My Project DIY VMC

Nice work there, Eric. Keep it coming.

The state of the quality of replacement parts nowadays is so critical. On your particular case, few years ago you would just spring for the OEM VW/Audi replacement that was widely available and be done with it. Now for most parts we have to fish through a bunch of alternatives with varying prices and funnily enough, most suppliers or vendors don't want to tell you the origin of the part (have you noticed that?). I strongly suspect most come from the usual suspects (Chynnnaaa) but are rebranded to escape scrutiny. The other alternative is to just go for the uber quality (and more expensive) ones manufactured by specialized suppliers such as CSP, Vintage Speed and the like and be done with it. After almost 20 years of ownership of my Speedster I am going through that with the brake master cylinder. The Indian Bietrix (never heard of that brand until I examined it closely) unit it came with from VS finally gave up the ghost and ended up buying a unit supplied by JP Dansk. As always the country of manufacture is undisclosed but the unit at least looks well made and the price from Parts Geek was very decent. I had tried to buy an German FTE unit for twice the money but the order was later cancelled because they ran out of stock.

Happy New Year!.

I have been a bit slow on my build updates, but I have been making some good progress on the build. In the last few weeks, I have nearly completed my long block, completed the fuel system, I ended up changing to Latest Rage adjustable spring plates, added the truss bar setup, switched out to a 12.5 gallon tank, and got my entire brake system functional. I try to keep updated posts on my Instagram page @diy_356 . As of yesterday, I mounted the body, and its starting to look like a car! My plan is to complete all of the electrical, and lighting, then remove the body for motor break-in and final adjustments before the body gets panted and installed once again. I'm down to the fun stuff now! I did have a few questions though.

*I was going to run my harness along the driver side pan, underneath the carpet. Where do you usually cut the hole to run into the front or rear?

*Where do you like mounting the fuse panel, I was considering the Frunk for the ease of troubleshooting, and to free up as much space under the dash for mounting a concealed speaker system. I ended up purchasing the VMC wiring harness, but I wanted to change the block to one with more circuits, and relays built in, any recommendations?

*Do you know the part number for the fog light switch, and wiper switch? I think that I purchased all H/l switches because they look to have dimmers.

Thank you for all of your help and recommendations. I'm hoping to be on the road with you all real soon!

Excellent Pan there, Eric!

*I was going to run my harness along the driver side pan, underneath the carpet. Where do you usually cut the hole to run into the front or rear?

It's been a while, but I ran my harness along the sill side of the driver's pan, then up in the front left corner then across the frame support to the gauges to split and through the bulkhead into the frunk.  My battery is in the nose of the Frunk, so the +12V battery cable goes through the rear of the battery well, across the pan shelf, through a grommet through the Napolean Hat and then is tucked against the floor and the center tunnel to the rear, then through another grommet through an existing hole, follows the inner wheel well over to the starter solenoid.  I run a separate, 8-gauge power feed from the battery terminal to the fuse block.  I also have a relay at the starter to relieve current from the starter wire from key switch to solenoid.

At the rear, the harness follows along the sill then up into an existing hole in the rear Hobbit-sized footwell, through a grommet and then along the inner wheel well to the ignition rear bus bar.  Stuff branches out from there as needed.  The tail light harness branches off from there, too, and follows the rear frame member for support.

*Where do you like mounting the fuse panel, I was considering the Frunk for the ease of troubleshooting, and to free up as much space under the dash for mounting a concealed speaker system. I ended up purchasing the VMC wiring harness, but I wanted to change the block to one with more circuits, and relays built in, any recommendations?

I mounted a Bosch fuse/relay panel in the frunk close to the gas tank.  I got it from a Sterling 825.  Amazingly, Austin/Sterling used Bosch electrics, rather than Lucas Prince of Darkness.  I would suggest looking at either Summit Racing, Painless Auto Wiring (Summit or Speedway Motors) or ask Mike Pickett what fuseblock he used from Amazon.  His was pretty good and cheap, too.  My Bosch goes for about $200 aftermarket pre-wired.  I had to crimp all new connections to use mine.  😣

And the schematic is this - Use the number of relays/fuses as a guide.

*Do you know the part number for the fog light switch, and wiper switch? I think that I purchased all H/l switches because they look to have dimmers.

Can't help you there, sorry.

Thought you could use this, too:

Great information @Gordon Nichols I really like your fuse block, that's what I'm looking for. Thank you!

That pan is looking great and the mockup with the body on is looking fantastic. Found a vendor on Ebay with great air cooled VW parts. They’re based out of Washington state; called AirCoolin Parts. Check them out; they have a great variety of OEM and hard to find parts.

@Eric N

I documented a lot of my CMC build with build notes or service notes as I went along, even to this day - I've worked up a service manual that's over 100 pages so if you have questions, I've probably already answered them for myself years back.

Just ask if you need build info and I'll see what I have.

@Eric N

Great follow up on your Speedster project! Looks like that bad-boy will on the road in no time!!