Old Site Updates

Some of the following content may no longer apply, and some links may not work,
due to a somewhat major site upgrade on January 4, 2004.

November 19, 2001

Hard to believe it's been five months since my last update!

First off, yesterday marked the third anniversary of Sharkey's Garage. Not much has happened with her since the last update, except for the fact that my Wolf 3D EMS now allows me to pass local emission testing (whereas my old CB Performance computer did not).

Secondly, you will notice that I have a new website URL. Due to the bankruptcy of Excite's @home network, I have been forced to a new home-- which also means a new online identity. The new site URL is http://members.shaw.ca/sharkeysgarage and the site's new email address is sharkeysgarage@shaw.ca. The old @home URL will continue to redirect visitors to my new URL for as long as the @home network remains active.

Thirdly, with winter fast approaching, I have decided to put off any further work on Sharkey until next spring. The next major change will include converting my current quad throttlebody set-up over to a single centrally-located throttlebody from a 5.0L Ford Mustang. The intake system will consist of a custom inverted T-pipe connected to custom pressure boxes on top of Type 3 DCNF intake manifolds (modified to accept fuel injectors). I hope to obtain better tunability due to the single butterfly and common intake plenum, not to mention doing away with my existing dual carb-style throttle linkage. A computer-controlled AIC motor should also provide me with a smoother idle. Oh, and a quieter exhaust is number two on my list...

Finally, it is with much regret that I announce that Sharkey is unofficially up for sale. I haven't decided on a price yet but will be considering serious offers next spring after I convert over to the Mustang throttlebody and finally get the car on the dyno to produce some actual horsepower numbers. There are a few other things to work out, but Sharkey has been a seven year-long project that simply took too long to complete. Seven years ago I thought I wanted a fast, modern car that was instantly recognizable by the general public. I wanted something with 200+ horsepower and capable of scaring Dodge Vipers (which I believe I accomplished about three months ago). Sadly, I am seven years older now and my goals have changed. Gas is more expensive, the roads have more potholes, and there is simply more traffic on the roads these days. For my one and only form of automotive transit, Sharkey naturally had to sacrifice a few creature comforts to be able to do what she can do. She's loud, obnoxious, and rides pretty rough. Today, there just isn't enough room on the roads to really open her up, especially during regular commutes. I've decided that I want a nice, mildly customized splittie Type 2 instead. If I could afford a second vehicle I'd keep her, but that isn't to be. More on this in another update. Serious offers only, please.

June 20, 2001

It's been a loooong time since the last site update, and I have little to actually show you guys for it. I took Sharkey off the road for six weeks during April and the first half of May in order to perform several modifications. I removed my stiffer aftermarket front torsion leaves and installed stock torsion leaves in order to reduce ride harshness. Likewise, the rear coilovers are out and a new set of Bilstiens were installed in their place. I swapped my huge 52 lb/hr Lucas injectors for a set of 38 lb/hr MSD ones, and replumbed my vacuum lines to create a larger "plenum" area to dampen out vacuum pulsations. A fuel accumulator was installed from a late eighties Golf to likewise dampen out fuel pressure pulsation (due to the opening and closing of the injectors) and I replaced the NAPA fuel pump (which was already a replacement for the original pump that came with my CB EFI kit) with a Mallory EFI pump, and replumbed the fuel lines to make everything work. A new fuel pressure gauge was installed on my dash to replace the one rattled to pieces by fuel pulsation. My crank sensor was relocated so that engine expansion no longer altered the airgap of the sensor, and this required further modification to my Berg Equalizer crank pulley. The oil temp sensor for my computer was removed from its previous location in the oil flow to my oil cooler, to the cylinder head instead. Although the sensor reads about 15-20 degrees Celsius higher now than it did before, the sensor also heats up much faster too, allowing my computer lean out the mixture (provided by added cold weather enrichment) and closed loop mode sooner. I also replaced my old air/fuel gauge with a really nice one from Autometer that not only looks nicer but contains twice as many LEDs for slightly better accuracy. Miscellaneous items were also removed for polishing and plating, while some of the electrical wiring was modified as well. I recalibrated my fuel tank sensor, installed a new oxygen sensor (the heating element inside had broken free and caused highly erratic readings), and finally managed to sell off a bunch of old VW stuff I no longer needed.

