTF? It's a bolt into a blind nut that's supposed to be fixed to the inside of the subframe.
Look underneath to see if there's any access for a wrench. Nope. Consult the interwebs. Literally a dozen posts on VWVortex on this problem.
I end up using a step drill to make a series of overlapping holes so I can peer inside. Oh joy, the 'nut' looks like half a rivenut, no flats, nothing to grab onto.
I think my options are to try and hold it with needle nose vise grips or maybe get a MIG bead on it. Except I can't get my MIG welder out. :(
 
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Have you got room to drill a hole in the end of the bolt for an e-z out? Then you could hold the bolt and spin the nut off.
That's thinking that the bolt isn't hardened to any great degree.
 
YotaBota said:
Have you got room to drill a hole in the end of the bolt for an e-z out? Then you could hold the bolt and spin the nut off.
That's thinking that the bolt isn't hardened to any great degree.
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It's pretty cramped, I'll try and shoot a pic in a bit.
The bolt head is accessible, it's the silly round nut that's in a bad spot.
Here's a link to a forum post about the problem.
 
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I misunderstood, I thought it was a nut you were trying to get off a rivnutted stud.

You'll possibly need to tack the rivnut in place when you replace the bolt so you may as well dig out the MIG now.
 
David said:
I've never driven one but at 5'9" imagine I'd fit ok. Now an MG Midget might be a bit more snug.
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Hey now!
I'm an MG Midget owner and the other owners on the forums all talk about being 6'+ with no issues. Well... not once you're IN. Lots of legroom etc. But getting OUT is the issue. Nevermind! LOL
 
David said:
The bolt head is accessible, it's the silly round nut that's in a bad spot.
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I've often welded a handle onto nuts that had to go inside something. You design the handle so it could be used to hold the nut in place and you use a phone or something similar to see inside so you can position it.
 
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