I went to H2O International in Ocean City, Maryland last weekend.  I didn't make any plans to go since my car isn't done and most of my friends were busy, but a last-minute opportunity popped up.  I ended up towing my friend Jason's 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible to the show.  Four VW guys, in a Chevy, towing a Lincoln to a VW show.  Makes sense, right?

Wednesday night was the first time I saw the car in person.  They were putting the finishing touches on the front bumper as I arrived.

We got it loaded up at about midnight on Wednesday so we were ready to pull out Thursday morning.

'Murica.

Here are some highlights from the show.

This E36 was NOT on airride.

I heard that this car existed and was making its debut at H2O, so I tracked it down in the corner of a random garage.  Maybe it was just a chance encounter, but I like to think I can smell nice MK3s and track them down like a bloodhound.

Longitudinal mounted twin-turbo VR6; Audi trans; BMW rear suspension and drivetrain; BMW front knuckles with BMW 2002 balljoints and stock MK3 control arms.  Add in a beautiful shaved bay and one of the cleanest cages I have seen, and this thing was just plain amazing.  It hasn't driven yet since they just finished it the day before, but the craftsmanship on another level.  This is one of the highest quality cars I have seen.

This was nice and simple.

Honda K20 swapped Caddy

VW brought a new concept car, and I was blown away by the fit and finish.  The quality of the work was simply amazing - custom stamped steel, custom molded plastics, perfect gaps... both the quantity and quality of the one-off parts were inspiring.

There seemed to be a lot more non-VWs in town for H2O this year.  This has been a trend for the past few years, but it seems to be increasing.  A lot of them were very nice!

All loaded up and ready to head home.

Back to work.  I machined a batch of exhaust hangers.  The car-side parts are steel and will be painted, the exhaust-side parts are 304 stainless and will remain bare.

All of this work is exhausting!

I had some more welding done on my catalytic converter heat shield.  These welds warped a little bit, but I was able to straighten it back out.

Ground and smoothed.  It isn't perfect, but I'm going to use it.  I'm struggling with this super thin Stainless.

I made a plug for the exhaust pipes so I can backpurge the welds.  I made two different sizes - a 2-1/2" ID pipe (for the cat and mufflers) and a smaller section for 2-1/2" OD pipes.  It seals into the tube with an o-ring, and has a barb fitting on the other side.  I didn't do a lot of research on back purge setups, so hopefully this works and doesn't give me much trouble.

I took a break for a late summer bonfire at a friend's house.  I wish I was a better photographer.

I realized that the Magnaflow parts I had purchased were 409 stainless rather than 304.  This means they will tarnish almost immediately, and eventually even rust.  It won't be as bad as regular steel, but certainly not a show-worthy shine. 

So I bought new ones from Vibrant Performance.  I generally don't get excited about shunning an American made product for imported stuff, but these are really nice pieces.  All of the Vibrant stuff I have received has been pretty nice so far. 

I continued on with my catalytic converter heat shield.  I had the main seams welded, then I bent up two more parts.  This will cover the entire converter, plus the welds on each side.

I also bought a weld-on V-band clamp, and a regular slip-fit clamp for the muffler.  It's been slow going recently, but I hope to get some work done on the exhaust system this weekend.

I helped my friend Chris install some new windows in his house this weekend.  While I was there, I snapped a picture of his workshop.   He has a pretty solid tool setup!

I'm having some technical difficulties with the rest of the pictures from this weekend, so that's all for now.

I received most of the parts for my exhaust - a Vibrant Performance 304 stainless flex section, a Magnaflow universal stainless steel catalytic converter, a Magnaflow resonator, and Magnaflow muffler. 

All of the welds were pretty nasty, so I cleaned them up.  I also gave them all a nice uniform brushed finish with red Scotch-Brite.

After:

The catalytic converter came with an "OEM Style Heat Shield," which was made of galvanized steel, and generally ugly.  So I cut it off.

I made a new one from brushed stainless steel that will match the style of the main heat shield.  This one will go on the bottom of the cat, so I don't start fires if I park on dry grass.

I'm ready for some more welding, I will continue the exhaust this week.

I had a few more of the seams in my heat shield welded, and then I ground and blended them.

Last week, I thought I was finished with this thing.  It certainly wasn't perfect, but for the first time during this project I called it 'good enough.'  No close-ups photos!

Then I tried to fit it back up to the body.  I was able to get all 10 screws into the fixture, but it took some serious tugging and most of the screws were really tight.  I wasn't able to get more than 6 screws into while it was mounted in the car.  Plus it warped quite a bit during the weld process, and I didn't do a great job grinding the welds.

So I cut it up.  This fucking piece is killing me.  I have been busy with other stuff and haven't been working on the car as much, but I've been working on this thing half of the summer.

I posted this same picture back on July 14... Hopefully my 2nd attempt at making the center section is a little more successful.

I haven't had much time to work on the Jetta recently.  I have been working late quite a bit, and went on vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC.

Vacation during Shark Week? This is as close as I get.  All of these people were eaten by sharks minutes after I took this photo.

awwwww yeah.

Fro scootin' hard.

Tommy D and Woody.  Grown ass men building sand castles.

I did get a little more work done on my heat shield, but my pictures turned out really blurry.  Here are a few:

I had to make the last pieces of the heat shield, which will be visible from the bay.
Template:

I made a hammer form out of Birch plywood for the firewall shield.  I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this piece or not.   I might make it a separate bolt-on piece rather than weld it to the main section.

I'm not sure I'm happy with how it turned out.  I will end up remaking this section, probably with a different design.

All that work.. and this is the only section you can see!