February 24, 2001

Well, winter is just about over. We've had our last "major" snowfall of the year (knock on wood) and the days are slowly getting longer. I've got a lot of stuff planned between now and the middle of summer, so stay tuned for more updates.

Speaking of updates, repeat visitors will no doubt notice a number of changes to this site. Gone is the old jTree free floating navigation window (quite a novel approach back in its day). While there are a few current Java applets that work even better than the old jTree, I decided to take a more conventional approach and use a Java-powered horizontal navigation bar instead. Also gone is the old "Sharkey Will Be On the Road In: XX Hours" counter, which hit zero over a year ago. The "Sharkey's Garage" text at the top of the screen also has a new visual effect, thanks to another Java applet I found. Finally, I've created a few new margin and horizontal separator graphics, and I have done away with the "coil-bound notebook" background so that the site's content is properly centered in the browser window.

About the only other changes to the site at the moment is the inclusion of additional articles in my VintagVW Tech Postings section, and the shuffling of older site update messages to a separate page (see below).

December 21, 2000

Since the holidays are rapidly approaching, this will be my final website update for the year. Not much to report at this time, other than a handful of new images in the Gallery.

I've also still got about eight billet aluminum bud vase blanks left. When I made my first post to the VintagVW mailing list regarding these vases, I received over a dozen replies showing interest. Sadly, most of those originally interested have not followed through with their initial desire. I have sold vases to a dozen happy buyers since then and still have eight blanks left. After that, I won't be making any more.

Happy Holidays, and see you next year!

October 13, 2000

It's Friday the 13th, and there's a full moon too! Time to sit back with some MP3s, crack open a beer, and get to work on another website update for Sharkey's Garage.

After over two years, I have finally compiled and posted over fifty of my technical postings to the VintagVW mailing list. They are not written in the style of one of Bob Hoover's Sermons, nor are they written in a style similar to Mike West. I have decided to keep them more or less intact from the moment they were posted, including initial quoted text, humourous comments, spelling mistakes, non-related information, etc. They can be viewed here.

I've done some more research into the various alternatives available in the aftermarket EFI industry, and have updated my EFI page. Sharkey is running sufficiently to get me through this year's winter and into the spring of 2001. I have a few changes planned when that times comes, including relocating the crank sensor and replacing my POS fuel pump.

While I tried to get some more pics scanned in for this site update, my brother simply hasn't been able to find the time to scan them in. I even asked if he could simply loan me his scanner for an evening, but those plans also fell through. Oh well.

August 21, 2000

It's the day after the Great Canadian VW Show and boy am I'm beat. I took the Saturday off to prepare for Sunday's show, polishing, waxing, vacuuming, detailing, etc. I started late at 10:00am and didn't finish until about 7:30pm. Then I ate dinner and went to bed early to be up in time for my 7:00am departure.

Due to a few delays, I didn't get to the site until about 7:50am. By then there were already nine vehicles parked and setting up. I was #10. Cars continued to show up until almost 10:00am, and I have no idea as to the actual final number of cars that were entered. Someone said attendence was down since last year, and that the forcast for overcast skies with infrequent showers probably put more than a few people off. I'm sure there were more than 100 entries.

I tried to take pictures, but mainly concentrated on finishing off a roll of film in my camera that I had been using to take previous pics of Sharkey. It has been a while since I took the first dozen or so pictures on that roll of film and I have no idea what they actually contain. I also took a grand total of about 2½ minutes of DV video footage before realizing that there is little point in taking moving video images of cars that are standing still. I also spent far more time next to my car talking to people than I did looking at the rest of the cars in attendence. If you are one of those people at the event, I appologize profusely.

I talked to a lot of people— mostly concerning my Wolf/CB turbo EFI hybrid engine. I met a few listees and a few friends, and made a few new contacts as well.

How'd I do? Click here to find out. You have to remember that I was one of four cars entered in the ACVW Full Custom class, and that I was competing with two cars with $50,000+ budgets. I didn't expect to win, although I was secretly hoping for some attention from the Hot VWs photographer, Dean Kirsten (which I got).

