At the end of August, I went to visit my buddies in California.  We flew into LAX and promptly found the nearest In-N-Out!

We drove up to San Francisco and cruised the Pacific Coastal Highway back south to LA.  It was a great weekend!  

Jason, Neel and Jimmy admiring the Golden Gate Bridge.

There were some sweet roads leading up to the overlook, this would have been a lot more fun in anything except our enormous Toyota Sequoia rental SUV.

There was much more detail in the metal work on the Golden Gate bridge than I expected.  

We cruised down Lombard street, despite the fact that we were violating the two rules for descent - no vehicles over 3 tons and no vehicles with more than 8 passenger seating capacity.  

The roads in San Francisco were extremely steep!

We ate lunch under the Bay Bridge.

I think this says "Wash Me"

Since we were passing through Monterey, we decided to stop at Laguna Seca Raceway.

The infamous Corkscrew.

The amount of elevation change on this course, and especially this corner, is so difficult to capture in photos.  The entire track is built on a hill, it's difficult to see in photos and video games just how steep some sections of track are.

There happened to be a Skip Barber Racing School event happening on the day we arrived, so there was some action on (and off) the track.

There happened to be a few folks from Ford there as well... and they brought a bunch of 2016 Mustang GT350R test mules with them!  They were preparing for a media day.

They had a few different options available!  There were another half dozen in the tents and trailers.

In the town of Monterey, we saw a few other cool rides.  

The Pacific Coastal Highway from Monterey to San Simeon is absolutely beautiful.  Do not miss an opportunity to take this drive.

Neel and Jimmy on the edge of the continent.

We saw this sweet ride parked outside of our hotel!

BroTruck Dog.

We stopped to check out the Hearst Castle in San Simeon.  It sounds like a tourist trap, but it was a really cool experience.

The outdoor pool has been drained for a few years, it would be amazing to see this filled.

The indoor pool is still full, it was a little creepy with the blue tile lining.

Back on the road.

Morrow Bay

We stopped at Pismo Beach.

We might have got a little stuck.  Apparently our rental Sequoia was not 4x4.

We decided to rent some motorized fun and cruise the dunes!

Within the first 3 minutes, Jason rolled his.  No surprises here.

We were riding as the sun was setting on Sunday evening, so we had the dunes to ourselves!  Most of the Monster Energy drinking motorhead bros were headed home for the weekend, so it was wide open.

ATV Jimmy.

There were still a few Bros out on the dunes thrashing the hell out of their new trucks.

After we escaped the dunes with our lives, we decided to celebrate with some Mexican food!

When we got back to LA, we visited the Chump Car you may remember from a previous trip.  It's currently not in working order; a rod decided it didn't want to race anymore!

It has been a while since my last update, but I'm back!

I'm starting grad school this fall, and that has taken up a LOT of my time recently.  I started the whole process last October studying for the GMAT admissions test, then applications, admissions interviews, then various orientation and welcome events, and even moving closer to campus.  I'm just about to start classes, so unfortunately the Jetta will not be my main priority for the next ~3 years.  I still plan to work on it whenever I can, working on this project is my way of relaxing.

New tools!  I just moved, and along with that I had to assemble some furniture.  Of course I can't build furniture with shitty tools, so I bought another pair of Stabila levels.  My dresser is plumb within 0.027º now.

I have been working on the interior floors lately, I have spent a lot of time scuffing the existing epoxy primer and grinding away surface rust that has been slowly growing on all of the bare steel areas.  I have wanted to get it all sealed up for a while, and finally got around to it.

Papa Fazz came out to help with the final prep.

I mixed up some DP50LF epoxy primer.

Fast forward a few steps... and the interior is now all sealed up in two fresh coats of epoxy primer.

I also sprayed my hood hinges, now I can mount the hood in place before finishing the final bodywork.

I got the hood sprayed with epoxy primer again this weekend.  It looks pretty good, it's about ready for final prime and finish sanding now.

While it was (finally) sunny outside, I decided to strip the old paint off of my roof and spray it with epoxy primer as well.  I also did the driver side A- and B-pillars.

I also stripped and sprayed the second tow hook I added on the driver side frame rail a few months ago.

I ordered a new radiator, the old one was a little sketchy.

The original radiator fan shroud uses self-tapping screws threaded into plastic, but I wanted to use proper stainless screws.

This is the original:

I drilled it out from 5mm to 8.9mm diameter, I did it in multiple steps to prevent the plastic from splitting.

I installed heat staking brass inserts.  These are pretty slick, you heat them up with a soldering iron and then press them into the plastic hole.

After trimming away the excess melted plastic, they are now threaded to accept a stainless M6 screw.

New tools!  I ordered a set of Lisle hose cutting pliers and two sets of cheapo Astro Pneumatic bit sets (one for work and one for my toolbox).

I also ordered a set of VIM 1/4" drive stubby triple square bit sockets.  Sometimes the larger ones don't fit, the newer German cars are built entirely with these fasteners.

I used a Snap-on magnetic socket rail from the last bit set I bought, it tucks nicely under the rear lip of my socket drawer.  I'm running out of real estate so I have to get creative with the new sets!

I spent a lot of time this weekend touching up a few small spots on the hood and block sanding the epoxy primer.  I only snapped a few pictures, but I feel like I made decent progress.  This is very time consuming.

More sanding.  I spent all weekend working on my fan shroud, there is a lot of detail on this piece and it's been time consuming to get it straight!  It's not there yet, but this is as far as I got this weekend.

I bought a new pack of razor blades and noticed something a little funky when I opened the package...

One of the blade covers was already soaked in dried blood!!  That isn't a good sign.

I finally got my hood coated in DP50LF epoxy primer.  There are 3-4 spots I'm not happy with, but they will be easy to rework.

Here is another look at the "before,' I filled 59 holes in the bottom alone.