July 24, 2000

The tranny is in, and so is the engine. I've wired up my new Wolf 3D Engine Management System and begun to tune the car. I've updated my wiring diagrams as a result of the additional wiring that was required. I hope to have all the bugs worked out in time for the Great Canadian VW Show in Coquitlam, British Columbia on August 20, 2000. If everything goes according to plan, I should be renting some time on a dyno later this summer for final tuning.

Sharkey's Supertrapp is just too damn loud. Pat at CB Performance told me their EFI turbo kits no longer came with mufflers because they didn't need them. Yeah, right. They just needed another way to cut corners. My car was 110 dB before the Supertrapp, and is down to a nice 100 dB whisper now. Hopefully this fall I will be installing a nice stainless steel Dynomax Ultra Flo to quieten things down a bit more. My neighbours haven't complained about my coming home at 2:00am yet, but I'd be a fool to think they weren't holding back some hostilities.

Oh yeah, I finally got off my ass and updated the gallery— eight new pics, four featuring my motor and four of my dash. Enjoy!

May 17, 2000

A lot has happened since my January 6 update. It can be soooo demoralizing to drive a car I've spent many years building, only to have something come along and screw with all your fun.

My tranny went boom about two weeks after my last website update. The car hasn't been driven since. I am now 100% positive that it was due to the shoddy workmanship of my former tranny builder, Todd Hill from Olympia, WA (possibly now residing in the Cincinnati area). I have the proof in my hands. I've tried all manners of contacting Todd to no avail. IMNSHO, Todd HIll owes me about $500 Cdn plus anything else I can bleed out of him for having to be without my car for nearly four months. For the complete story, click here.

In the mean time, I have narrowed down a replacement for my CB Performance EFI computer. It is the Wolf 3D Advanced Engine Management system, available from Wolf EMS North America. I'll have more info in the coming weeks. No other site updates for now.

January 6, 2000

Watch out for that first step (into the new millennium)... its a doozie!

My first site update of the new millennium is a bit of a let-down. Besides my new Used ACVW Stuff 4 Sale page, the only other change involved making my "last updated" javascript Y2K Compliant^TM. Good night... I'm going to bed.

November 18, 1999

Well, it's been one full year since the launch of Sharkey's Garage. Just over 1,550 visitors in one year. Certainly not a very big number, but the WebRing link never worked and I didn't really "advertise" my site with the various search engines either. I'll try to address these issues early in the next millennium.

The whole site is now entirely dedicated to ACVWs, with the occasional link to non-VW (but still automotive-based) websites. I've updated my VW links page to include the major VW mailing lists. The RPG and Java games have been removed to make room for future stuff.

Sharkey's erratic fuel pressure has been fixed with the installation of a new replacement fuel pump. The old one is on it's way back to CB Performance to determine if it was indeed defective or not. Sharkey is also a lot quieter now. I recently had a stainless steel Supertrapp installed (along with some custom exhaust plumbing). Prior to the Supertrapp Sharkey was hitting 110 dB! Now it's closer to 90 dB, which should satisfy most cops. The widened rear bumper turned out beautifully, even though it ended on a sad note with my plater (they had to do the job three times before they got it right). The VDO fuel pressure gauge still hasn't shown up yet, however. Still, I am glad that I don't have to cycle to work in the dark and/or rain any more.

I now have for sale a limited number of dash icon sheets. I created these in Adobe Photoshop and had a local back-basement graphics company convert them to rubdown transfers (aka: letraset). You simply position the sheet over where you want the icon to be, rub over top of the specific icon with a pencil, and the icon magically transfers to the surface. They are available in white only, so those of you with light coloured dashes are SOL (unless I get a sudden demand to have another set made up in black).

Finally, my budvases are officially up for sale. I seem to have quite a bit of free time on my hands now that Sharkey is on the road and the weather has turned bad. Click here to learn more.

October 1, 1999

Well, I did it. Sharkey is officially "on the road". Licensed and insured, but not tuned for driving yet. Sigh.

You see, I have been experiencing tuning problems ever since I first drove her around the block. At first it was a disconnected MAP sensor (don't wanna go in to that). Now it is erratic fuel pressure. What I originally thought was a lean condition causing bucking and hesitation turned out to be erratic fuel pressure screwing with the careful metering of the computer-controlled fuel injectors. I still haven't eliminated this problem, primarily because I have no muffler on the car (aka: target for cops) and no in-cabin fuel pressure gauge (B/O from VDO).

On the bright side, the fuel pressure problem is my only really serious problem. I still need to fabricate an exhaust system to quiet her down a bit, and section together a rear bumper that will wrap around my widened rear fenders. Other stuff on my "2 Do B4 Y2K" list includes fabricating my auxiliary race gas tank, H₂O injection tank, custom large pulley tin, and custom swaybars, not to mention welding the tabs in place for my Berg auxiliary tranny mount, and tack-welding the wheel studs on my front rotors so that they don't spin as I tighten/loosen my lugnuts. Oh, and a new steering box may be in order early in the new year (too much freeplay in the one I have now).

When's Octobugfest again?

August 29, 1999

Ok... enough is enough. I know when I'm beat. I suppose that the summer of 1999 just wasn't meant to be for Sharkey. I've decided that she'll be finished when she's finished and leave it at that.

That's not to say that I've shifted into neutral and have decided to coast the rest of the way to completion. No sir! My mode of transportation for the last two years— an old CCM mountain bike by the name of "Iron Duke"— was stolen a couple of months ago, along with all my bad weather riding gear. Since I don't particularly want to go out and replace it all, I'm sort of being encouraged by Mother Nature and the foul weather she will be bringing to the Pacific NorthWest in the coming months. Besides, there's always Octobugfest in Washington state in October...

I started Sharkey's 2161cc motor up last Sunday for the first time and have been doing so occasionally from day to day since then. I've still got a few oil leaks to fix and some more work to do under the car, but the tires & wheels will be bolted on soon enough. Then it will be time to purchase some temporary insurance so that I can drive the car to the alignment shop, and then to a bud's place where the rest of the exhaust will be fabricated (among other things). Fixing the remaining minor irritants will be put off until next spring.

My other announcement for this update is that I believe I have decided upon a mounting technique for my budvases. This was a long time coming and I didn't want to resort to Velcro or double-sided tape or anything else that would "uglify" the dash and detract from the vase itself. More info on this breakthrough can be found here.

Other minor updates for today include a couple of added links to my VW Links page, as well as my continued updating of my wiring diagrams (99.9% complete as of today). No new images I'm afraid, since my brother still hasn't scanned in the last batch of photos (and I've snapped two rolls of film since then). Maybe once Sharkey is on the road and I've stopped diverting large sums of cash into her, I may go out and buy a scanner and/or digital camera.

July 27, 1999

Not again! I've had to reset my countdown timer again— this time due to delays in certain back ordered parts. My goal now is to get the car on the road for the Great Canadian VW Show in Coquitlam, BC on August 22nd. If she's not finished by then the counter will come down and be replaced with a simple GIF stating "She'll be finished when she's finished!" So much for my plans to cruise the summer away. For those of you familiar with the weather in the Pacific NorthWest, we're all still waiting for summer to arrive.

The longblock is in the car and the dash is half way through being wired. I am waiting for one more gauge from Summit Racing, as well as a few Aeroquip swivel fittings to plumb my oil lines (can't possibly start up the motor without those). Most of the remaining on-the-car electricals have been wired up. Tomorrow its back to work for eight days straight, but I'll still be using my free evenings to work on the car. I haven't seen the new Star Wars movie yet and still have two and a half VHS tapes full of TV season finales to watch from last season, so you can see that I am spending as much time as I can bear getting Sharkey ready. Sigh...

Not much else has been updated on my site, unfortunately. I did make a significant number of additions to my VW Links page, primarily dealing with the growing number of VWFLAPS advertising on the internet. I've marked them this time to make finding them easier. This page is certainly growing, and will no doubt continue to grow. All external links have been verified.

June 24, 1999

Argh! More delays! I've had to reset my countdown timer yet again— this time due to delays in chrome plating and painting (I've become less optimistic lately and now plan for a July 31 completion date— two months behind schedule). I can't really install my engine without a few of the components that are out for plating, and I can't wire up my dash until it is painted. I've been getting at least one or two "howzit going" emails or ICQs per day so I figured I better update the site ASAP. Argh!

The longblock is assembled and ready for installation. I still have to do some wiring in the engine compartment and fabricate some swaged oil lines for my remote cooler and filter. I expect the wiring on the dash to take about two days, followed by another couple of days making sure everything is OK once I install the dash in the car. Still have to adjust the car's alignment by eye as best I can. I'm gonna leave the gas tank in loose to make doing the actual alignment adjustments easier (once I finally get it to a shop). What else...?

Since I'm presently sitting around waiting, I decided to update the Miscellaneous Sharkey Images page with new images. Well, old actually, since they were all taken by the previous owner. Also completely revamped is the Who is Sharkey? page. Gone is the old WishList. In its place you will find a complete write-up of Sharkey's drivetrain— written in the style of a Hot VWs magazine tech box. Finally, I have updated the Custom Billet Aluminum Bud Vases page with a couple of additional pictures. The first shows a vase in the lathe during the final stages of polishing(reflective surfaces are hard to photograph indoors) while the second shows six completed vases (the two on the left are polished). I may have a solution to the mounting hardware dilemma but I've been spending 95% of my free time with Sharkey and have basically put this project on the back burner for the summer (I knew this might happen and that's why I refused payment up front). Other areas of the site have also been "tweaked".

May 10, 1999

I've been very busy lately and haven't had much time to update my site. I ordered my CB Performance EFI turbo kit on March 25 and anxiously watched it move from point to point using UPS' on-line package tracking (things sure slow to a crawl when you have to go through a broker). Anyway, it arrived a day or so later and I've already taken quite a few pictures of all the components that come with the kit. Another big order from Berg a few weeks ago provided me with the few important components I was missing, and an order with Summit Racing yesterday means that all my stainless steel braided line and swivel fittings should arrive Wednesday. There are still the little things that you forget along the way, but it is slowly coming together. The only snag is a waiting period of two weeks for my Spirol Loc wrist pin keepers to arrive at my VWFLAPS. This potentially means a two week delay in getting Sharkey on the road, and I have been forced to adjust the countdown clock accordingly. Until then, I'll just have to assemble the shortblock and try to concentrate on the rest of the car.

I also ordered a number of coatings from a company called Tech Line Coatings. The first is called "Black Satin Header Coating", which is a metallic-ceramic coating virtually identical to the high performance coatings offered by bigger companies like HP Coatings, Jet-Hot, etc. The goal of this coating is to protect the steel exhaust from rust, while keeping the heat in the exhaust gases (rumours of people being able to grab hold of HOT header pipes that have been treated with this stuff are very common). The second coating is DFL-1, or Dry Film Lubricant. It is applied to internal engine parts like valve stems, springs, bearings, etc. after they have been gently etched with 120 grit aluminum oxide (inside a sandblasting cabinet). The aluminum oxide opens up the pores of the metal to allow the DFL (and other Tech Line coatings) to really lock onto the metal. A thin layer is all that needs to be applied and the finished layer should be burnished to within 0.0000" to 0.0005". Another coating is called CBC-2, which is similar to the header coatings except that it is designed to stand up to the vigorous shock that takes place within the combustion chamber. This coating is applied to piston tops, valve faces, and— on aluminum heads— the exhaust ports as well. Not only does it insulate, but it increases the rate that heat flows through the surface of the coating, reducing hotspots. The last "coating" is called WSX. It is a special form of powered tungsten disulfide (WS₂) that is burnished in by hand on difficult-to-treat areas (cylinder walls, valve guides, etc).

March 10, 1999

The big news regarding this site update is that I have begun fabricating custom billet aluminum bud vases for sale to anyone interested. I posted an inquiry to the VintagVW and ACVW mailing lists and received nearly a dozen responses in less than 24 hours! More info regarding these aluminum bud vases can be found here.

The "Graphics & Stuff" and "Miscellaneous" subpages have been taken down to make room for upcoming stuff. I was only getting about a half dozen visits to those pages a month— tops. Instead, expect to see an article featuring the assembly of Sharkey's turbo motor, due sometime in late summer. The car is still on schedule for completion at the end of May and I plan to drive it A LOT before I settle down and start writing and scanning.

February 18, 1999

Happy birthday to me! Man, what a day. So far, two major steps in my VW project have gone down in flames. To keep a long story short, Sharkey will not be running hydraulic lifters and the engine stands about a 5% chance of utilizing those space age high tech chemical coatings I was planning. Apparently, nobody out there can promise to make a hydraulic conversion last in anything but a stock application— probably due to inferior parts/labour more than a lack of actual knowledge on the subject. As for the chemical coatings, the guy that was going to do it no longer trusts his products after another company bought out his supplier (at least that was the last excuse he used). I may contact a place in Calgary, however, to see if I can get the combustion chambers and the tops of the pistons ceramic coated.

Anyway, another paycheque, another few hundred $$$ closer to purchasing the EFI turbo stuff for Sharkey. I have been struggling with a number of different ways to approach the final leg of this project: purchase a complete— albeit inferior— EFI turbo kit from CB Performance, purchase a partial kit from Bernie Bergmann (cobbling the EFI components together from another company and a few FLAPS), or purchase a partial kit from CB Performance and fabricate my own exhaust, intake, etc. The first option is still a good one, since it apparently includes everything that I will eventually need. A phonecall will be required to see if CB Performance would be willing to sell be a partial kit if I choose the third option. Option #2 is probably too much work for my first turbo kit. Maybe once I have my car on the road I can afford to experiment with fabricating a complete kit from scratch.

In the mean time, I am currently rebuilding my 2161cc motor and plan to photodocument the whole thing for an upcoming tech article. Stay tuned!

January 18, 1999

Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!

On this two-month anniversary of Sharkey's Garage, I am sad to say that I have not managed to make any major updates to this site. The holiday season is a busy one and the weather hasn't exactly cooperated for any work on Sharkey. Suffice is to say, she will remain under her protective car cover for the next few months while I continue to save up for that EFI turbo kit. Vroom, Vroom!

I managed to add a picture of my home subwoofer enclosure that I built a few years ago. Likewise, I added two pictures of my work in painted miniatures, which can be found in the section with the same name (the pictures underwent several filter applications in Photoshop to compensate for a faulty flash— which affected nearly a dozen shots of Sharkey as well). All links (VW or otherwise) have been verified. That's about it for now, I'm afraid.

December 21, 1998

Happy Holidays!

The "Hide on Select" option for the jTree applet now defaults to YES upon first visiting this site (to "un-hide" the jTree window, click on the button in the upper left corner of your browser). This feature can still be disabled by clicking in the check box immediately to the right of said button.

Updated "Citizens of the TML" with five new entries and made the page easier to navigate. Uploaded a few more pictures to the Miscellaneous Sharkey Images section. Jane's Rigger Registry v0.9 has been converted over to Adobe Acrobat format for more consistent layout over different viewing platforms.

December 5, 1998

As with any new site, I'm still tinkering and updating stuff. Future updates probably won't happen this frequently :-( I'll try to refrain from having new or updated pages on the jTree tagged as for any longer than a couple of weeks.

New this week are the much anticipated Miniatures and Table-Top Battles pages. I understand that there were some pretty impressive parades in the USA last week and this just goes to show how big a deal this current upload is! And you thought the release of Windows '95 was a big deal!

I also added a few more pictures to the Miscellaneous Sharkey Images section of the site. I'll keep adding pictures until my allotted webspace is all used up.

November 24, 1998

Welcome to my site! As you can see, things certainly have changed. Since putting the new site up last week, literally millions of people have sent in their comments! Well, "millions" if you happen to use binary instead of the decimal system.

I've added a few pictures that I've taken of Sharkey to a brand new section entitled Miscellaneous Sharkey Images. I have tried to adhere to a promise I made years ago— "No glamour shots until Sharkey is on the road". Pictures shown here will therefore consist mostly of close-up shots from my photo diary of the work I have put into my car along the way. There are only four images here right now, but this section will surely grow.

November 18, 1998